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4-player control panel help

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Jim Persoleo:
My control panel will be separate from the main cab and I want to put together a 4-player panel. Any ideas on specs? total length? distance between sticks and buttons?

My orginal thought was to go with 4 sticks, 8 buttons each with a start and coin button (10 buttons total)
Might drop the buttons on the outside 2 controllers since I don't htink many 4-play games have tons of buttons

Lately been thinking that not many games are 4-player (the one I most play is NFL Blitz 2000 - a PC game) so I'm not sure if it's worth the effort to design a 4-play panel and then use a secondary panel with a spinner, trackball, 4 + 8-way stick and a few buttons.

Thoughts, ideas, help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Jim

chris falco:
on my control panel. I've got 4 players, player 1 and 2 get 6 gameplay buttons, and 3 and 4 each get 4.

it's set up so from right to left it looks like

player 3,                               Player 4
             Player 1,  player 2,

I've got 4 white start buttons with the 1-4 player logos on them, and I also have them in order 3, 1, 2, 4
that way for 2 player games, the players are in the middle.

also my player 3 and 4 are slanted a little like in this pic
<a href="http://roms2.mame.dk/cab/simpsons.png" target="new">here</A>

jaydog:
I have been thinking fo building a 4 player cab myself, but i got to thinking that the cab might be a little to big in order to make the games comfortable and not cramped. the solution, i'm going to build a regular 2-player cab and have players 3 and 4 use usb game pads  like microsoft sidewinder.  
granted it is not totally "acrade feel" authentic but can you honesty say you are going to have enough 4player NBA JAM sessions to justify building an entire 4 player control panel.  a two player cab with two usb joypads is much more economical and it keeps your cab Pritty looking.  most of my friends preferr playing with a game pad anyway.

Jim Persoleo:
I think I'll go to the 2-player panel but put the trackball, spinner and 4-ways all on that. Then either go with jaydog's suggestion and use a pair of usb gamepads or build a small 2nd panel for 3rd+4th players.

Although to be honest I have access to a free play NFL Blitz/NBA Jam machine and I have yet to find a game pad that comes close to a joystick for those 2 games (any suggestions?) I use a gravis game pad pro and it sucks for Blitz and Jam on the PC. Getting used to it on Tony Hawk - just wish it did the main 4 directions easier (like the old PS ones did)

I came to the conclusion that I'll be playing solo or with just one other mostly and the 4-player fests will be rare (about every month when the guys come over for the LAN party). Thanks again for the help. Now to harrass some local woodworkers.

Lilwolf:
Really look at having hotswap control panels.

then you can build them as you want.

4way with 4 buttons
2way with 10 buttons
8way flight + trackball + buttons
starwars yoke

ie, you can add when you want.  If you go with a keyboard encoder, they all handle hotswapping.  Also, for the trackball and analog hacks... If you go with a usb solution, you have hotswap for them also.

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