Arcade Controls

[patm95]

I am just now starting to plan my cabinate.  I am looking forward to planning my control panel, trying to decide what controls would be best.  I am looking for some advice from my fellow enthusiats. 

I am looking to design a 4 player CP.  For player 1-2, I was thinking about the happs rotary optical joysticks.  This would enable me to play games like Ikari warriors and have the 8 way control.  For players 3-4, the happ competition joystick, a cheaper 8 way.  An Ultimarc e stick for 4 way games with the option to rotate for Q Bert. A push-pull spinner for games like tron (Apache controls).  Last but not least, I would like to mount a trackball for games like centipede and golden tee.  I have not sorted out a layout yet, but as you can probably tell, I am trying to design a panel that would enable me to play the largest variety of games possible.  Thinking about an aviation joystick, but just not sure if I would have the space to mount it lol.

So does this sound like a good combination?  Criticism is appreciated!  Thanks.

[horseboy]

For player 1-2, I was thinking about the happs rotary optical joysticks.  This would enable me to play games like Ikari warriors and have the 8 way control. 

You want the mechanical rotaries

[NightGod]

I think you'll run out of room before you get that aviation joystick mounted. I'm building a massive CP (48x20) and have basically the same thing you have listed there, no way I could fit in an aviation stick, there just simply isn't the room for it.

[patm95]

Thanks for the input guys, I will look into the mechanical rotaries too.  I guess the aviation stick wouldn't be a huge loss, if I couldn't fit it on the CP.  I just thought it would be cool to have it.

[horseboy]

You could always go with swappable cp's.

[RobotronNut]

any panel wide enough to fit 4 players must be able to fit a flight stick. it doesn't have to be in the same row as the sticks for the 4 players. my 2-player panel is 35" wide, and it fits a flight stick very comfortably.

you just need to make a mock-up, to make sure your forearms don't bump into controls in the lower row.

[ahofle]

any panel wide enough to fit 4 players must be able to fit a flight stick. it doesn't have to be in the same row as the sticks for the 4 players. my 2-player panel is 35" wide, and it fits a flight stick very comfortably.

Nice looking CP there...where did you get that flight stick?

[RobotronNut]

i had slikstik include the (optional) flight stick when they built my panel.

the flight stick is a Happ Heavy Duty 8-Way Trigger Joystick with 2 Fire Buttons (you need at least one "fire button" (=thumb button) for discs of tron).

you can get them directly from happcontrols.com, or probably less expensively from divemaster127 or ponyboy.

[RobotronNut]

btw, standard mame builds don't support the rotary properly. i run MameAnalogPlus for rotary games and standard mame for all others.

also, i've found that i'm not as excited about rotary games as i thought i would be. if i had it to do over again, i might replace the rotary with a second flight stick. 2 flight sticks would be awesome for tank games.

[patm95]

While we are on the subject of controls, I am not planning on having a keyboard hooked up at all, just for authenticity.  What administrator buttons are recommended?  I guess I will need at least 1 for exiting the game?  I plan to just use tokens for credits.  I would like to keep the administrator buttons hidden if possible and kept to a minimum.  Maby back of the cabinate?

[AtomSmasher]

While we are on the subject of controls, I am not planning on having a keyboard hooked up at all, just for authenticity.  What administrator buttons are recommended?  I guess I will need at least 1 for exiting the game?  I plan to just use tokens for credits.  I would like to keep the administrator buttons hidden if possible and kept to a minimum.  Maby back of the cabinate?

pause, exit game, menu, and "enter" to navigate the menu

[TehJefe]

+a coin button if youre into that kinda thing... far be it for me to pass judgement. 
Do you really need an enter button? Cant that just be like.. any specific button on the cp?
And a good place to hide those admin buttons would be underneath or on the sides of the cp.