Trying to layout my CP

[s8n]

and i was wondering if anyone has some advice/tips for doing this, i plan on testing they layout on a piece of cardboard, but what should i do to lay everything out evenly?

[cdbrown]

First thing is you need to work out the dimensions of all the pieces - button holes as well as the overall width of the button, joysticks, spinners, trackballs.  It depends on what you are going to be using.  Next just sketch how you think you would like it to be layed out, joystick on the left (or right?) of the buttons.  The number of buttons.  Do you want them straight across, on a diagonal, curved.  I have two rows of three which is curved to where I feel my fingers are comfortable and another button for my thumb which is near a neogeo layout.  Try to have the buttons close together as you don't want to have to stretch your fingers out - would be too uncomfortable.  Think about the angles of your wrist and forearms, just like if you are sitting at a keyboard.  Do a full scale drawing of it and just see if it is comfortable putting your hands where you imaging the buttons.  If it's good then transfer it to cardboard and really see how it feels.

Hopefully this should get you started.

Cheers
-cdbrown

[Nyrine]

I made a template of the buttons / sticks, and printed it out at life-size, then layed it out on a piece of cardboard.

I then got 3 friends to stand around the table with me, shoulder to shoulder to get a sensible distance between the controls.

On a related note -- how many buttons should I be giving to each player ?

My original plan was a joystick, and 7 buttons -- 2 rows of 3 arranged in a slight arc, and a 7th near the thumb.

Is this overkill for most players ? I dont want to run into problems of not having enough buttons available.

[Brax]

Player 3 and 4 only need around 3 (maybe 4) buttons. You won't find hardly any 4 player games that need more than that.

[Luxury]

What about for 4 player console games?  Games like Powerstone, or sports games, or kart racers, or "party" games?  How many buttons do these use typically?  

I am laying out my cp now as well, and I was planning on using 6 buttons for all 4 players - just for these types of games.  But if there aren't any games that use them, maybe I'll settle for 4 buttons for 3&4.  

[Brax]

I'm a mame only kinda kind. I can't speak for consoles.

My consoles days stopped at Atari 2600.

[Nyrine]

Having looked at the MAME setup - its seems it only supports 4 buttons for players 3 and 4, and 10 for players 1 and 2.

So there is no real point making a panel with more than 4 for players 3/4 if you are only going to play MAME games.

[Silverwind]

Having looked at the MAME setup - its seems it only supports 4 buttons for players 3 and 4, and 10 for players 1 and 2.

So there is no real point making a panel with more than 4 for players 3/4 if you are only going to play MAME games.

You may want to just for a cosmetic look.. so they are all the same.. the "extra" buttons could be mame buttons also..  and give you more flexibility with consoles...

I know some sega genesis and SNES games use 6 buttons..  more modern consoles i'm  not sure.. but I would say at least 6 buttons on newer consoles..

[Kitbasher]

If you are going to emulate playstation one games, you need 8 buttons.  I have a usb controller I built for Mame and Playstation emulation.  Works great.  I did two rows of 4 in the classic NeoGeo\SNK colors.  I tried them in straight lines on a peice of carboard and it was a stretch for my fingers.  I then tried them in two curves, tightly spaced together and it is great.  I program the first three top and bottom for when I am playing street fighter type games, and just use the first couple of buttons on the bottom row for most old school mame games.  For the playstation games I set it up per each game.  

The best advice I can give is to buy the buttons and sticks you plan to use and break out some cardboard or foamcore and build prototypes.  I went through threee or four before I was happy.  I would have either given up if I was working in wood or I would have a controller that I was always disapointed with.

Best of luck.