Controls and wood!

[Jellyman_4eva]

Hi everyone...

Basically I have two questions, one what is the general consensus on the thickness and type of wood most people use for their control panels?

Secondly I am going to have lots of different removable control panels, but want to make sure I have enough to run a real majority of games...

So was thinking

1 x 4 joystick with 7 buttons + 4 start buttons
1 x 4 trackballs with 3 buttons + 4 start buttons
1 x 4 spinners with 2 buttons + 4 start buttons

But I know there are some games like Tron which have a completely unique setup, question is, how many are there?? And do you think what I propose will cover many games..

(Money is no expense...)

[oldsage]

First of all, loose 3 buttons for P3 and P4 on the first panel...
Second, loose two of the trackballs, it would be a huge pain to interface them, and you don't really need them...
Third, what games use 4 spinners?
Fourth, do you plan on having triggersticks? If so, place them on the same panel as the spinners...
Fifth, 3/4" or 5/8" ply or mdf is what most use...
Sixth, are you making a cocktail, showcase, bar-top, or standup? Just intrested...

I love projects where money is no expense...

[JB]

Third, what games use 4 spinners?

Warlords. Reason enough there.
Well, actually it uses paddles, but...

[Jellyman_4eva]

Hi again wow the replies are quick here - I like it!

JB is correct in that I was mainly thinking of Warlords with the 4 spinners....

Also the 4 trackballs are essential for Atari Soccer....

I agree that I have not seen any 4 player game which uses all the buttons, but once I have made this I really do not want to come across a game where I do not have enough buttons for the sake of a few $'s at the beginning!

The unit I am making is more of a showcase I guess, it is housed around a Mitsubishi 37" CRT Megaview monitor running an ArcadeVGA at 15.7Khz and PCI Express gfx card running at 31Khz+ on a P4 PT880 Pro board with a P4 Extreme and 1GB of Corsair Xpert RAM with a RAID 1+0 hdd setup all of which is housed inside an Lian Li Aquarium case which will sit below the monitor. There will be USB converters for all original console controllers with 4 of every kind of console controller ever made present and showcased glass cabinets at each side of the monitor unit. Control Panel will be a seperate unit linked via usb, the panels themselves will be interchangeable via USB, eventually I will have two guns and two steering wheels also.

All of this will be painted in black and control panel overlayed with panel art and perspex...!

Phew...

So.. well I kinda run out of stuff to say at this point...

[Flinkly]

not to sound offensive, but you might have wanted to post in the project announcements, since it sounds like this is where the thread is going.  if you want to have it moved, just say you do and i'm sure peale would enjoy moving it.

lastly, it sounds like you know what your getting yourself into, but still, watch out for the money as it flies out of your hands...

[oldsage]

Hi again wow the replies are quick here - I like it!

JB is correct in that I was mainly thinking of Warlords with the 4 spinners....

Also the 4 trackballs are essential for Atari Soccer....

I agree that I have not seen any 4 player game which uses all the buttons, but once I have made this I really do not want to come across a game where I do not have enough buttons for the sake of a few $'s at the beginning!

The unit I am making is more of a showcase I guess, it is housed around a Mitsubishi 37" CRT Megaview monitor running an ArcadeVGA at 15.7Khz and PCI Express gfx card running at 31Khz+ on a P4 PT880 Pro board with a P4 Extreme and 1GB of Corsair Xpert RAM with a RAID 1+0 hdd setup all of which is housed inside an Lian Li Aquarium case which will sit below the monitor. There will be USB converters for all original console controllers with 4 of every kind of console controller ever made present and showcased glass cabinets at each side of the monitor unit. Control Panel will be a seperate unit linked via usb, the panels themselves will be interchangeable via USB, eventually I will have two guns and two steering wheels also.

All of this will be painted in black and control panel overlayed with panel art and perspex...!

Phew...

So.. well I kinda run out of stuff to say at this point...

I vote yes to having a drooling smiley here!
Did i allready mention i love projects where money is no expense?

I wanted to go for something similar to what you're suggesting, but once I've finally comprehended that I've doubled my initial budget i decided to back off a little... And at this moment it seems like I'm gonna add 200$ or so to that allready doubled amount ... (i guess a sad smiley would be more appropriate though...)

[paigeoliver]

I'm not sure how fun Atari Soccer/Football would be on an upright.

[Jellyman_4eva]

Hi again,

Yes Flinky I agree it should be there really I guess, I was just not expecting such a fast and inquisitive response (But its cool!)

I figure that if I make the design modular I can simply build one panel at a time thus saving immediate costs, the PC is an expenditure that everyone has to go through (unfortunately), but I am looking forward to it...

I just want to make sure I have enough combinations to play anything, which is why I posted.... anyone ...!