4 player CP template. Comments please.

[Bones]

I posted this in the artwork forum but haven't had any responses which either means my design and artwork sux fiercely and people are too polite to say, or the artistic guru's are a little shy.....

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,34108.0.html

I have looked at this layout and artwork now for so long I have lost the ability to critique it.

The CP is 550mm x 1200mm (22

[markrvp]

First, I really like the detail work for the joysticks and buttons, especially the Missile Command buttons and Karate Champ detail. 

What really throws this off plain blue gradient without any texture.  In Photoshop you can either add some noise and do a motion blur, or render clouds, or SOMETHING so we don't have just BLUE GRADIENT.  The Galaga logo also doesn't seem to "go" with the theme with Karate Champ, it just seems stuck on there.   Also, the orange border doesn't match anything else on the CP.  Does this color appear on the cabinet?  YELLOW is the complimentary color to blue, so I would go with a Yellow Pipe around the CP.

From a playability standpoint the two 4 ways and three buttons need to be one or two inches higher on the panel.  Otherwise the heel of your hand will be resting on the Player 2 buttons.  Likewise, your three buttons for the trackball are unplayable because your left hand would have to rest on top of the Player 2 joystick and the Player 3 buttons.  I'm not sure where to move them.  Your controls as printed seem to be too big for this size layout.  I have a 38" wide panel and my controls aren't nearly as close together as yours

Everything I'm telling you is from my "artistic" background as a photographer and my personal experience building a control panel with playability issues (i.e. too much s**t on there).

Here are pics of an art update on your panel and my 38" panel to compare layouts.

[Gildersneeze]

From a playability standpoint the two 4 ways and three buttons need to be one or two inches higher on the panel.

[Bones]

Hey thanks for the feedback.

I agree about the blue and I have since thrown it and replaced it with plain black. I think it looks better.

I am planning an orange cab, hence the orange outline on the CP. I can only get black t-molding so I wanted a colour that would be vibrant against it and orange also has a retro feel about it.

The first 4-way way joystick is exactly centre to the cab and falls between the 2 8-way joys so I am hoping it's not in the way, but I will do some more testing to confirm. This joystick is important to me because many of my favourites are the old 4-way games

Lifting many of the controls gives me problems with fitting everything required under the CP.

In planning the layout I consciously tried to keep players 3 & 4 positions as low as possible without any elbow bashing which may explain the size layout issue you mentioned.

I am also now considering throwing some orange in where the blue colour existed for the 8-way joys.

Thanks again for your feedback!

[Bones]

I've got the same "too much s**t on there" problem, so what I'm doing is going with the "Supercade" design of a two tiered

With the two tier design, I'm basically putting all the "weird" controls on a higher tier so they can be used without smacking the buttons for the main arcade controls.

[Bones]

Updates. http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,34108.0.html

* Locking this thread. I shouldn't have started a second, it really only belongs in the artwork forum.