Let me start by saying that I built a 4-player cabinet and like everything about it. My control panel dimensions are 56"x19" and I have a 27" TV inside. When I remove this control panel, then the cabinet itself can still fit through a standard 28" wide door frame (very important!!). Anyway, I have thought about many of the concerns posted by other people when I built my cabinet and have incorporated them into my cabinet already. It would be easier to send you send pictures of my cabinet along with the control panel layout if you want. If you do (or anyone else), then email me at
emailAddrRemoved Note: I do not have sketched plans like you posted here for your control panel, but I do have some MS Powerpoint slides which you can print which shows the button/joystick layouts.
Anyway, if you want my opinion as well....then these are the things I see which I would change:
- Move trackball down. I play Birdie King and Golden Tee and others. Also, just think of all the CD-Rom games you could play with on this cabinet as well which might need a trackball (ie: other golf games, bowling, etc...) When you move the trackball down, then the joysticks will get pushed out to the sides even more...just like mine. Once you move the trackball lower then make sure you have enough spacing between the trackball and the joystick so when you really give the trackball a good hard spin, that you arm does not fling into a joystick.
- Do not tilt player 3/4 joysticks that much, just tilt ever so slightly to give the players some elbow room. Do this while keeping the joysticks somewhat level with each other so you can play multiple joystick games.... (one of my favorites is Karate Champ)
- Make sure you leave enough room in front of the two widest joysticks for players to rest their wrists and part of their forearm on the control panel top. These player's arms will get really tired (or their wrists really sore) if they could not rest them while holding the joysticks and/or pushing buttons.
- I am not sure what kind of joysticks you are using, but I wished I added a joystick with a top fire button.
- If you are going to all of this trouble of making a kickass cabinet like this, then go ahead and add a spinner (I added two of them) and some pinball buttons on the side (I also added a plunger button for the hell of it...

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- I agree with JamesMalloy about the button layout In fact, this is the button layout I used on my cabinet since I had the same concern about finger positioning.
- Do not know whether you thought of adding a pause button, but you should. Since I had a 4-player cabinet, I added 2 pause buttons (wired together) so each of side of the cabinet (left/right) would be able to reach the pause button easily (ie: need to take a beer piss RIGHT NOW type of thing

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- Also, if you are hacking a mouse for your trackball, then do not forget to add right/left mouse click buttons so you can use the trackball like a mouse...
Anyway, if anyone wants my info and pics, send me an email.
Best of luck...and do it right since once you are complete with this cabinet, you most likely will have it for years and years...so do it right the first time so you do not wish you had done anything differently. Building a cabinet is pretty cheap if you plan on keeping it for 10 years or longer.....
UncleT