Am I doing this right?

[4Aaron GE]

So as I was looking around for ideas for my CP art, I looked over some other peoples CPs.  Now I notice that some people have placed the player 1 controls by measuring from the centre of the stick to the edge.  But some people appear to have thier CPs set up such that the carriage bolts are the reference point.  Which of these two methods is correct?  IE, if I went to my nonexistant local arcade with a measuring tape, what would I find?  (It's been three years since I've actually played on a real machine. )

Now, I've got mine set up so that the distance from the right edge of the CP to the edge of the rightmost buttons is the same as the distance from the left edge to the leftmost carriage bolts.  Does that look right or wrong to anyone?

[fjl]

You don't want the controls too far down since you will need ample space to rest your wrists while playing to prevent straining and feel comfortable. You can't play correctly if you're not comfortable.

[Organic Jerk]

I would also say that for the simple set of buttons you have, the CP is rather deep...

I would keep to the comment above, and also lose some of the overall depth, which not only saves you space, but makes things look sleeker and simpler.


You should also find an arcade near you and go enjoy yourself!  It's always helpful to play around some real machines and take in what you like and dont like about any of them..  Also to help get back into the swing of things.. 

[4Aaron GE]

Thanks for the input, guys. 

OrganicJerk, I'd love to find an arcade.  Unfortunately, the closest ones i can think of are an hour and a half drive away, and are filled with bemani games and people who can utterly kick my butt at fighting games .  Otherwise I'm stuck with video poker and Golden Tee.  Neither of which I play.  The extra real estate on the CP is actually a necessity, since I'm housing the PC in the CP itself.  More details here
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=64204.0

efjayel, how much space would you recommend to put below the sticks?  Right now player 2 has a good 5 inches while player 1 has about 3.25, much like crpngdth2001's.



But anyways, do we align the left side to player 1's stick, or the carriage bolts?

[rockin_rick]

But anyways, do we align the left side to player 1's stick, or the carriage bolts?

I've been pondering this lately.  Perhaps to put this another way, I think that you should group the buttons and stick into one 'item'.  Then position the group as you see fit such as left edge of CP to left edge of left group same distance as right edge of CP to right edge of right group.

The $64,000 question is (as you realize): is the left edge of the left group the stick or the CP bolts?  Or is it some other 'amount' (say to the edge of the dustwasher).  Perhaps a good method to determine this is to add 'Knievel' button halos to the group, then you can position the groups to the edges of the halos.

Of course, there is no right or wrong way.  I, like you, am wanting it to look balanced, evenly spaced, and aesthetically pleasing.

Not really an answer, but perhaps food for thought...

Rick

[4Aaron GE]

Rick, that's actually exactly how I made the control panel layout.  But I started wondering about the left player when I toyed with burying the carriage bolts in the MDF layer, rather than the acrylic layer.  It just didn't look right when I thried that in the drawings.  I've thrown together a revised version of the layout.  I'm thinking i want to align to the stick.  It makes for much easier measurements for the holes.