Number of buttons for a vertical cab?

[grueinthebox]

Considering putting together a dedicated vertical cabinet, and am considering how many buttons I might want to include...  Six per player should be unnecessary - the only games that use that many are fighters.  I'm thinking three should be enough, as it should cover any newer JAMMA shmups as well as any of the vertical classics I can think of offhand.

Can anyone think of any reason why a vertical machine would need more than three buttons per?

[spacies]

Can't see why you would need more than 3 buttons.
I have just had this discussion with someone who I am going to build a vertical cab for and we both could only think of a handful of games that have 3 buttons.

[leapinlew]

I have a vertical cab now with a 4 way joystick and 3 buttons. The only reason I put the third buttons on mine is for 1 game - Punchout. Super Punchout had the ability to duck and needs a fourth button (you need this ability in the game).

Perhaps you can dual map player 1 and player 2 buttons to handle the rare occassion you need button 3 or 4.

There may be a few other games that require 3 or 4 buttons on a vertical cab, but there isn't many.

[javeryh]

I'd go with three.  Gun.Smoke uses 3 (I think).

[Bill Mote]

A quick search at http://www.jstookey.com/arcade/sortinfo/index.php for "orientation = vertical and buttons > 3" produced 47 results.  It's based on MAME 0.82 but the list won't have changed that much.

1945k III (1945kiii)
Air Duel (Japan) (airduel)
Akkanvader (Japan) (akkanvdr)
Atlantic City Action (acitya)
Brave Blade (JAPAN) (brvblade)
Chinese Hero (chinhero)
Counter Steer (cntsteer)
Cyvern (Japan) (cyvern)
Daioh (daioh)
Gals Pinball (galspnbl)
Gekirindan (Japan) (gekirido)
Grand Cross (gcpinbal)
Grid Seeker: Project Stormhammer (Japan) (gseekerj)
Gunlock (World) (gunlock)
Hot Pinball (hotpinbl)
Image Fight (Japan) (imgfight)
KO Punch (kopunch)
Kyukyoku Tiger 2 (Japan) (ktiger2)
Macross Plus (macrossp)
Major League (mjleague)
Monte Carlo (montecar)
Passing Shot (2 Players) (passsht)
Pinball Action (set 1) (pbaction)
Quasar (quasar)
R-Shark (rshark)
Scud Hammer (scudhamm)
Sengeki Striker (Asia) (sengekis)
Shienryu (shienryu)
Skull Fang (Japan) (skullfng)
Sky Army (skyarmy)
Slick Shot (V1.7) (sliksh17)
Speed Ball (speedbal)
Spy Hunter (spyhunt)
Street Heat - Cardinal Amusements (strtheat)
Sundance (sundance)
Super Breakout (sbrkout)
Super Bug (superbug)
Super Draw Poker (supdrapo)
Super Trivia Master (strvmstr)
Super-X (Mitchell) (superxm)
The Dealer (dealer)
Toobin' (Europe, rev 2) (toobin2e)
Tri-Pool (Casino Tech) (tripool)
Truxton II / Tatsujin II / Tatsujin Oh (Japan) (truxton2)
Turbo Tag (prototype) (turbotag)
Vanguard (Centuri) (vangrdce)
Video Pinball (videopin)

dot

[grueinthebox]

Thanks Dot, that's a useful site...  Doesn't seem to be entirely accurate, however.  Some of that may be due to inaccuracies on the information in MAME itself, some is likely due to the older version of MAME.  Went through and tested the games listed, and the following from the list are playable:

1945k III - 2 buttons
Air Duel - 2 buttons
Chinese Hero - 3 buttons + start
Cyvern - 2 buttons
Gekirindan - 2 buttons
Gunlock - 2 buttons
Image Fight - 2 buttons
Macross Plus - 2 buttons
Quasar - 2 buttons
R-Shark - 2 buttons
Sengeki Striker - 2 buttons
Shienryu - 2 buttons, but runs a little choppy in MAME .109
Sky Army - 2 buttons
Slick Shot - 3 buttons
Street Heat - 3 buttons
Truxton II - 2 buttons
Video Pinball - 3 buttons

These games I either didn't find in my (supposed to be complete) ROMset, or weren't playable on my PC:
Akkanvader - not found
Atlantic City Action - not found
Brave Blade - 3d, runs badly
Skull Fang - doesn't run at all, seems to be not properly emulated

These games would work with 4 buttons:
Gals Pinball
Grand Cross
Hot Pinball
Passing Shot
Pinball Action
Scud Hammer
Speed Ball
Super Breakout
Super Trivia Master
Super-X
Vanguard

These require more than 4 buttons:
Counter Steer - 5 buttons
Daioh -  5 or 6 buttons
Major League - 5 buttons
Monte Carlo - 6 buttons
Sundance - 10 buttons
Super Draw Poker - 10 buttons
The Dealer - 8 buttons
Toobin' - 5, might be made to work using 4 buttons and start as throw as original
Tri-Pool - 5 buttons
Turbo Tag - 6 buttons

So from what I can tell, there are only really 21 games that can be made playable by the addition of more than 3 buttons.  Personally none of those really interest me, but YMMV.  Some of the 4 button Pinball games could probably be made playable on 3 or less with creative control remapping using either start buttons or the joystick, as could Toobin'. 

[leapinlew]

Super punchout isn't listed at all on the searches, but I gaurantee you it needs 4 buttons to play. And, it's the only game I see on the list that I recognize.

[FrizzleFried]

A button costs $1.45.   Some wire?   A couple cents?   Wire 4 buttons up and be happy.

[leapinlew]

It could be an asthetic or space issue as well...

Also, more buttons adds to the complexity for users who aren't familiar with the arcade.

[Aurich]

There's no point in doing 4 buttons, it just clutter.

I'm building a vertical cab right now, and I have 3 buttons per player. The 3rd button is mostly for Japanese SHMUPS though.

[grueinthebox]

It could be an asthetic or space issue as well...

Also, more buttons adds to the complexity for users who aren't familiar with the arcade.

All of the above, in my case.  For the uninitiated, the fewer buttons present the better, plus the cabinet I'm considering is a DK cabinet, so doesn't have much space on the CP.  Having a two player setup on it at all is already pushing it.

Super Punch Out!!! doesn't make the list because it's technically not a vertical game - it's a horizontal game that uses two monitors.  If you're not terribly particular, you can play it with only three buttons by mapping the button to step back to the down arrow.  Ends up playing more like the SNES version.

[CheffoJeffo]

I'm going with 2 buttons (on either side of a tweaked Wico 4-way) on my vertical MAME build as it is aesthetically pleasing and supports all of the games I want to play.

I am of the school that prefers not to just add another button to support games that I won't play. I think builders often put too much emphasis on trying to support too many games.

Cheers

[TOK]

I went with 3, and made the 3rd button the color of my panel so it doesn't stand out too much. Most vertical shooters use 2, most vert classics use only 1 button.
Going to have to try Daioh... Swear I've tried it with 3 buttons and it didn't feel like anything was missing (?).

[johnm160]

Toobin is fun, it needs five buttons. But it is not very intutive to play when you cant lay them out like the original.

[shardian]

I'm going with 2 buttons (on either side of a tweaked Wico 4-way) on my vertical MAME build as it is aesthetically pleasing and supports all of the games I want to play.

I am of the school that prefers not to just add another button to support games that I won't play. I think builders often put too much emphasis on trying to support too many games.

Cheers

Agreed on this. My main control panel for my vertical cab has a centered ms. pac reunion 4-way with two buttons to eiter side for left or right handed play. Very appealing layout for a smaller cabinet.