Basic 2-player CP...how many buttons?

[Ninten-doh]

I'm taking the guts from a friend's old X-Arcade to use in a custom CP I want to make for my first cab.  The X-Arcade has 8 buttons per player, but I would like to trim this down to about 5 buttons per player so I can make room for a trackball.  I don't play any of the fighter games like Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter, so am I cool with that or are there some real classic games that require 6+ buttons to play?  I don't want to do 5 buttons per, then wish I had done more. 

And yes, if the X-Arcade stuff leaves me duly unimpressed, I plan to upgrade parts as my financial situation allows.

[mccoy178]

If you don't use fighters that have six buttons, why would you keep five?  I can't think of a lot of five button games off the top of my head.

[Ninten-doh]

mccoy, I was gonna keep five because I was worried about removing too many.   

I'm the paranoid type as you can tell.

[leapinlew]

If you don't use fighters that have six buttons, why would you keep five?  I can't think of a lot of five button games off the top of my head.

I agree. There are some stragglers out there, but to me it's either 3 buttons or 6 buttons. With 3 buttons you can play all the old classics and the rare game that has a jump/fire/grenade type feature and none of the fighters.

I guess overall it depends on who your building for. I went with 6 buttons because of all the people wanting to play the thing. I'd rather not have to deal with the look of disappointment when they find out they can't play one of their favorites.

As for the trackball... yeah, I wish I had room for one of them. Not so much for the mouse, but for centipede, crystal castles and missle command. When Mamewah is setup properly - you rarely need any other input then your cp. I had to make a choice and I went for the fighters instead.  

[leapinlew]

mccoy, I was gonna keep five because I was worried about removing too many.   

I'm the paranoid type as you can tell.

How would you arrange 5 that would save you any space vs putting 1 more button in? The standard 6 player layout is

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[Ninten-doh]

Well, I was thinking of setting it up like this...

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And I was planning to try this trackball mod using a PC trackball:

http://www.geocities.com/lusosarge2000/etrackball.html

I just thought getting rid of that extra button might just give the trackball a bit more wiggle room, but from what you guys are saying, it's probably worth keep the six and just removing the bottom two.

In a perfect world, I forget all about the trackball (my wife wants it for Centipede & Millipede) and somehow shoehorn a rotary control in the middle instead for my beloved Heavy Barrel and Ikari Warriors.  Ah, a boy can dream.   

[Grasshopper]

Off the top of my head the only games I can think of are Defender and Stargate.

If those games matter to you then you could probably get away with four buttons per player. Reverse and Hyperspace can be mapped to player 1's buttons, and Fire, Thrust, Smart Bomb and Inviso can be mapped to player 2's buttons.