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How's my Control Panel Design / Overlay?

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llars:

I have my panel design pretty much ironed out but I am still tossing around ideas for the overlay. The panel design is based on the slikstik quad. I am going to be using this panel for things other than Mame, so the extra buttons for players 3 and four aren't necessarily a waste of space (at least to me). The top row of buttons from left to right are: P3 Coin, P3 Start, Pause, P1 Coin, P1 Start, Escape, Enter, P2 Coin, P2 Start, Pause, P4 Coin, P4 Start.

I will be using the 3" Happs trackball surface mounted. The three buttons to the right will be connected to the trackball. There will be a Tornado spinner above the three buttons.  P1 and P2 sticks will be Ultimarc Mag-Stik Plus. P3 and P4 sticks will be Happs Competition.

For the theme of the cabinet, I am thinking about using screenshots from various games. I mocked up a quick and dirty representation of what I had in mind for the overlay. I will likely do something similar on the Bezel and Marquee. The sides would be blank or possibly have a MAME logo.

Opinions (positive and negative) and suggestions are welcomed.

Panel
http://www.ulink.net/crossroads/stuff/panel1.jpg

Overlay
http://www.ulink.net/crossroads/stuff/overlay.jpg

hnugz:

that looks like on heluva cp.

as far as the design, personally it seems to busy for me to have all those screenshots.  everything seems to get lost in it.  of course this is all personal preference.

llars:

I was thinking that too. It might be best to leave the CP black and so the theming on the Marquee and Bezel.

MovingTarget:

I'm not a big fan of all the screenshots, it looks pretty cluttered.  Just my opinion though.  

I would move the 3 mouse buttons (from the trackball) above the spinner or trackball, if they're below you'll probably accidentally hit them with your hand when you're using the spinner.  I would also think about why you need all three of those buttons.

davieboynj:

I'd have to agree with the busy thing.  also, you might want to consider lowering down to 3 buttons to the wings (players 3 and 4), as no game that i know of requires that many buttons for a 3rd and 4th player.  you might want to keep the locations the same, so that if you need to add them later (gauntlet legends) you'll be able to.  I'd also just use 6 buttons for players 1 and 2, as it's just as easy to remap the buttons as 4, 1, 2, 3 for use with 4 button neo geo games.  you can never remove buttons, and very few people would argue that you can never have too many.  

as far as using the screenshots, i'd recommend against it.  I've never seen the screenshots done tastefully enough that i'd vouch for putting them on the outside of a cabinet anywhere.  maybe if you made them really dark, or really light, and then put instructions or a logo in the foreground.   That might actually end up quite nice.  make it hidden detail, and i think you'll be much happier with it in the long run.  

all personal opinion.  i'm sure some people would consider my cabinet bland...

-dave



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