Thoughts on this idea...

[Alcathiax]

OK...my wife has come to the conclusion that I don't have the depth to build a 4p CP (from eveything I am seeing it adds a total of 18" or so to the depth of a machine). But I do think maybe I could get away with 2 - 2P machines next to each other.

Do you guys think I could do something like this....
Arcade A with computer A with U360s set as Joy1 and Joy2.

Arcade B with computer B with U360s set as Joy3 and Joy4.

Both machines could be played completely seperately.

But when I want to play 2P Smash TV / Karate Champ or 4P TMNT / Gauntlet I could somehow connect U360 3 and 4 to Arcade 1 and the monitor from arcade 2 to the dual display video card on arcade 1. I now have the best of all worlds with only 2x the price ....

Problems I see:
Can Joy3 and Joy4 be used on Arcade 2 for players 1 and 2 when playing solo.
Is there a good way to switch the USB cables for the U360 back and forth (or is this a better set of joysticks for this).

Can I convince wife to put 2 machines in the game room?

[ahofle]

Is depth your only worry?  18 inches seems a little excessive to me... Where did you come up with that number?  I would think only a few inches difference between 4p and 2p control panels.

[Alcathiax]

Isn't UA cabinet about 38" deep and UA2 with 4P CP about 48" -50" deep (to front of 4P CP)?

Also I think that 2 -2P machines might work a little easier with the wife than 4P Albatross CP.

[ChadTower]

The bigger issue is that his wife has design input into the cab and apparent veto power over the game room.

[Alcathiax]

The bigger issue is that his wife has design input into the cab and apparent veto power over the game room.

Ya ya...shudup!!!!

[ChadTower]

   Timmy!

IMO, four player panels are unwieldy and rarely are worth the extra space/loss of perspective from the side.  Go with two two player cabs if you can.  That way you can have a vertical and a horizontal monitor, optimize one for trackball and the other for spinner, and you have nearly everything covered well.

[ahofle]

Well if you really want 4 players, I would personally find some other 4 player plans that would make the wife happy (or perhaps modify the UAII plans to your depth limitations) rather than try to hack up the controls on two separate machines to somehow work together.  Nothing beats 4 player Gauntlet!

[Lilwolf]

If you used two keyboard encoders, and set the keys specifically up... it might work pretty well.   So you unplug a usb cable out of the back of one into the other... And the keys don't overlap...  So both cabs would have a usb cable coming out of the back, and normally plugged back into themself.  But when you want, you could have them go to either machine.

The video might be a bit harder.  But I bet you could have a very similar setting...

This would allow you to have one 'weaker' computer that is ok for some games but not all of them.  And still be able to handle the high end games...

but I think all of this is a waste myself... cool but not really all that needed.

I would think getting a good 2 player cab going, and with two usb ports for those times that you want 4 players you can plug something in...  btw, I use 4 players very infrequently... Even when I have lots of people over, we usually end up playing fighter games.

[severdhed]

sounds like alot of work, but it can be done if you use pc monitors.

cabinet 1 needs set up like a standard 2 player cabinet. make sure the video card has dual vga outputs and windows is set to mirror the images (same image on both monitors)

cabinet 2 needs to be set up a little different.

use a usb encoder, change the controls to match up with the standard mame controls for players 3 and 4, then configure mame to use the player 3 controls for player 1, and the player 4 controls for player 2.  this way everything will function just like it is a standard 2 player cabinet, just the buttons are mapped to different keys.  connect the monitor to a two port kvm switch.  one input on the kvm goes to the second PC, the other input connects to the second output from the first cabinet.  this can stay connected at all times if necessary.

the only thing you would have to do is unplug the encoder's usb cable from the second cabinet and plug it into the first one, since the buttons are mapped to the standard mame  player 3 and 4 keys, it should work fine, then you just press the kvm button to switch the second monitor to display the same thing as the first cabinet.

if you dont want to swap usb cables, you could probably use something like this
http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=134172

it seems like a litle work, but shouldnt be too bad...the biggest issue is that you will have a video cable and a usb cable running between the two cabinets....other than that, it should be fine.

if I am not explaining this good enough, let me know and i'll try to do better.


(edit)
here is a simple diagram:

http://img351.imageshack.us/img351/2881/dualcabinetsjc3.jpg

[Texasmame]

OK...my wife has come to the conclusion that I don't have the depth to build a 4p CP

So, is she calling you shallow?   

[ahofle]

OK...my wife has come to the conclusion that I don't have the depth to build a 4p CP

So, is she calling you shallow?   

 
Nice

[spacies]

Use a dual monitor video card as mentioned above. Use a VGA extension cable.

Another option for the controls would be to buy an IPAC4 for the main cabinet and run some thin multi strand cable from the IPAC in cabinet 1 to cabinet 2 controls and put a connector half way.

[Bill Mote]

Fry's Electronics sells some cool molex connectors.  I used 1 to attach my trackball led harness to the power source.  This way I can simply pull a connector apart and my panel is free without hauling the power brick around.  I'm going to do the same thing with my coin door lights so everything is powered/grounded from a single connection.

BTW: My Jakobud CP is an in-line 4 player.  It's *exactly* the same depth as a 2-player CP.

dot