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Opinions on Control Panel Layout

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severdhed:

i tried to jam all of those controls into a 23" wide control panel, and i hated it.  it was ok when only one person was playing, but it was nearly impossible to get two adults in there to play without constantly hitting each other with our elbows.   i highly reccomend making a full mockup with the actual controls installed, fit it in the cabinet and have some a friend or two over for testing.  i used a piece of wood paneling, which is not very thick or durable, but it was stiffer than cardboard so it would support all of the controls and you could actually play on it.  but i found that after a few days, i knew that this would never keep me satisfied.

Malenko:

I have to sort of second this, My MAME cab (converted Pengo) is 24" wide at the CP and 2 player games close quarters (no pun intended). Most of the time I'm playing solo, and when its my nephews playing they are fine, but anytime I take on my buddy in a fighter or my girl in a puzzle game, its clash of the elbows. 18" is just way too close for 2 player side by side unless you aussies are considerably smaller then us amuricins. Im 73"  180lbs

xmenxmen:

I had similar idea as you from the beginning when converting a ms pacman over to mame.  Did the mockup on partical board and wire it all up and tried it out.  All I can say is I HATED it.  Now it has a LUSID type 34in wide cp.  From player one joystick to last button on player 2, it's about 25 or 26 in apart.  Had to cut the side to make the whole thing fit, but well worth it.  2 full size adult can play it comfortable.

Honestly if you keep in with the 18 or so size, I can bet that it won't take u long before u either hate it or start working on making it wider. 

Justin Z:


--- Quote from: paigeoliver on July 27, 2007, 05:49:24 am ---Most left handed players are used to arcade controls designed for right handed people, and are not going to have a lot of problems with it. Some real trackball games actually used a trackball that was offset to the right.
--- End quote ---

DING DING DING DING DING!

I always wondered why people complained about offset trackballs when many people's favorite trackball game, Missile Command, was offset:



Not to mention the famous Atari sports trackball games:



And of course Marble Madness's trackballs were offset out of necessity.

RetroBorg:

Most people here are really concerned with how tight it is between player one and two but it's no closer than my other control panel and it's really just for the kids.

I'm not into the fighting games and the only games I've played at the same time as somebody else in the last year would be Puzzle Bobble and Tetris Plus 2 against the wife.

The only exception to this is Track and Field and you only need 2 buttons each so it's not too much of an inconvenience.

The player two controls will work out nicely for games like Crazy Climber, Robotron, Karate and Defender.

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