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My Control Panels..suggestions?

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Mctittles:

Thanks for all the input!  Quick responses around here!
Ok, some feedback on everything you guys had mentioned.

--- Quote ---A rotating panel? That sounds like a complex build. Forgive me, but why not just easily changing CP's? I guess that's more solid and rigid then a rotating one.
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I actually would really not like swapable panels.  One reason is I don't want extra panels hanging on the wall or a shelf somewhere in our game room.  Another is I think there is more chance of stuff breaking this way.  I could see problems where new people come over and pull out a panel, while forgetting to unplug it and break the cord, or slip and drop it on the ground.  With a rotating panel I see less room for error on the user part, unless you purposely try to break it by being rough.  Also I'm completely sold on the 'cool' factor!

--- Quote ---Are the CPO's the final versions to be printed? I would give it a try to give it a more Arcade look.

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No, not at all.  The overlays are just random patterns I put on so I could tell them apart when working on this. 

--- Quote ---Tron sort of REQUIRES a "flight stick" type of control or a top-fire type joystick.  I don't see that on your last panel.   All the buttons on the right confuse me too.
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That's the panel I'm having the toughest time deciding on.  Tron and Defender get on my nerves!  The buttons on the right are measured to the same layout as Defender.  If you have ever played it, you'll know that it's controls are all over the place.  For Tron, I put buttons around the spinner to *hopefully* make up for the fact that I don't have a button stick.  Think it will be playable that way?

--- Quote ---Also,   you are going to want  to situate your trackball AWAY from any buttons....plus there is a rather large mounting plate to take in to account when positioning the trackball.  The way it is now,  the button to the top left of the trackball would be fully running in to both the mounting plate and the trackball unit itself.  It is large.
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Thanks for the tip.  I was not actually aware of a mounting plate that was needed.  For positioning I took measurements of my trackball.  Where the button is now according to what is not shown in the pic underneat the mounting board, it is in the corner of where on the trackball large things come out from the right and left making an L shape.  I'll have to look into this mounting plate thing.
Otherwise if I can fit it, do you think the buttons will interfere with gameplay?

--- Quote ---what program did you use to design your controller layout?  I am in need to do this, and i don't know what to do it in.
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The program I'm using is actually WAY overkill for what I'm using it for.  It's 3d Studio Max and I use it at work sometimes to design animations and realistic 3d renders.  It's pretty pricey (a few thousand $$!) and has a steep learning curve.  I'm using it because I'm already familiar with it so can start working on my design quickly.  If you need something to help you layout your panels or machine there are cheaper alternatives though.  milkshape 3d is a free 3d program off the top of my head.  If you look for CAD programs I'm sure you could find a cheaper alternative (by cheaper I mean $100-$200!) that is for CAD design only and not rendering realistic scenes.  I'm sure there are more free 3d things out there as well, I'd have to look.  You could download a 30 day trial of 3d max for your project, but if you have never used 3d before you might be spending most of that 30 days just learning how to get around in the program...

--- Quote ---When I first started looking at this cab building and I saw a few of those rotating panels I really thought they were truly 'all the rage'. I wanted to do one too. Then I made just a regular CP and that alone was hard enough as it is. The CP is the hardest thing on your cab. You will be going exponentially difficult with a rotater.
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You are scaring me!  Heh..  I know it will be difficult but I hope I have somewhat of an upper hand by designing everything to scale on a computer first.  I'm using the 3d program mentioned and putting every piece of wood and plexi-glass in the design to exact scale before I begin building.  That way I *hope* I can just print out the plans, cut the wood and go to work.  I'm hoping this way will cut down on the amount of mistakes...

Donkey_Kong:

Dang bud the last thing I want to be remembered as here is the one to scare you from doing the rotater...

Prove the neigh sayers wrong...Dooooh-it! Doooit! You have er-eh...officially passed the IQ test to see if you can actually pull it off with your writing skills! You have our permission...now git er done!! Show us all what ur made of in the garage!

You'll do fine. "You know, if you put your mind to it...you can accomplish anything" Michael J. Fox -Back To The Future



ahofle:

Are you absolutely restricted to 3 sides?  I would probably add another panel for the Tron/Spinner stuff and have the Defender panel on its own (they don't really share much in common to be on the same panel IMO).  If you can only do 3 sides, perhaps you could combine your #2 and #3 panels somehow (minus the optical controls) and then have a Tron/Spinner/Trackball panel.  You REALLY need a topfire stick at a minimum (preferrably a flight stick of some sort) for games like Tron.  This would also solve the problems of being off center playing Defender.  Just my 2 cents.

Mctittles:

Thanks, I'm probably going to move it up to 4 sides.  The reason I was limited to 3 so far is because panel 4 was going to be a 4 player panel and 5 was going to be steering wheel.  However, I haven't been able to find a non-crappy way to make panel 4 turn into 4 player ( http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=61732.0 ).  So I'm going back to the drawing board on these panels.  I'll probably put the Tron/Spinner/Trackball on it's own panel.  I really want the Pac/Asteroid panel to be a clean as possible.  There is one annoyance here.  The game WACKO, which is pretty fun uses a trackball AND a joystick.  So...do I put the trackball in the center, joystick on the left, and spinner on the left or do I put the joystick center, spinner left and trackball right so you can use your right hand on the trackball for that game....
Decisions, decisions.  But that's half the fun of making a cabinet right!

tranq:

Some tri-panel examples:


http://arcade.tomvanhorn.com/

http://rebirth.dgthompson.com/cppanels.html

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