seeking cocktail control panel advice

[Major Rock Hardy]

OK here are the inspirations behind my cocktail control panel design, not necessarily in order:
Defender/Stargate:

Asteroids (deluxe):

Tempest:




OK, here goes... see attachments below
design 1:
PRO: rotate/thrust/fire buttons aligned for Asteroids, but Defender/Stargate arrangement is compromised slightly
CON: fire/super zapper too close for Tempest

design 2:
PRO: right hand buttons moved up aligned with joystick (more authentic for Defender/Stargate)
CON: rotate and thrust/fire no longer aligned for asteroids and fire/super zapper too close for Tempest

design 3:
PRO: rotate/thrust/fire buttons aligned for Asteroids, Tempest fire button now further from spinner and super zapper farther from fire button
CON: one button closer to FRANKENCOCKTAIL, Defender/Stargate Hyperspace button now must be one of the upper left buttons.


I look forward to your comments...
MRH

[vorghagen]

Firstly, I love the fact you've put a fair bit of thought into your panel, taking into account the games you'll be playing, and drawn up pros and cons for each. Nice work. 

I'm not a fan of design 3 at all. The extra button confuses things and the two buttons on far left near the joystick don't look comfortable. So design 3.

You've moved the buttons up in design 2 to align them with joystick, but then asteroids isn't aligned, soooooooo, why not just move the joystick down instead? Then both asteroids AND stargate controls are aligned. Will that work for you?

EDIT: Oh, wait. Then the reverse button for stargate is in the wrong spot.  Quite a predicament. ummmmm 

[Major Rock Hardy]

Vorghagen,

thank you for the kind remarks!  Yes indeed it is a predicament.  I need to think more about the joystic "classic" panel.


More about the cocktail cab design:  This will have swappable METAL control panels.  There will be 2 joystick/spinner panels like the above CP1 images I attached, 2 other joystick/spinner panels (with a button layout more like fighter games) 2 trackball panels, and some driving control panels.  The next panel I have finished is the trackball panel and I'll attach it below for comment.  Here are the inspirations behind that panel:

Crystal Castles:


Missle Command:


Millipede/Centipede:


(Marble Madness is my all-time favorite trackball game but since there were no buttons, it doesn't factor in to design  criteria)

so any comments?  Thanks everyone for your help.
MRH

[Major Rock Hardy]

Update - it's funny how sometimes you get so focused that you can't think outside of the box.  I built a control panel like design #1 in the original post - with the rotate/thrust/fire buttons aligned for Asteroids.  As soon as I built it I knew it wasn't going to work out because the natural place for your wrist to rest - when using the spinner - was right on two of the buttons.  My wife was helping with the testing and I explained the above problem, and her response was, "don't all the spinner games use the spinner on the right?"   "Why don't you move the buttons to the middle and the spinner to the far right?"

Yes there are some spinner-left and buttons-right games (blasteroids to mention one) but it was a great solution!  So I made a new test CP based on the below image.

[Major Rock Hardy]

So... testing went so well with that control panel - I decided it was time to make a metal prototype.  But before I use up some of my precious stainless (details coming soon), I decided to make one out of regular steel.  So looky what I made today in the shop.  (see pictures below)

The sheet metal started out as a 12" x 18" piece of 22 gauge "weld steel" ~$8 at Lowe's.  Those are right-angle #10-24 weld studs I ordered from McMaster-Carr and welded to the back of the CP using a spot welder.  This obviously discolors the sheet metal so I'm still wondering what to do when I make this out of stainless - i.e. to restore the brushed finish.  I'll obviously have to sand off the weld marks but I'm not sure what grit to use, etc.  Anyone out there have experience "brushing" their own stainless? 

[turbo6]

Well, i worked at a factory for 16 years polishing stainless steel for kitchen sinks etc...

I would use 180 - 220 grit sandpaper. Maybe even 280 grit, depending how much of a "brushed" look you are seeking (lower grit equals higher "brush" look). Make sure you go with the grain of the stainless steel when sanding and don't rub the sandpaper back and forth... sand in one direction only as uniform as possible if done by hand.

I hope this helps... Good luck!

[Major Rock Hardy]

Thanks for the info Turbo6!

[turbo6]

No problem. Let us know how things turn out... would like to see some pics when this project is completed.

[danny_galaga]

well, impressed with your panel. cant wait to see how the whole thing turns out (",)

[Major Rock Hardy]

well, impressed with your panel. cant wait to see how the whole thing turns out (",)

hey, thanks for the kind words... here's a pic of the test rig I built using the steel cp, 49-way, 6 leaf buttons, and my homemade spinner

it feels pretty nice, but I think I'd still like to have a bit more free space at the bottom to rest my wrist on.  I think I can still accomplish this with a 12" dimension of metal by reducing the height of the vertical (front edge) part.

Now back to playing Tempest.  More testing!