What info is needed on an instruction card?

[Crowquill]

As I've been making my instruction card and trying to simplify it, I've been questioning what information NEEDS to be on it. For instance, I have a combination of buttons to press to pause, but the average visitor to my home doesn't need to know that to enjoy the game.

Also, what's more effective, just text, or text and diagrams?

Below is my work-in-progress instruction card. Space isn't too much of a concern with my upright, so I stuck to a format similar to what fighting games use that will go right above the control panel. It's roughly 2.5" x 17". The 'exit to menu' command is temporary until I get more buttons ordered. I'm using a 7-button layout.

[tore-]

Is this made in Photoshop? I would love to have my hands on thoose! Sorry for being completely offtopic.

[Crowquill]

It's vector art in Illustrator. I'll upload it to the Art Library once I'm happy with it (probably sometime in the next week).

[leapinlew]

Lets see...

If the goal of this is to make your cabinet as easy to use as possible:

Make sure they know how to exit games
I can barely ready your cards, but it appears that you've listed how to select games
List any admin functions (pause, volume, etc.)

I really like your cards now, they are quick and easy

[Spaz Monkey]

I'm being nitpicky here, but if it's a MAME machine, why do you have "Insert Coin to start game"? 

[Timoe]

prolly cause its cool to use your coin door if you've got one.

I think the whole design is slick.  I might add little arrows around the joystick but even without, its teh goode.

[Crowquill]

Maybe it's better to see the context of my cabinet. With limited space, I decided to not squeeze in as many controls as possible and stick to just joystick and button games. After doing this I realized it'd be cool to keep it looking as much like a normal cabinet as possible. So...no admin or credit buttons. All additional functions are done by combinations of joystick and button presses (hold down and hit start for a credit). I like to keep up the illusion, so I added "insert coin to start". It's also really awesome to hear a coin drop through.

I was trying to apply this same philosophy to the instruction card so I started this topic. I'm mostly trying to find out if there's anything important that I left out (pause, credits) or if there's possibly something I could take off (press left/right to jump to the next letter).

As cheap as it was I printed it out in color. It's still open for change but I wanted to see it on the cabinet. And now it's extra slick...I laminated it 

[jelwell]

Instead of "Press [Player 1 Start] to start selected game" you could map the menu to start whenever any button is pressed - or a coin is dropped. Unless you're saving those buttons for something else.

I just wanted to add that love your instruction card.
Joseph Elwell.

[johnperkins21]

Well, on your card the white button is purple. Probably a little nitpicky, but it's what I noticed. Other than that, awesome job!

[Crowquill]

The purple buttons are on the list of things to order. I also need a proper P2 start, and switches for the buttons in the top row.  The "purple stealth button" will blend in with the overlay that I need to have printed yet. Here's an old version of the overlay art. My Illustrator file got corrupt so I have to redraw it again to revise it. I also keep putting that off since I know that I don't have the money to print it once it's done.  As you'll notice I dropped the trackball and moved the start buttons to the front where they were originally on this cabinet. This left room for the "stealth buttons" so that I can have a proper Neo-Geo setup.

I really didn't think about using any button to start. I just stuck with the Mamewah defauts. I'm using two of the buttons to jump forward and back in increments of 10 in the list, but all the others could easily select the game. I'll probably leave the instruction card the way it is though just to avoid confusion.