Wow, thanks to everyone for all of your help and opinions. I feel kinda lost as I've never played on a Frankenpanel. They always look so cluttered compared to dedicated/original panels.
I brought it up mainly to assure you that if you need to cut a few inches for any reason (or move joysticks closer), you can with relative safety.
Exactly what I wanted to do. I'm not very fond of extreme Frankenpanel overhang in cabs.
the original panel on my cabinet was 23", i cut the sides of the cabinet and made it 30", that is plenty of room for a 2 player panel with trackball, spinner, and 4way.
30" or so is my goal. I've got a model in a 29" frame (pic below).
I currently own a SlikStik CO2 which is definitely a franken panel
SlikStiks were a basis for my design and inspiration. I originally modelled mine to mimic the CO2, then decided to take my own route. One of the most obvious changes was losing dual joys for P1 and P2. No two-player SmashTV for me...
If I were you and I hadn't bought any of my parts yet, here is what I would do. Replace the 8-ways with either 49 ways or U360's
I wish I could. I only have partial approval from the wife on this project, so my budget is slim to none. I'm accumulating parts from eBay and the forums; it's cheap Happs for me. Even if I lost the dedicated 4-way, though, I'd still need room for a spinner. It doesn't seem like I'd really save space eliminating a dedicated 4-way placed next to or near the spinner. It would be cleaner, but not necessarily smaller...
what I am doing is laying out the controls so that asteroids uses two buttons from the player one controls and three from the player two controls and thus plays pretty much exactly the same and eliminates a lot of clutter on the CP
If I shrink my panel, I'll probably go with a joystick/button combo for Asteroids rather than the original 5-button layout. Of course, after play I might decide to re-map buttons and lose the joystick control altogether; I like your suggestion of combining P1 and P2 buttons for Asteroids. Also, I was thinking of mapping P2 button 1 for Centipede or trackball games requiring a fire or dedicated button. I'm taking the viewpoint that this will be an ever-evolving project.
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For all of the Frankenpanel players out there: Do you find the P1 button clusters get in the way when using a dedicated 4-way above the P1 controls? Does the P2 joystick impede spinner control or access? It seems like my palm or forearm would naturally want to rest on P1/P2 controls when using either the 4-way or spinner...