How about a 1 player "ultimate" control panel ?

[Mamezilla]

Hello everyone,

Some of you have seen and replied to a couple of recent posts from me, mostly about a trigger handle replacement for a Happ super, and about a home-made spinner.  I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helped me with those topics.  So here are a couple of pics of my "first attempt" control panel.




Inside, it is a combination of a keyboard hack for the first joystick on the left and almost all of the buttons except two, and the hacking of an old Gravis gamepad for the second joystick and the remaining 2 buttons.  There are two other buttons we don't see in the pics (one on each side), for pinball games.  The three buttons on the front are for bumping and tilting.

Since the space where I put the CP isn't very large, I had to compress that a bit.  It is 23" large, by 11.5" long, it's height is 3.5" on the front and 4.5" on the back.  You can see on it the joystick I have modified with a trigger handle from an old Nintendo game system, and the spinner I made with a combination of the hard drive bearing / old Microsoft mouse optics hacks.  You can also see at the bottom left of the first picture the Crayola trackball, that I cannot at this time insert inside the CP since there is not enough free space in it.  That one will have to be hacked in the near future, to modify the optical wheels in them since there is some backspin problems with the ball, thanks to the instructions 1UP gave me in a private e-mail he sent me.

The second joystick handle was changed to a trigger handle mainly for Tron.  However, when I play Robotron or any other game that requires 2 joysticks, it's not an ideal setup.

I have seen some recent posts about an ultimate 4 players CP layout.  Since I'm the only one playing games in here, I may want to plan my second attempt CP, since I want to make that thing better.  I searched into a lot of the examples in BYOAC, but I could not find any "ultimate" layout for a 1 player CP.  Is there such a thing somewhere ?  Do you guys have any ideas about this ?

To me, the ultimate 1 player setup would have (except for the MAME setup buttons):

• Two 8 ways joysticks for Robotron and other games that need those ones.
• One or two sets of 6 buttons (or 7, like the Neo-geo setup)
• A trackball
• A trigger stick
• A spinner
• Two dedicated 4 way joystick for games that need that (one straight and the othe diagonal), or only one stick like the Ultimarc e-stick so that the restrictor plate could be changed for either straight or diagonal games.  Could be also some removable restrictors plates from Oscar if those are available

With everything I listed above, I think that I could play almost every game except the ones that needs a steering wheel (I'm playing them with the spinner right now) and a yoke.  With that many items on it, I will think about getting myself a I-pac, Keywiz or something like those, as well as an Opti-Pac (if my budget permits...)

That makes a total of 4 sticks (or 5, depending of the 4 way sticks setup), a spinner, a trackball, one or two sets of buttons, and the necessary buttons for MAME setup.  Is there something missing ?  (except a refrigerator for the beer ?...)   ;D

So, do you guys have any ideas about the layout of an ultimate 1 player CP that would include all of the above ?  Any input would be appreciated.  

[Mamezilla]

anyone ?

[anthony691]

Pretty cool... The only problem I would encounter would be with a 2 Joystick config on Robotron 2084. Otherwise Very cool (compact too)

[neuromancer]

I like the look of your panel pretty well. What are those buttons on the front. I wouldn't put buttons there, because I might press them by mistake.

I've got a panel that's partially done. It is based on a gamepad hack. It has an 8way, a small analog, several buttons, and a trackball.

If I ever get it finished, I probably win the award for the most stuff into the smallest space. It's smaller than a sheet of paper.

It doesn't do everything, but I think I would want at least 2 separate panels if I wanted to do everything.

I've found trackballs work pretty well for driving games.

Bob

[m3talslug]

how about Rotary joystick games and Pinball?  <-- pinball is easy to add.... rotary joystick would require you to switch your existing joystick with a rotary one.

[Mamezilla]

Thanks for your replies. I know however that it is not realistic to think that I can put 4 or 5 joysticks, a trackball, a spinner and buttons in a panel that is 23" wide and 11,5" long.  Size or lenght on my next control panel layout is not an issue.  I'll manage with it whatever it's size is.  Maybe my question and what I'm looking for isn't clear, I'm sorry about that since my native language is not english.

In short, what I would like to know is:  regardless of the control panel size, how could I manage to put that many items on that control panel without the items on it interfering physically with each other ?  

What would be a reasonable distance between each joystick ?  Where should I install in such a layout the trackball and spinner ?  Is there any layout somewhere where the person who made it have installed that much items on it ?

Thanks

[Birdtales]

My control panel actually has everything you listed with the exception of two 4 ways (it only has one) Here's a picture of it.



Everyting is fairly easy to get to. The triggerstick does impede on really long Golden Tee drives but we have learned the dual thumb spin and that works well. My panel is 30" wide by 12" tall.

 All of my admin buttons except P1 and P2 start are on the front of the panel.