What 'non-game' buttons do you have on your cp??

[eggedd2k]

other than game buttons what 'system' buttons do you have on your control panel? i've got my game buttons all thought out but i cant really think of any other buttons i really need.

[elvis]

Do yourself a favour and don't add unecessary buttons.  All they do is add to confusion when friends come over to play.

My CP has only play buttons except for a single black function button in the middle of the CP.  In MAMEWah it chooses a random game, and during gameplay it exits the game.  Problem is, in the heat of the moment people will reach out and bash it when continuing or whatever, obviously thinking it's a start/credit button.  Very annoying in long games.  All cabs I build from now on have that button on the side of the cabinet, or somewhere where the average player won't see it during gameplay.

Too many buttons on a CP is ugly, as well as annoying when playing.  Keep it simple and user-friendly.

[Goz]

I'm not a hge fan of a ton of buttons on the CP, but one button I find helpful is one for pause.  It really depends on what emulator your are using. If you arent using an emulator and are running PC games then you might consider some required buttons for those.

-Goz

[NoOne=NBA=]

I've got 1-P Start, 2-P Start, and a Pause button between them, that are permanent on my cab.

The Pause button is also connected to Shift on the I-pac.
If you press and hold, the other buttons will perform admin functions.
If you press and release, the game will pause.

[markrvp]

I've got 1-P Start, 2-P Start, and a Pause button between them, that are permanent on my cab.

The Pause button is also connected to Shift on the I-pac.
If you press and hold, the other buttons will perform admin functions.
If you press and release, the game will pause.

During a game, say you push the Pause button (for shift) and then Player 1 button 1 (which we'll say is the shifted equivalent of hitting the tab key) and then release both.  Does the game pause and then go into the MAME setup menu, or just go into the MAME setup menu without pausing?  Then to ESC out of the menus, do you hit the Pause button again with whatever shifted key is mapped to ESC?  When you do that does it pause or unpause the game?  I am thinking of setting up something like this on my next cab.

[NoOne=NBA=]

During a game, say you push the Pause button (for shift) and then Player 1 button 1 (which we'll say is the shifted equivalent of hitting the tab key) and then release both.  Does the game pause and then go into the MAME setup menu, or just go into the MAME setup menu without pausing?

If you press the shift key, and then another key, only the shifted key command (in this case TAB) is sent.
If you hit the shift key, and then release it without hitting another key then the default command for the shift key (in this case ESC) is sent.

Then to ESC out of the menus, do you hit the Pause button again with whatever shifted key is mapped to ESC?

My Pause key IS the ESC key.
This works nicely because it allows me to pause, and then ESC from the menus with only one key.

The other keys I have mapped are P1 Start (TAB), P2 Start (ENTER), Left Flipper = 5 (O), Right Flipper = 6 (K).
That lets me enter OK when I don't have a joystick hooked up.

When you do that does it pause or unpause the game?

That depends on how you hit the buttons.
If you hit and release Pause, then hold Pause, then hit another key, the game will pause on the first hit/release, then enter the shifted key that you hit while holding Pause the second time.

If you just hold Pause, and hit a key, it will just send the shifted key without pausing.

[markrvp]

Thank you very much;  that is exactly the information I was looking for.  As always, you are incredibly knowledgeable and helpful.

[StephenH]

If I were making a cab, here are some that I would include:

1) Pause Game
2) Quit Game
3) Credit (a.k.a Insert Coin)
4) Game Options
5) Service Mode


If you wanted to be arcade authentic, maybe put the last two as switches inside the coin door, just like the arcades do!

[NoOne=NBA=]

I put QUIT on the wireless mouse that goes with the cab.
That way nobody accidentally "finds" it when they are playing.

[teetu]

can you guys think of a bad reason to have to press and hold p1 start as the shift button? I really want to keep the CP down to the 6 buttons for each player plus start buttons.

[NoOne=NBA=]

can you guys think of a bad reason to have to press and hold p1 start as the shift button?

Yes.
EVERY time P1 has to start a game, you will be shifting all your buttons.

You can get around this as long as you map ALL of P2 buttons, including the joystick, so that the shifted functions are the same as the unshifted functions.
You also need to put all of your admin functions on the P1 controls.

That way when P1 starts a game, and is not hitting any other buttons/sticks, no admin functions are performed, and P2 can play through it because his stick/buttons won't go dead.

[markb]

I've cheated slightly on the extra buttons, rather than have them on the CP, I have put an angled strip of 18mm MDF in between the rear of the CP and the monitor bezel and put 8 black buttons on there. The buttons are black as well so the blend in quite nicely.
Also rather than use the Ipac which is under the CP i've used my old keyboard hack and have the following:-

Power switch
Tab
Enter
P
Escape
5
6
Space

I play quite a few games that aren't Mame related so those keys are  for me are essential.

[danny_galaga]

only one i have is the 'rotate' toggle for the monitor, which is technically on the panel, but just underneath so its not immediately obvious.

[whatisk]

My plan is to have 2 'non-game' buttons.
One is the Shazaam key, and the other is Pause.
When the Shazaam key is held and Pause is pressed, that equates to exit.

Also, I have programmed the Keywiz so that Shazaam and all the other buttons all do stuff that I will know and others won't 

[Kev-in DFW]

I would be interested to hear from other KeyWiz users as to their CP configuration.

[Tiger-Heli]

To Markrvp - just want to clarify that the information proved by no-one (that sounds weird) is accurate, but ONLY for the I-PAC line of encoders.  Their shift function works on key release, so having a pause input activate a shift function is very feasible (and recommended).

On the KeyWiz, Shazaaam! is a separate input.  You could program it to send a keycode also (like the I-PAC), see http://www.mameworld.net/tigerheli/encoder/shiftkeys.htm where I talk about I-PAC compatibility mode, but the pause input would be a bad one to send, for the reasons you mentioned since the KeyWiz in this mode operates on the initial keypress.

I use the following buttons (besides start and coin) with the KeyWiz -

Shazaaam!

Pause.

Escape - I have a dedicated input for this, but accidentally quit a game once, so in MAME I re-mapped UI cancel to "=" and now press Shazaaam! plus this button to Escape.

I have Tab and Enter mapped to the pinball flippers and use them a lot for config, but, but if your software was already configured you wouldn't need to, or you could use Shazaaam! functions.

I use F3 (ShazaaaM! plus P2 Button 3) alot but wouldn't want a dedicated button for it.

Note also that by default (without re-programming) you can use Shazaaam! combinations to access the following keys (among others).

ESC - Shazaaam! plus P1B4 or P2B4
Pause - Shazaaam! plus P1B5
Enter - Shazaaam! plus P1B1 or P2B1
Tab - Shazaaam! plus P1B2
PgDown - Shazaaam! plus P1B3
PgUp - Shazaaam! plus P1B6

[Lilwolf]

One that I use ALL the time, but I don't notice others doing it is..

(FAST) - press it and it both unthroddles and turns show FPS on (so you know when its on.   GREAT for skipping intros and jumping back into the action.

I keep meaning to modify the source so that I can one button change to frame-skip to 12, then back to 0 at the same time.   I also wish I could trigger it on button press and reset it on mouse release... But I hear the current input handlers cant handle it....  Would be GREAT to hold down a button and have super fast get past this then release when your ready to go... similar to finalburn.

[danny_galaga]

One that I use ALL the time, but I don't notice others doing it is..

(FAST) - press it and it both unthroddles and turns show FPS on (so you know when its on.

[TalkingOctopus]

I have a bunch of non-game buttons on my cp and I love them and use them all the time.  You might take other people's advice and put them somewhere less conspicous such as on the sides of the cp box, or in the coin door.  I have:

Menu
Pause
Service
Exit
Volume/Brightness/Gamma Menu (Default key is ~)

I really like service because you can go into the settings and change the difficulty, enable blood, ect...