Help with control panel design?

[Timstuff]

I've got a bit of a dillemma regarding the placement of the mouse buttons on my control panel overlay. I them out similar to in the Project Arcade book, but then I noticed... Won't they be hard to press while you're playing a game?



Does anyone have any suggestons as to where I could put the buttons and have them be easy to press while playing a game like Centipede? Also, some of the people playing the cabinet will be left handed, so if you have any ambidextrouse friendly ideas, please tell me!

[sc1103]

What if you put three buttons to the left and right of the trackball, but below the joysticks and buttons?

[screaming]

I'm redesigning my CP to use P2B1 and P2B1 as my mouse buttons in Windows.

I haven't tested it with anything but MAME but it should work as long as the emulator supports the mouse.  Besides, you can have *any* buttons you want as *any* input in MAME, so as long as you stick to MAME you shouldn't have a problem at all mapping Centipede shoot (for example) to P1B1 and P2B1 no matter what they're wired as.

-sab

[darktemp]

I'm going to just map my trackball buttons to the bottom row of player 1's buttons.  You could also map it to p2's buttons as well for lefties.  That way your panel is less cluttered with unnecessary buttons and you have a nice spot left for possibly adding a dedicated 4-way, spinner,  etc.

[markrvp]

What if you need to use the trackball as a mouse with Windows?

In order to still have buttons that function as MOUSE LEFT and MOUSE RIGHT in WINDOWS, don't you have to have buttons wired to either the Optipac or Mouse Hack?  I thought buttons wired to a keyboard encoder won't function as mouse buttons for the OS.  In MAME, any button can be mapped to anything, but in WINDOWS you still need buttons that are true Mouse buttons right?

[Timstuff]

Yeah, my main reason for wanting mouse buttons is in case I need to use Windows. I could have a set of buttons to the left and right of the trackball like sc1103 suggested, but that seems a little excessive to have 2 sets of the same buttons. I could try putting them underneath, but then I'd have to move the trackball forwards, which would not only mess with my aesthetics but also put players at risk of hitting the screen while playing Golden Tee Golf. I really hope that I can find a clear solution. If I went with sc1103's duplicate buttons idea, maybe I could ditch the 3rd mouse button to keep things from getting crowded, since it doesn't seem to get used much at all. I'm always open to more suggestions!

[sc1103]

The nice thing w/ the duplicate buttons is that the Happ trackballs use a weird wiring system allowing double inputs...so its basically just extending a couple wires.  Mebbe shift the whole thing up a tiny bit, then ull have more space to work with?  i dunno just random comments

[Timstuff]

Actually, I'm going to be hacking a mouse for my interface. Can I still use duplicate buttons if I'm using a mouse hack?

[sc1103]

If you are, talk to OSCAR, he'd kno better than me, but im guessing u can u just gotta run 2 wires from each solder point except the ground, just daisy chain that (I think)...best bet is talk to prolly OSCAR, Peale, and the veterans around here (NOT ME  )

[markrvp]

Tim:

Consider the diagram below.  The Red buttons are mouse left and right.   When you look at the rudimentary drawing of a right hand on the ball, you see that the left mouse button rests under your thumb.  This works great for Windows where you have to LEFT-CLICK quite frequently, allowing you to use only one hand.  Having buttons on either side of the trackball is also very functional for games like Golden Tee and World Class Bowling where you have to turn left and right.  For games like Missile Command and Centipede it is very easy to tell MAME to use the BLUE BUTTONS which are part of the Player 1 button cluster.  f

[darktemp]

Well I'm using hacked usb gamepads and Joy2Key, which allows you to simulate mouse clicks using pushbuttons.  Joy2Key will only be active outside of mame, within mame I will set everything up to standard gamepad inputs.  This should allow me to do everything I want. 

If you are using a gamewiz or similiar device this would work, otherwise I'm sure there is a program to simulate mouse clicks using keyboard keys.

[paigeoliver]

I just use the trackball 2 handed to navigate windows, it isn't designed for single handed use.

The dedicated buttons look bad.

[markrvp]

I just use the trackball 2 handed to navigate windows, it isn't designed for single handed use.

The dedicated buttons look bad.

Paige:

Is there a way to use two of the buttons connected to the keyboard encoder as mouse buttons 1 & 2?  Basically, how do you get rid of the dedicated buttons, but still have mouse functionality in Windows?

[quarterback]

Is there a way to use two of the buttons connected to the keyboard encoder as mouse buttons 1 & 2?

[paigeoliver]

I just use the trackball 2 handed to navigate windows, it isn't designed for single handed use.

The dedicated buttons look bad.

Paige:

Is there a way to use two of the buttons connected to the keyboard encoder as mouse buttons 1 & 2?  Basically, how do you get rid of the dedicated buttons, but still have mouse functionality in Windows?

Hook up your start buttons as your mouse buttons, and don't even hook those up to your I-Pac/keywhiz. You can still map them as the start buttons in mame.

[markrvp]

Hook up your start buttons as your mouse buttons, and don't even hook those up to your I-Pac/keywhiz. You can still map them as the start buttons in mame.

Good thinking.  Have you done this before?

[paigeoliver]

Hook up your start buttons as your mouse buttons, and don't even hook those up to your I-Pac/keywhiz. You can still map them as the start buttons in mame.

Good thinking.  Have you done this before?

Yes, like 10 or 15 times.