Should I make my arcade stick in the style of Mortal Kombat?

[fjl]

Well being on your lap you probably angle it for a better fit and don't even realize it. I think I just might try making a stand alone control panel before I even start my cabinet. Try out completely different stuff and see what feels best. It should also be  a good woodworking test try before i start the actual cabinet..

[rdowdy95]

Thanks for all the input guys.  Now on the two mouse buttons.  What if I don't play a lot of Golden Tee.  On my spins I always lift my hand on the end of the spin, but if friends come over they might bang into the buttons...I personally like them above the trackball like that.  Kind of like Atomic's Galaga CP.  There is some things with the shift button.  Some capcom games where you hold P1 start and a direction on the p1 stick lets you choose hidden characters.  One of the Marvel vs capcom games.

Also I am not much of a neogeo, if I was I would just use the capcom 6 button layout, and adapt to it. 

MK 3 would go like this:
HP, BK, HK
LP, RN, LK

[Crowquill]

Due to the nature of moving the trackball, you're bound to hit whatever is directly above it. Usually hitting the start buttons doesn't really do anything during gameplay, unless you have it set up that pressing them together will exit from the game. That can easily be remapped though. Why not make the mouse buttons work as standard action buttons? Through creative mapping in MAME, you can easily create a control panel that doesn't have lots of extra buttons.

As far as setting up the the button layout for MK, you could do the 7-button layout like this:

   HP BK HK
   LP BK LK
RN

It'd actually be closer to MK3's arcade layout that way.

I'm not sure why everyone is convinced you HAVE to angle the button layout. MK, the standard Capcom 6-button layout, and Neo-Geo cabs used a straight horizontal layout. For really long play-sessions, a slight angle might help a little bit, but by no means is it necessary.

[fjl]

Well my buttons are angled simply because they are too close to the joystick. Otherwise I would have made it exactly straight like the original Street Fighter layout.

[johnperkins21]

I'm not sure why everyone is convinced you HAVE to angle the button layout. MK, the standard Capcom 6-button layout, and Neo-Geo cabs used a straight horizontal layout. For really long play-sessions, a slight angle might help a little bit, but by no means is it necessary.

Neo-Geo had a slight arc to the 3 finger buttons, and the thumb button made it look a lot more angled than it actually was. But I agree with you, straight rows seem to be fine. I plan to build a test panel both ways and pick one that I feel most comfortable with, which is what I would recommend to anyone before getting too locked into one design.