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Help choosing proper controller interface
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btp2k2:
I throw my vote in for the Minipac too.....I love it.
Tiger-Heli:

--- Quote from: wudaben on March 29, 2007, 10:40:06 am ---Great point!  I guess that makes two hidden credit buttons.  I really want the cab to resemble a true arcade and I'm already pushing it with the esc & pause buttons.

--- End quote ---
Personally, for a real arcade cab, I'm a big fan of using the coin rejects as credit buttons - ala http://1uparcade.robandmitsue.com/projects-coinbuttons.html or if you want to "fake" it: http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=295&zenid=dedc26e2997fe8f0a13bd9ed444f4085

I'm also a fan of dedicated Pause buttons, although I also like the idea of having pause dedicated and (in the case of the I-PAC) using Pause as your "Shift" input and having escape shifted.

Also, if you want authenticity - Pause and Esc don't have to be huge red buttons on the top of your CP, you could mount a black button to the underside of the CP case, where you could find it but it wouldn't be obvious, or miniature buttons in a recessed panel, etc.
wudaben:

--- Quote from: Tiger-Heli on March 29, 2007, 01:04:15 pm ---
--- Quote from: wudaben on March 29, 2007, 10:40:06 am ---Great point!  I guess that makes two hidden credit buttons.  I really want the cab to resemble a true arcade and I'm already pushing it with the esc & pause buttons.

--- End quote ---
Personally, for a real arcade cab, I'm a big fan of using the coin rejects as credit buttons - ala http://1uparcade.robandmitsue.com/projects-coinbuttons.html or if you want to "fake" it: http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=295&zenid=dedc26e2997fe8f0a13bd9ed444f4085

--- End quote ---

That's really a good idea!  I saw those groovy buttons but never really considered that concept since I was going to use a functional coin door.


--- Quote ---I'm also a fan of dedicated Pause buttons, although I also like the idea of having pause dedicated and (in the case of the I-PAC) using Pause as your "Shift" input and having escape shifted.

Also, if you want authenticity - Pause and Esc don't have to be huge red buttons on the top of your CP, you could mount a black button to the underside of the CP case, where you could find it but it wouldn't be obvious, or miniature buttons in a recessed panel, etc.

--- End quote ---

It just seems to me that it is almost essential to have fairly prominent placement of these two buttons... Pause would be the one button I'd die to have included in most original arcade classics and esc is just natural for a multi game machine.  I plan on including basic control help using bezel artwork but I'd save myself from having to explain game play to every new person who comes by the house by just including them and labeling them appropriately.
scotthh:
I don't think you need any additional interface:

2 UltraStick 360s: harness for 8 buttons each; input 1 USB each
1 TurboTwist2: 3 mouse axes, 3 buttons (see attached picture); input 1 USB

You can handle 19 buttons and 3 mouse axes. You have 3 USB devices going to the computer.

Happ 3" Translucent Trackball: 2 axes
TurboTwist 2 Spinner: 1 axis

Buttons:
12: 6 buttons per player
2: coin buttons
2: player 1 & 2 start buttons
2: esc & a pause button. 

That's 18 buttons. You have 1 to spare!
Tiger-Heli:

--- Quote from: scotthh on March 29, 2007, 11:45:15 pm ---That's 18 buttons. You have 1 to spare!

--- End quote ---
Errrm, maybe - Depends what the cabinet will be used for.  Your Ultrastick 360's report as gamepad buttons.  Your TurboTwist reports as mouse buttons.

MAME will allow you to map basically any gamepad and any mouse button to any input.  So for MAME you are pretty much fine with your suggestion.

For other emulators, I am not sure that all recognize gamepad inputs, and/or would allow mouse buttons to be used for coin inputs or Exit commands.  I just ran into a problem with keyboard inputs with Nebula M2.  It allows re-mapping of button inputs, but save states are hard-coded as CTRL-1,CTRL-2, etc, so if you re-map to MAME defaults, P1B1 and P2Coin, or P2 Start generates a save state load.

There are ways to work around these issues (Don't use the MAME defaults and either re-program the encoder or modify the outputs for Nebula M2).

For wudaben:  AutoHotKey will recognize mouse buttons inputs (and convert them to keypresses), and RBjoy or Joytokey will convert gamepad/joypad outputs to keypresses.  So you could use Scotthh's suggestion, possibly with RBJoy codes and an AutoHotKey script for each emulator to convert mouse buttons to the appropriate keyboard buttons, but if you are using more than MAME, it would likely be a LOT simpler to pick up a KeyWiz or KeyWiz Eco and wire all the buttons to it (but not the actual U360 outputs, hook it up via USB so you can still play analog games).
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