First timer: Please give advice on control hardware!

[Cfour]

Hey guys this is my first time building a MAME cabinet and it's been a great learning process so far.  I bought a WWF superstars arcade on craigslist for $275 with a one-year old monitor in it.  Worked great!  Now, comes the time to convert it, and I want to decide on the most appropriate controls.

I want the layout to be the most "universal" possible.  I.e.:  probably won't make more than one control board.  So, I want a two-player setup with a trackball in the middle.  I will definately get the Happ's 3-inch with the Opti-Pac to run that.  But, my main question is the joysticks...

Which 4-way/8-way interchangable joystick seems to get the best feedback from the community?  Ones that seems to work good with older and newer games.

I'm not as concerned with the buttons as the joysticks I guess, but any tips here are appreciated.  And I plan on using an I-pac for programming purposes here.

I also plan on using the existing arcade monitor.  I found this tutorial and was wondering if people find this the best way to go:
http://dragonsden.emuunlim.com/ddvgatutl.htm

The total amount of buttons I plan to have are:  (2) Joysticks, (1) Happ's trackball, (6) Buttons per player, and a P1 and P2 start button.  Are there any others buttons I should consider putting on the control panel?

Also, one main concern is that I will not have enough room on the control panel to put the happ's trackball on as well, the stock board is only about 23" long, and might be too much to cram onto that, so multiple control boards is definately a possibility.  Any tips here would be greatly appreciated as well.

Thanks for the help in advance guys!

[Jeff AMN]

Here's the panel I finished up last night:



I'm using two Perfect 360 joysticks for P1 and P2, but Competitions or Supers are great as well. Right now I have a Super as my "4-way" stick, but this isn't necessary. I'm using the Happs 3" trackball, and a Slikstik spinner. In addition to my buttons for the players, I have two next to spinner (which are actually P1 buttons 1 and 2 duplicated) a P1 coin, P1 start, P2 coin, and P2 start. You don't need many buttons since the IPac line of encoders uses a shift function which essentially allows each button to have two functions.

For my encoder, I'm using a Mini Pac. You might want to look into that as well. It's perfect for a 2 player panel and a trackball. That one encoder will handle everything you need.

[Cfour]

Thanks for the reply, lots of help.  Any other tips?

[Jeff AMN]

One great place to get inspiration is over in the Project Announcement area. You'll see tons of cool examples of what people are doing and probably see something that makes you yell, "I want that!"

[Buddabing]

Your cabinet is JAMMA. Why not just use a JPac and ArcadeVGA? Is it because your JAMMA harness doesn't support enough buttons?

[Cfour]

To be honest, most of the reading I have done has been using hte method I am doing above.  I guess the reason I didn't take advantage of the JAMMA cabinet is because I'm not too familiar with it, and from what I understood it had its limitations.

I am loking for more joystick feedback though to go off of what was said above.  Again, I am looking for a good 8-way/4-way combo.  Are the above mentioned good solutions?

[Cfour]

Also, after reading about the Mini-pac I think I am going to go that route.. what spinners do you recommend that would work with this device?

Also, since I want to eliminate the need for a keyboard.. what kind of additional buttons am I looking at?  two mouse buttons for the trackball, paus/exit button?  anything else?

[Cfour]

Okay after your replies and further reading, I have decided to go with:

(1) Mini-PAC Opti. With Harness (p/n MP1) for hte interface
(2) UltraStick 360s.  Will these work with the mini-pac, I noticed they are USB AND can take buttons hooked up to them as well but it would be limited to the games I could play.  I'm wondering if it would make sense/if it is possible to still hook this through the Mini-Pac.
(1) Happ's 3" Trackball
(1) Slickstick spinner
Buttons:  6 for each player, 2 for mouse buttons, 2 for P1start/credit

Note: I do NOT want to keep a keyboard in the cabinet, do I need more buttons that what I am planning on doing already?  Thanks!

Also:  if someone could comment on the tutorial posted above for converting arcade monitor to VGA.  I'm looking for feedback if that is the best way to go/ or if it will work.  Thanks again guys.

[Kaytrim]

The UltraSticks are best used plugged into the USB ports and not the mini-pac.  You can connect your 6 buttons per player to the UltraStick for that player.  You will need to add a pause and exit buttons on the CP and they can be connected to the mini-pac.  As far as your arcade monitor I would recommend you get Ultimarc's Arcade VGA card.  This is the safest way to connect an arcade monitor to your PC.

TTFN
Kaytrim

[Cfour]

Thanks for the fast reply.  By using the USB hookup on the UltraStiks, am I limited compatability in any way?  Also, does the ArcadeVGA replace my existing video card?  I would like to play some of the newer games and the video card in my computer should be able to handle that.   i.e: Golden Tee

[Kaytrim]

Thanks for the fast reply.  By using the USB hookup on the UltraStiks, am I limited computability in any way?  Also, does the ArcadeVGA replace my existing video card?  I would like to play some of the newer games and the video card in my computer should be able to handle that.   i.e: Golden Tee

You are not limited by using the UltraSticks with the USB.  In fact it is just the opposet, with a proper front end and the appropriate plug in the maps of the UltraSticks will change to match the game being played. 

The ArcadeVGA will replace your video card.  The difference between a computer monitor and an arcade monitor is the refresh rate.  The standard arcade monitor refresh rate is 15mhz where the standard computer monitor refresh rate is 60mhz and higher.  You cannot plug your normal computer video into your arcade monitor you could fry the monitor and/or your computer.

Kaytrim

[Cfour]

I will buy the ArcadeVGA if necessary.. but are you positive it is?  I have noticed a few threads around here suggesting it is not.  And I remember seeing a few projects that did not use ArcadeVGA, rather just use a MAME frontend to (-ntsc) command I believe to make it work.  I'm not trying to question your knowledge because I am a beginner at this but I want to make sure before I spend another $100.

http://www.mrsalty.net/arcade/monitor/monitor.shtml

[Kaytrim]

Cfour,

You are welcome to use AdvanceMAME if you wish.  This only works with certain pieces of hardware.  AdvanceMAME is abandoned, no longer supported and will not be kept up to date with the new versions of MAME as they come out.  See this thread, http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=64496.0

Kaytrim