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| Give me input on my 4-player control panel |
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| wallyworld:
Thanks for the input, everyone. |
| SirPoonga:
Hmmmm, a bunch of questions But first, you can "double up" buttons to save on inputs. But we'll get back to that later. Why do you have a dedicated 49way AND a dedicated 4way? Why not have player 1 (I assume joystick 2) the 49way since the gpwiz49 can be put into several different modes? Can you explain what buttons are: 31, 34, 35, 36, 37, 51, 52 "My primary intention with this joystick was to use it to play Star Wars, Paperboy, and maybe 720 and Tron if possible." You'd really want an analog triggerstick for those then. Well, there is no good way to do 720 except with a spinner, which then it still sucks. Also, will it suck to reach over a joystick to get at the 2nd tball? "For example, are the buttons that are connected with the trackball for trackball use only? " For buttons you basically have three ways to input them into the computer - keyboard, mouse, gamepad. The Ipac would be keyboard inputs, the gpwiz49 would be gamepad inputs, and whatever interface you use for the tballs will be mouse. That said, buttons used for mame can be any or those. So if you could map mouse button 1 to player 1 button 1 input in mame. Since you will have a ipac4 AND gpwiz you have tons of inputs. However, let's assume you want to use keyboard inputs where possible. Depending on what the buttons around the spinner are for (IE, not the mouse butotn ones) then you could wire them in parallel with with another button. For example, you could wire butotn 34 to the same input on the ipac as button 7 as I am betting those are both going to be player 1 button 1 in mame? |
| markrvp:
Sir P: --- Quote from: SirPoonga on October 05, 2005, 01:55:29 pm ---Can you explain what buttons are: 31, 34, 35, 36, 37, 51, 52 --- End quote --- 51 & 52 are dedicated Mouse Left & Right (which I believe should be eliminated from the layout). 31, 34, 35, 36, 37 are DEFENDER layout buttons. On my CP they are wired to the same inputs as P1 buttons 1-5 (but not in that order). They also can be used with the 4-way joystick to play Asteroids. |
| SirPoonga:
oh duh, I just reread the defender part :) Then modify one of my comments to say Wht not have player 1's joy the 49way (and keep the 4way for defender). |
| DaveMMR:
Your panel mockup is what I envisioned for my panel when I first started this hobby. Over the course of two years I've whittled away most of what was unnecessary, unpractical, and redundant until I just threw everything away and went with a modular plan. It seems to me that a panel with everything is just as good as a panel with absolutely nothing on it. People looking at this space age piece of wood with buttons, doo-dads and levers will be too confused to make any attempt at enjoying it. And if they did, the effort of swapping panels will instead be used explaining, in detail, what combination of buttons, joysticks, etc. should be used to play game A as opposed to the configuration used to play game B and so on. When you want to fit everything onto one panel, you really need to start thinking about a more sophisticated way of getting the most out of the space. Some people have done wonders with rotating mechanisms. Here's a link to one. Though there are many others, this one seems the most modifiable to your specifications (i.e. your 1st and 4th joysticks lift up: http://rototron.info/. Or why not go swappable panels? Make one panel joysticks, another trackballs and spinners, or whatever. You can even have it so only the center part swaps out, leaving the side joysticks behind for when you need to combine them. Many have gone this route and documented the problems and solutions, so it's not as hard as it looks. If you really don't want to swap panels, you have to definately make a few sacrifices. I'd ditch the 49-way (unless you really, really love Sinistar, Bubbles, etc.) and all the extra buttons save for the 22 associated with the main 8-way joysticks (and a Defender layout is cool, but not practical when it's all the way in the back unlike the dedicated panel). If you are truly building this for a target audience of kids and casual users, then I'd ditch anything that's not a joystick. Seems to me that kids who didn't grow up with these games won't be as excited about controlling a game with the proper controls as those who did would. The only exception would be a steering wheel - but that's not fitting on a control panel without a swapping/modular/rotating design anyway. If you are getting more play out of it then them, I'd keep another panel around for yourself with dedicated controls and leave it out of play when the kids come to have a turn. BTW: I still maintain that Marble Madness is more than enough reason to have two trackballs - but only when there's enough space for it to be comfortable. And on the anal side of things, it'd be better to have them the same size and type (nip arguements in the butt over who has the "better" trackball just because he/she is beating the pants of his/her opponent). The controls are THE MOST IMPORTANT part of any arcade cabinet - so take your time planning this out. Good luck. |
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