Must have buttons On Control Panel

[mrserv0n]

My control panel is built but I am trying to get a sheet of brushed metal for the top to work with it however its 50/50 at this point whether the sheet I have is going to be have enough coverage without warping.
Anyway

Just so I dont mess this up when it comes to layout time, what are my MUST HAVE and Important optional buttons I need besides my 4 man , 1/2 player gets 7 buttons, 3/4 player have 4. I have 1-4 coin and start.

What are the remaining supposed to be?

TAB for control options?
ESC to leave game I assume..
etc


Thanks

Oh I have the IPAQ-4 which is 56 inputs.  46 of which are dedicated to start/coin/sticks/player buttons.

[shardian]

Do not put a tab button on your CP - unless you want everyone and their cousins totally screwing up the  settings of MAME. An exit button is okay though.

You may also consider a Pause button and volume controls.

You should also consider remapping 1p start and using a dedicated shift button.

[zaphod]

Pause button for sure.  I map Escape to Pause and Player-2-Coin (Puase being the shift button).  I use VolumeTray (http://glorysoft.omsk.ru/volumetray.html) for handling volume controls and map Pause/Joy1-up to volume up and Pause/Joy1-down to down.  This way you only need one control button.

[postalp123]

If you want things "clean" then assign a Shift Key.

[michelevit]

on my cabs i have no admin buttons on the control panel.
i use a wireless keyboard to escape games and do everything
else. they make RF keyboards and mouse combos now that are less than 50 bucks
and work great.

i want to make my cabs looks like the real deal and keeping admin buttons
help with that. when i have guests come over they have no idea
that it is really a pc.

the other advantage is that you don't have to
worry about kids or guests inadventanly exiting
games or worse changing settings.
nothing worse than someone hitting the esc button while
racking up a high score on a long game session.

i do have a pause button but it is a small momentary micro switch that is
mounted under the control panel. i recommend it for all arcade games.
after dumping quarters in arcade cabs, i can't walk away from a game
in play until the "game over" flashes on the screen. the pause button
is the antedote for that "can't walk away disease"
 

[mrserv0n]

Thanks for the tips, I forgot about the shift key option, that makes a lot of sense.

[mtalkington]

That sounds like a good suggestion, but if you keep the admin buttons "hidden" (not easily accessible), what about, say, if you have a party and want users to be able to, at a minimum, escape from games, pause them, change game lists and game types (I use Emulaxian.)? If you don't have those admin buttons accessible, won't you always have to be coming in and helping guests exit games, choose games, pause games, restart games, etc.?

[fjl]

I've heard people mention the usage of a shift button. What exactly is the purpose of this shift button and how is it used?

[clockwork]

You should also consider remapping 1p start and using a dedicated shift button.

What do you mean by this, shardian?

I'm curious how people implement a shift button. This thread has got me thinking of ways I might want to use it. I was planning on exit and pause being my only admin buttons. But then I was thinking if I added a shift button, I might use it to make the exit and pause double as mouse buttons.

[pmc]

Pause button for sure.  I map Escape to Pause and Player-2-Coin (Puase being the shift button).  I use VolumeTray (http://glorysoft.omsk.ru/volumetray.html) for handling volume controls and map Pause/Joy1-up to volume up and Pause/Joy1-down to down.  This way you only need one control button.

Sounds like great s/w so I downloaded it to try it out. What keystrokes are you using for each hot-key? For now, I'm using ctrl-alt-joyup and ctrl-alt-joydown, but you know that'll get me into trouble during gameplay given that ctrl and alt are p1 button 1 and 2 by default. I don't want unmodified keys for a hotkey because it'll be inconvenient when using the keyboard.

-pmc

[TOK]

I don't like any extra buttons on the panel, so I hide them either underneath the panel if it sticks out or on top where they aren't visible. You really don't need them often once you get things set up.

[shardian]

the p1start input on the ipac is the shift button. For instance, on my desktop CP if I hold start and press up on p1 joy, I pause the game. If you remap your p1 start in MAME, to some unused button, say p1 button 8, then you could use the p1start input as a dedicated shift button.

[falkensmaze]

the p1start input on the ipac is the shift button. For instance, on my desktop CP if I hold start and press up on p1 joy, I pause the game. If you remap your p1 start in MAME, to some unused button, say p1 button 8, then you could use the p1start input as a dedicated shift button.

I was wondering how to  do this thanks for that info i have decided to go for 3 buttons, shift pause and exit as i have kids who will use this alot so they will be handy. but out of curiosity can u actually reassign the shift key on the ipac i havent hooked mine up yet so i cant chek

[mahuti]

I exclusively use shift commands for admin functions, and I've never had a guest complain about the lack of admin features. I've been having parties with my mame cab for about 6 years, and with only minimal instruction guests learn how to use the basic admin features... (like game select and escape) the rest of the functions they don't NEED to know about becuase those functions don't really help enhance their excitement.

My thought is;

Real games don't have admin buttons... why should a cab? It's ok if it's a secret "shift" function... you can always tell regular guests what your secret functions are... the rest don't need to know that there is any extra admin junk.

Some of my reasoning for NOT putting various admin buttons on the CP;
1. Pause. No arcade game in the world has a pause button... why put one on YOUR cab. Plus, when I DID have a pause button, guests were always pausing games to go do stuff and then getting pissed when someone took over their game, in the meantime the machine was getting no action by anyone.

2. Enter. I use P1 for enter / game select. People remember this one pretty quick.

3. Esc. I use P1+P2 to leave a game. YMMV, but my machine only plays 1 at a time, so those keys would never get hit at the same time in real life. P1 enters a game, so it's not a big stretch for someone to remember that P1+P2 leaves a game.

4. Game list select. In the past I used the side pinball buttons on the machine to flip between lists. Most of my guests only get confused over the multiple lists unless I tell them what they mean, so most of the time I just leave the game list select feature unassigned.

5. Tab. Never, NEVER put tab on the machine unless you want to constanly fix what other people screwed up.

6. Volume. If REAL machines had volume control, it was on a pot switch located on the top, back, or bottom of the CP or front ledge of the machine. If you need volume control, put a pot switch on.

7. Coin credit. Just put a coin acceptor on (if you can afford it) Otherwise, put "Coin 1" button on the front where people might accept a coin box.

Anecdote; I have an office in my house where my business partner and I work all day. For about 2 months my friend Nate was living at my house, and in the afternoons after work he'd be in my office playing the defendercade (always Japanese nudie girl games) and we'd ask him if he wanted to run some errand or another and quite often he'd say that he wanted to finish his game so we'd leave.

One time I pressured him to come with us, and he was insistent on finishing his game... I said  "dude, just pause it." He said "what do you mean" I said "just hit P1 + down on the joystick to pause" his faced dropped as he said... " you can do that" OH man, me and Barrett laughed at him. He was so crestfallen that he'd ended so many games because he'd had to leave, or go to the bathroom, or go with us on an errand.

Anyway, I can see from that why you'd want to have pause on the machine, but it's been my experience that it's much more fun to have some secrets than to give them all away. Plus you can find good times to mock your guests, and that's even more fun than playing video games.

Anyway to sum up, I've found that a shift key (secret or not) plus secret combos for enter, esc, tab, pause, list select, credit, are pretty critical.

[clockwork]

I'm going to turn my CP into a makeshift keyboard. I think I have about 22 admin buttons in my design.

[mahuti]

Nice.

[pmc]

but out of curiosity can u actually reassign the shift key on the ipac i havent hooked mine up yet so i cant chek

Yes you can. I think you have to use WinIPAC to do it. I don't think the command-line utility will do it.

Regarding the comments on should you bother to put admin buttons on a CP: I love the simplicity of a single button labeled "Player 1 Start" or "Fire". Even a child can figure it out. Given a multigame cabinet, I think having a single button labelled "Quit Game" or "Exit" makes for an intuitive and simple interface.

Muhuti's story about a "Pause" button helps supports this viewpoint. But the argument that real arcade cabinets don't have a pause feature is equally valid.

In the end, I'm happy as pie that I put dedicated PAUSE and EXIT buttons on my CP (on the top and labeled). But I'm sad that I put COIN1/COIN2 buttons on there too because the coin door does that job and the coin buttons are left dormant. Any other admin function (for me) is either unnecessary or suitable for a rarely used shifted key assignment.

-pmc

[fjl]

Pause would be cool if it was timed. Like say you press pause, and it countsdown to a minute or something definable. This way the person has so much time to go to bathroom or get a drink or whatever. And if they are not back in time, then the game continues and they lose their place and others can use the machine. Just a thought I guess...

[shardian]

If you really, really, really want to put admin buttons on the panel but don't want people messing with them during a party, you could wire the admin button ground wires into a lockable ignition switch. Then you could disable the buttons with a key...or you could just put a flip switch inside the coin door.

[jelwell]

Real games don't have admin buttons... why should a cab? It's ok if it's a secret "shift" function... you can always tell regular guests what your secret functions are... the rest don't need to know that there is any extra admin junk.

I really like your numbered list, and agree with the rationale behind each. However real games do have admin buttons:
http://www.mameworld.net/maws/img/cpanel/pc_gntlt.png

The problem is you're comparing multi-use cabinets with single use cabinets. Most people haven't seen/used these more complicated cabinets. But surely everyone has seen NeoGeo cabinets like Metal Slug:
http://www.mameworld.net/maws/img/cpanel/mslug5.png

When I first started my cabinet I considered a NeoGeo style marquee that would light up based on what list is selected on the frontend. I dropped the idea in favor of custom artwork, but I'm sure someone has already done this.

I don't think it's ever been suggested, but in NeoGeo style: You could combine "Escape" and "Select Game". No one "Escape"s from a NeoGeo game, they switch the currently running game.

I have a "Save" and "Load" button, but like mahuti said with "Pause" there's no reason to let your friends know about these advantages. Especially since they're likely to save over you save.
Joseph Elwell.

[pmc]

Playchoice had dedicated "Game Select" and "Reset" buttons. MAME cabs are kinda like Playchoice cabs I guess.

-pmc

[RayB]

Pause and Exit are the only necessary ones.

I will be adding "tab" as a hidden button with a toggle switch to turn it off. It's getting annoying finding games I haven't configured for 2 players right, and having to plug in the keyboard...