Another CP design asking for Opinions? NOOOOOO!

[Czapala]

Hey guys,

  First off YES! another thread asking for comments about a CP design.  This design is a simple 4P design.  I wanted to keep the joysticks lined up for Smash TV, Karate Champ, ....  The Big square above and to the right is my guesstimating on the footprint for a OmniStik Prodigy Topfire.  Then to the left the "mouse" buttons followed by a TurboTwist spinner.  I made it wide to accommodate playing the Topfire&spinner (aka Tron) with out bumping into other joysticks.  Plus  I am 6'5" and 350lbs!!  the other players need some room   


ALL comments welcome.

[Czapala]

wow  that jpg turned out crappy...

Umm  no the outside joystick/buttons are not all the way to the edge.  Hmm I need to figure out how to get a better picture from Visio.

[Czapala]

Here is a better one.  I used UncleT's CP idea for an extended middle front for pinball buttons. and added a border to give a more accurate view.

[ahofle]

Looks nice except you'll need to be careful when playing trackball games like Golden Tee (you will bang your hand into the topfire while driving).  You may want to consider moving the stick above the red buttons instead.  Also, I used a topfire and spinner for Tron too, and I must warn you that it sucks IMO.  It's 8 way and works fine for the spider and MCP cone levels, but sucks for the light cycles (you will be zig-zagging all over the place).  You may want to wait until there is a trigger stick add-on for the new analog stick from ultimarc, as you'll probably be able to have a 'tron mode' on it.  My plan is to replace my top fires with something like that eventually.

[hnugz]

just curious why you have the 4 buttons in a square like that.  i thought most 4p games only used 3 buttons so it might be better to line them in a row.

[Czapala]

The Topfire switches (vis a sliding switch) between 4-way and 8-way.  So it is my dedicated 4-way too  plus when I get to the light cycles in Tron I can move the switch to 4-way Mode and then back to 8-way for the rest.

check it out

http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=65&products_id=195

and the TopFire version

http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=65&products_id=192

[leapinlew]

Karate Champ is dual 4 ways... just so you know. Playing it on 8 ways doesn't work so well for me.

[Czapala]

just curious why you have the 4 buttons in a square like that.  i thought most 4p games only used 3 buttons so it might be better to line them in a row.

Well I read that 4P games use a maximum of 4 buttons.  So just covering my bases really.

[Czapala]

Karate Champ is dual 4 ways... just so you know. Playing it on 8 ways doesn't work so well for me.

Dang  I already got the joysticks ...  oh well, gotta make sacrafices sometimes (ie Smash TV > Karate Champ)

[Czapala]

Looks nice except you'll need to be careful when playing trackball games like Golden Tee (you will bang your hand into the topfire while driving).  You may want to consider moving the stick above the red buttons instead.

Really? think I will bang my hand on that with Golden Tee?  Maybe move the trackball to the left a bit?

[leapinlew]

You may not bang your finger. Your friends may. It's interesting to see how some people use the trackball. I have 1 buddy who uses his thumbs to roll it, my girlfriend pretty much hits it with a decent follow through, and I take a big follow through that has already caused me injury using a slikstik.

[leapinlew]

About the players 3 and 4 joysticks - I would consider top fire joysticks for them. This way you can play some tank games (vindicators) and Total Carnage (which requires 2 joysticks and a bomb button).

Just a thought!

[BlinKY1337]

56 inches wow this things gonna be huge cant wait to see it complete cardboard mockups are your friends

[Czapala]

56 inches wow this things gonna be huge cant wait to see it complete cardboard mockups are your friends

I was only going with about a 16" by 48"  until I saw UncleT's CP and he said it works well.  So 56" give me more room for people to spread out.  Like I said I am 6'5" and 350lbs.  I need ROOM!

The down side is I have already gotten the joysticks ...  the up side is I got  P360's (for 1 & 2) because I think this will be used mostly for fighters, with the 4P  and Dual joystick games as backups.

As far as cardboard mockups.  I was trying to decide a good height for the CP. I decided at work to go with 45".  Then I got home and took out the books and CP (cardboardpeice ) and that was ridiculous.  Of course I may still go with 42-43"   

[ahofle]

The Topfire switches (vis a sliding switch) between 4-way and 8-way.  So it is my dedicated 4-way too  plus when I get to the light cycles in Tron I can move the switch to 4-way Mode and then back to 8-way for the rest.

check it out

http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=65&products_id=195

and the TopFire version

http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=65&products_id=192

Ah yes, very nice! 
About the trackball, I was just bringing it up so you'd be aware of it.  It may not be an issue at all for you though.  Definitely try it out in cardboard and take some mock 'drives' and see for yourself!

[Boris the Spider]

wow  that jpg turned out crappy...

There's nothing crappy about the jpg, it's the way it's presented in the browser. The browser popup is set to not resize and looks to be around 900 pixels wide. the jpg is 1200 px wide and therefore is being resized by the browser and getting ugly results. Try creating your jpg's width a little smaller than your browser width next time...and you'll get a much crisper image.

Sorry, I know no one really cares about that probabbly...but that's what I do...and since I don't know diddly about building cabs (check out my newbie status), I figured I'd try to contribute somehow.