Maximun amount of controls needed

[ryantheleach]

What is the  maximum amount of controls needed for 4 players to be able to play every 4,3,2,1 player game that uses 4/8 joysticks, buttons spinners and trackballs.

[NickG]

four? joking.

[Stingray]

The maximum number would be all of them.

-S

[arzoo]

I'm not sure how up-to-date this info is, but it's a good place to start...
http://www.mameworld.net/tigerheli/encoder/index.htm

[leapinlew]

What is the  maximum amount of controls needed for 4 players to be able to play every 4,3,2,1 player game that uses 4/8 joysticks, buttons spinners and trackballs.

4 8 way joysticks, 10 buttons per player, 4 spinners, 2 trackballs, 3 flight sticks, 4 four way joysticks, 2 miles of wire, a 10'X10' space to put the cabinet, $1,200....

that should cover all the games using the controls you specified as long as we are talking about Mame, NES, SNES, Genesis, and not talking about games like Sinistar, 720 degrees.   

[MYX]

4,016 controles needed. It would be the ultimate controle pannel. It will play every game ever built. It is 36 feet across and 12 feet deep. But to reach the buttons in the middle, you need to strap hockey sticks to your arms.

[jjd]

No, its 4,017.    I can't believe you missed that one.

[ahofle]

What is the  maximum amount of controls needed for 4 players to be able to play every 4,3,2,1 player game that uses 4/8 joysticks, buttons spinners and trackballs.

4 8 way joysticks, 10 buttons per player, 4 spinners, 2 trackballs, 3 flight sticks, 4 four way joysticks, 2 miles of wire, a 10'X10' space to put the cabinet, $1,200....

that should cover all the games using the controls you specified as long as we are talking about Mame, NES, SNES, Genesis, and not talking about games like Sinistar, 720 degrees.   

I believe you need 4 trackballs for Atari Football. 

[MaximRecoil]

What is the  maximum amount of controls needed for 4 players to be able to play every 4,3,2,1 player game that uses 4/8 joysticks, buttons spinners and trackballs.

Your question doesn't really make sense. Did you mean to ask what the minimum number of controls would be?

[NickG]

yeah...and what about player 5,6,7,8,etc.

[MYX]

No, its 4,017.    I can't believe you missed that one.

Sorry dude. My bad. I can not believe I forgot THAT one. Where was my head. Thanks for puttin me straight.

[More Cowbell]

The maximum number would be all of them.

-S

[Kremmit]

Don't listen to these jokers.  The correct number is eleventy brazillion.

[missioncontrol]

you all all wrong... it's 8675309

[Vigo]

I think a more appropriate question is:

How much money ya got?

[missioncontrol]

Don't listen to these jokers.  The correct number is eleventy brazillion.

duh... you forgot to carry the nothing... the correct answer is eleveny-twelve brazillion

[ryantheleach]

What i meant to ask, would be

what is the smallest amount of controls needed to play all the games that mame supports so i can later cross controls off the list for games i wouldnt play.. if you get my drift

btw thankyou arzoo for being the one of the most help ful replys to this thread *cough* flaming *cough*

[DrewKaree]

thread *cough* flaming *cough*

[Inigo] I do not think that word means what you think it means! [/Inigo]

[pointdablame]

You can play ~95% of all MAME games with 4 joysticks, 6 buttons for P1 and P2 and 4 buttons for P3 and P4.

Add a trackball and spinner and you're probably in the 98% range.  My percentages are guesses, but not far from the truth.

This thread may be full of flames, but the question itself is a bit silly.  Why do you need to know every control ever made so that you can cross them off a list?   There are a LOT of specialty controls, and if you don't already KNOW you want one, you're probably fine without them.  If you find a game later on that you just love and need a special control for, buy it then.

If you're going for most games, build a 4p panel with trackball and spinner and call it a day.  There will always be games that don't play "quite right" because you dont' have the original controller... you have to make compromises somewhere though

[Vigo]

There is also a chunk of games that require something else than you mentioned, usually a steering wheel. yeah, you can use a spinner (or even a joystick), but if your going for real feeling controls to play about everything, you are going to need a whole lot of specialized controls.

[Scumgriever]

On this more civilized note. I was planning to make a panel similar to what you mentioned but with 3 buttons for player 3 & 4 as I can't think of many 4 player games that use more than 3 buttons.

How many4 player games are there, roughly, that need 4 buttons?

[Hoopz]

The Dungeons and Dragons games use 4 buttons for P3 and 4.

[pointdablame]

On this more civilized note. I was planning to make a panel similar to what you mentioned but with 3 buttons for player 3 & 4 as I can't think of many 4 player games that use more than 3 buttons.

How many4 player games are there, roughly, that need 4 buttons?

only a few.  I think the D&D games are some of the only ones that use 4 buttons.

Other than those few games, you'd be fine with 3 buttons for P3 and P4, unless you are doing console emulation that needs more.

[Vigo]

I have on mine player 1 and 2 with six action buttons, and player 3 and 4 with 3 action buttons...That covers my basic joystick needs...Later I'll put in a trackball, 2 spinners, two 49 ways and a driving set...that will cover just about everything I would want to play.

[RayB]

The answer is 42.

[Vigo]

The answer is 42.

Yes, arcades are life, the universe, and everything.

[Kremmit]

The answer is 42.

What question are you answering?

[zenmasterbooty]

hey ryantheleach,

Don't let these guys fool you into getting more controls than you need. All your going to need is one 42 way joystick (don't wast money on the 49 way. you don't need it) and a minimum of 19 dedicated shift keys. Just be sure to place the joystick in the middle of the CP so everyone can reach it.

[miles2912]

I am feeling sorry for this guy.  Ok honest answer.  You best bet will be a joystick for each player (8way is your best bet here).  6 Buttons for player 1 and 2 - if you want to play fighting games.  4 buttons for players 3 and 4.  One track ball and one spinner.  Maybe splash a top fire or 2 around and a few optical rotaries and you will cover almost all of the games out there.

You will still get a few friends that want to know where the star wars yoke or the paper boy handle bars are. Sheez.


D-

[NightGod]

Go 8 buttons on P1/P2 if you plan to do console play with your panel, other than that, miles2912 has solid advice.

[Vigo]

There are so many things to factor in, it is still not a very fair question.


It is unfair to answer about buttons. There is a differnce between maximum wanted for a reasonable playing experiance and maximum that you can shove on a panel so all your possible button needs would be covered.

It is unfair to answer anything about joysticks, that is a matter of preference. What some people love, other people hate. Even Joysticks that are commonly accepted as being junk, you will find that some people would not use anything else.

It is unfair getting into trackballs and spinners, there are a few games that take like 3 trackballs, we could tell you that you would need 3 trackballs, but then others would say not to because thats overkill. Many of us cannot honestly answer your question of what is the maximum, because we would never dare put all that on our machines.

It is unfair getting into other specialty controls, you can spend you life savings on specialty conrtols to play about anything under the sun, but we cant just tell you to get 8 steering wheels, a perscope, two lightguns, yolks, handlebars, a dancepad, a majjongg panel...etc. etc. However, there is some things that most of us highly reccomend that you get if you are all about trying to play as much as possible.

I have to shake my head at myself, because my previous posted advice has been as confusing as everybody elses.  It's not our fault, we are just trying to help in our own way.

You should probably start with a search, I am almost definite what you really want to know has been answered a half dozen times previously on the board. Also, if you want to ask a question, try to stay away from maximum/minimum. We are a lot better at answering questions if you fit it to your needs, rather than the largest possible amount.
Believe it or not, we are usually quite helpful, you questions just need to be phrased a little easier for us to understand, we are all trying to read between the lines of what you really want.

Hope this helps clear up why your answers are not so black and white.

 
Vigo

[jelwell]

It's interesting with all this flamage that there isn't an answer. If MAME is about documenting, you'd think we'd have a better answer. Maybe we do and us arcade builders don't realize it because it seems ridiculous to try to build a single cabinet to support every game. (Although some, including myself have come close in our futile attempts)

Probably the best place to start is Controls.dat

Joseph Elwell.

[ryantheleach]

Thanks, ive also noticed that some people have 7 buttons for players 1 and 2 in this configuration

(rough ascii approximation)

ooo
ooo
      o

whats up with this?

also im sorry i now realise that in hindsight that the question was indeed worded quite stupidly.

[pointdablame]

They 7 button layout is meant to emulate 2 of the most popular button layouts... the 6 button fighter layout, and the 4 button NeoGeo layout.   It is NOT actually 7 buttons, as most people wire the set up as only 6 buttons, with 2 buttons using the same input.

So, for fighters it might be (the numbering can vary, but this is the gist of it)

   1  2  3
o  4  5  6     

Where the "o" is unused, and for the NeoGeo games, it would be:

   o  o  o
1  2  3  4

[NickG]

Sorry if the funnies weren't enjoyed.   jelwell's has the idea.  An easy way to list mame games by the controls-which I  think utilizes controls.dat- is via a frontend such as mameplus or mame32.  With these, You can filter a game list by number of buttons, control-types and by number of players.  Also, if you download art packs and install them you can also view most of the panels and snapshots to weigh decisions on which games you actually want and can play on a single panel. 

BTW, there are a few 4-player 6-button games.  A prime example is Powerstone 2.  But maybe this is a mame only project?  Also, there are probably games that require even more buttons but are you really going to play them?  First, you may want to know what they are, and whether you ever really will have a group of three or four people around that are willing to play them or not. 

[divemaster127]

Look at the 4 player cp at slikstik.com this will give you a good idea of a nice general setup, you do want 1-4 way stick
dm