4 button - square or diagonal?

[shmokes]

I've seen people work this a number of different ways and I can't decide which would be best for a panel with four butons per stick:

  o
o  o
  o

or

 o o
 o o

What do you think, and why?

[SirPoonga]

I'd go with square, but that's cause I play star trek.  how ever, diamond would work better for missle command and double dragon.

[shmokes]

That's really all I need I think.  I'll go with square.  I have to admit that I hadn't even considered diamond (though I had seen it) until I saw Frosty's new rotating control panel.  That thing is beautiful.

[OSCAR]

Have you seen any of Zakk's control panels?  www.mameworld.net/massive

I notice he uses a lot of diamond patterns for his cabinets and they seem to look pretty handy for a more classic control panel layout rather than a fighter layout.

[hedge]

I would go with the diagonal layout since it would allow me to play 3 button games like Bank Panic much easier.

[android]

From an ergonomics point of view, the diamond pattern allows you to use your index, medium and ring fingers almost simultaneously. With the square pattern, you can only use two fingers at a time.

[Tiger-Heli]

I'd go with square, but that's cause I play star trek.  how ever, diamond would work better for missle command and double dragon.

Well, Star Trek uses this layout

1      3    4
    2

Which probably works better with this diamond layout, but . . .

My opinion - Tekken 4 used square.  Vanguard used diamond.  Anything else, yes, the diamond is a 3-button layout, where the square is basically 2-button.

I'm pretty biased toward the diamond, because my primary panel will use something like this:

        5  6
     4  
  3    2
     1

Another advantage of the diamond, is it is set up logically to use the points of the diamond as directionals if you don't have a 4-way joystick.  Another advantage with the layout above is I can use buttons 4 through 6 for Gun.Smoke or 3 through 6 for Neo-Geo.

FWIW!

[Chris]

I use the diamond:

   3
4    2
   1

I find this layout handy for lots of things I play, including Track and Field and Missile Command.  The #4 button is close enough to the joystick to use as a fire button for Assault and Missile Command, and I use it in a 4-way pattern for the Tron light cycle and tank sequences.

[hedge]

I'd go with square, but that's cause I play star trek.  how ever, diamond would work better for missle command and double dragon.

Another advantage of the diamond, is it is set up logically to use the points of the diamond as directionals if you don't have a 4-way joystick.  
FWIW!

I totally agree.  One of the reasons I am going with a diamond shape is to attempt to play 2-player 2-joystick games like karate champ, and to be able to use the buttons as a 4-way controller.  It may actually be better to use the 4 diamond shaped buttons than an 8-way joystick for games like pac man.  And finally, track and field would be much more playable with a diamond layout.  Neo geos should also be pretty playable.