CP layout question

[maximebeauvais]

well, after almost 45 min of searching I did not really find the perfect answer.

what button do you really need on your control panel?

here is my design righ now:

1 joystick with 6 buttons
2 joystick with 6 buttons

player 1 button + (maybe coin button) or I will use the actual slot money!!!
player 2 button + (maybe coin button) or I will use the actual slot money!!!

trackball with 2 buttons

-------

NOW should I get a ESC button, a pause button, return button? any other that will could be a MUST

[escher]

well, after almost 45 min of searching I did not really find the perfect answer.

what button do you really need on your control panel?

here is my design righ now:

1 joystick with 6 buttons
2 joystick with 6 buttons

player 1 button + (maybe coin button) or I will use the actual slot money!!!
player 2 button + (maybe coin button) or I will use the actual slot money!!!

trackball with 2 buttons

-------

NOW should I get a ESC button, a pause button, return button? any other that will could be a MUST

You didn't get the perfect answer because one doesn't exist. 

It's all about personal preference.  There are people out there who claim that nothing should be on the control panel outside of 1p/2p joysticks, buttons, and start.  Then there are other who put every possible admin button on, even ones they've never used and probably never will.  You just need to decide where on the spectrum you fall.  If you're going to be using tab/escape/pause/save/etc often enough to make it a hassle to break the keyboard out, add 'em.  If not, don't.

[diverdown]

I just added an esc button but put it under an overhanging CP - makes getting back to FE a breeze.

Add the coin buttons - makes finishing games ezy


my 2 cents

[torez]

See what kind of games you play and check what was the layout of the buttons.  Then map the result on a big piece of paper.  If you have any space left add some more options.  Are you going to add a spinner (would highly recommend)?

[boodroe]

for escape i used a combination of buttons, on mine to escape you have to press both 1player, 2 player, and the coin button at the same time to escape. That makes for an easy escape without any accidents and you dont have to clutter things with an extra button. You can just program that in mame. One more thing that is useful...I put a pause button underneth the control panel so you can pause the game to run and get another beer in the middle of those long golden tee matches.

[severdhed]

i have

an 8way stick and 6 buttons for each player,
4way stick for player1
p1 and p2 start buttons
I use the coin mechs for coin input, no buttons.
i use my pinball flipper buttons as pause in mame
trackball
spinner
two mouse buttons, one on either end of the control panel, near the pinball flippers.  That way they are there for windows use, but not on the main panel to clutter it up.
I use some emulators that require an Enter button be used, so i added two admin buttons to teh control panel, Esc and Enter.  esc is above p1 and enter is above p2.  I have mame configured to exit the game by pressing either esc or enter.  but i can still use the right one as an enter key for other emus.

[shardian]

Since noone pointed it out, I will. An IPAC or a Keywiz keyboard encoder is equipped with a shift function. You can program the keywiz to make any keystroke you want with any combination of the buttons on the control panel.  You can get away with no extra admin buttons whatsoeverJust wanted to make sure you were aware of this.

Now, to make your cabinet user friendly, a dedicated exit key would be a good idea. That way people can switch games easily. A pause button is a good idea, but I prefer this to be hidden if possible. It detracts from the arcade experience in my opinion. Unless you are running a limited list of games that you have personally set up and calibrated settings-wise, it would be a good idea to include a volum control of some sort. you could locate a physical speaker control somewhere, or use the volume control in mame. Different games have different sound levels. I play nba hangtime alot, and you have to turn the volume way up to hear it.

Other than those, I see no reason for other physical buttons on the cab. The rest should be shift functions that only you know. I had to reinstall a copy of mame32 one time because my wife accidentally accessed the shift commands on my desktop cp. She changed a ton of button and command assignments, and somehow managed to remove the ability to access the tab command menu. Don't let this happen to you.

[Negativecreep0]

can the ipac do num lok and scroll lk keys also???