Admin Buttons?

[Encryptor]

I'm going to redo my control panel as well as add an admin panel. 

I'm interested in what admin buttons people have on their cabs and why they have them.

Esc?, Tab?, Enter?....etc



Encryptor

[Hoopz]

I have 4.  Mouse, Power, Pause and ESC.  I also use my I-Pac's shift function for tab, enter, etc.

Some don't like admin buttons for various reasons.  However, with kids playing on my cabinet, they can move through my FE without having to remember button combos.

[severdhed]

i have:

pause (one for each player on the ends of the panel, they are my pinball flipper buttons)

escape - left rear corner of panel, by itself
enter - right rear corner of panel, by itself.  i have mame configured to exit the game using either escape, or enter.  that way either player has get quit back to the front end, plus i still have an enter button if I need it.

those are the only admin buttons i have.  i did have 2 mouse buttons, but after i removed the trackball from the cabinet, they currently arent connected to anything.  I am getting ready to build a new panel and box, so i will remove them entirely.

[Havok]

I also have up down, left right for list navigation in addition to the ones listed...

[jelwell]

See Administration Pushbuttons Ideas:
http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Control_panel

I went crazy with my control panel. I even have Volume up and down buttons.
Joseph Elwell.

[Jouster]

I have 4...esc, enter, pause, tab.

On my next cab, I won't have the tab one...once the system is setup, shouldn't need it...and no sense in letting a kid or a civilian mess up everything (cause you know that they won't have a clue what they did)

Jouster

[DaOld Man]

I have power on, shutdown, game escape, load game, and save game buttons.
On my first machine I put the volume knob (twisty thing) on the CP also.

TAB and ENTER might be good to access mame's game setup menu.

[Apollo]

I have player 1 and 2 start and player 1 and 2 coin, that is all. I am currently considering adding F3 & a dedicated shift button somewhere out of sight.

[miles2912]

I don't consider P1 and P2 admin buttons.  I have admin 4 buttons on my cab.  Coin (5), pause and 2 mouse buttons.

[solderguy1]

Haven't started my CP yet, but the plan is to have a keyboard drawer and four admin buttons: Power, pause, exit, game reset.  Hope to use either Ice-T or NovaGems with both blue and red leds to get a nice purple look.  Also with Randys button inserts (probably use "Go" for reset). 

Trackball will also be lighted purple, player one buttons will be blue, player two red.  That should give a nice color blend.

[Dire Radiant]

Two coin buttons and a [Start/Quit Game] button. All three on a panel between the CP and the screen (Its an Atari system 1 cabinet - they're between the speakers) If that isn't idiot proof enough, I've included a simple instruction card as part of my skin for Mala. Everything not actually needed to run the cabinet (power, volume, config etc) is safely hidden away behind the lower coin door where idi...erm I mean friends can't mess with them. Keeping them out of sight also makes for a cleaner look.

My first priority when designing was that anyone of even rudimentary intelligence should be able to walk up and within 30 seconds, look at it, start a game, play, quit and pick another game. So far so good.

[javeryh]

I use 4 on all of my cabs - pause, player 1 start, player 2 start and exit to front end.  I wire the coin door to work plus I use the return buttons as credit buttons.

[Encryptor]

I have power on, shutdown, game escape, load game, and save game buttons.
On my first machine I put the volume knob (twisty thing) on the CP also.

TAB and ENTER might be good to access mame's game setup menu.

How does the shutdown button work exactly?

Do the load game and save game work with the front end?



Thanks for all the great responses so far.  I think I'm looking at the power button and 4 admin buttons. I'm not real worried about the complete authentic arcade look.

Encryptor

[Hoopz]

I have power on, shutdown, game escape, load game, and save game buttons.
On my first machine I put the volume knob (twisty thing) on the CP also.

TAB and ENTER might be good to access mame's game setup menu.

How does the shutdown button work exactly?

Do the load game and save game work with the front end?



Thanks for all the great responses so far.  I think I'm looking at the power button and 4 admin buttons. I'm not real worried about the complete authentic arcade look.

Encryptor

I have just one power button that is hooked into the computer's power button.  Its turns everything on and then I programmed it to shut down within Windows.

Load game and save game must have been setup with an older version of Mame is my guess.

[DaveMMR]

I have zero.  Escape and Pause are handled through shifting, coins are inserted to register a credit and P1 & P2 Start are not admin buttons.  Everything else shouldn't be accessible until a keyboard is attached and that's only during administration.   People are button happy, will push everything they come across (accidentally or because they are children) and end up messing things up.      

[DaOld Man]

How does the shutdown button work exactly?

Do the load game and save game work with the front end?



Thanks for all the great responses so far.  I think I'm looking at the power button and 4 admin buttons. I'm not real worried about the complete authentic arcade look.

Encryptor

I am using GLaunch as my front end. The game escape button quits the game and returns to GLaunch. I have GLaunch's quit key programmed as keyboard "C".
Pressing the shutdown button is like pressing "C", which exits GLaunch.
I have a program I wrote called "The Launcher", which starts GLaunch on computer boot-up.
When GLaunch exits, The Launcher gives you a few seconds to press ENTER, so if you have a keyboard hooked up you can get into windows. After the pause time, The Launcher shuts down the PC.
Check out the launcher:
http://members.tripod.com/~Skennys_Outpost/thelauncher/index.html

As for the load and save, while in mame, pressing SHIFT and F7 lets you save a game.
Pressing just F7 loads the game.
I am using V107 I think (the last one that supports hiscores).
I used keywiz eco2 uploader software to configure one of my unused inputs to F7.
The load button connects to this input.
The save button activates the F7 input and the shift (P1 Action button 4) input.
I used diodes to block the signals..
Here is a diagram of how I wired it:

[mrserv0n]

Pause, ESC, TAB

[Chris]

I have a dedicated Shift, Pause, and Exit for admin buttons.  Coin buttons are the coin return plungers.  Shift-P1 is P3, Shift-P2 is P4 (Pretty much Track and Field/HyperSports only), Shift-Pause brings up the menu, Shift-Exit is Reset, Shift-everything else is all sorts of minor functions.  The dedicated Shift doubles as Next List in the front end.  Left flipper-Pause saves the game state, right flipper-Pause loads the game state.

When I redo my CP I'm strongly considering making these three admin buttons a different kind of button from the regular Happ buttons.

[beernut]

I have zero.  Escape and Pause are handled through shifting...

I agree with having few or no admin buttons.  How often do you really need them anyway?  Can't your front end be configured to use P1 start as game select?  For escape, shifting is the only way in my opinion.  Enter is easily and intuitively handled as shift + joy left. Tab as shift + joy right.

Having a single button exit the game is going to be a sure source of frusteration (as is the start button on pinball machines when the kids hit it in the middle of your best game ).

I do have a pause button though.  For the kids it makes it easy when they are deciding what airplanes to pick in the schmups games.  Also very handy for those "potty" breaks.  They don't need to shout "DAD! PAUSE THE GAME FOR ME!!!"

Mark

[Chris]

Having a single button exit the game is going to be a sure source of frusteration (as is the start button on pinball machines when the kids hit it in the middle of your best game ).

Happ has buttons with a raised bezel that are harder to accidentally push that could be a perfect solution for this.

[miles2912]

I have zero.  Escape and Pause are handled through shifting, coins are inserted to register a credit and P1 & P2 Start are not admin buttons.  Everything else shouldn't be accessible until a keyboard is attached and that's only during administration.   People are button happy, will push everything they come across (accidentally or because they are children) and end up messing things up.      

This is true..  people tend to mash just about every button they see.  I put all my 'admin' buttons on a toggle switch so I can disable if I need to.  The toggle is hidden in the cp.

[Green Giant]

On my panel to prevent accidental exiting, I wired up my two exit buttons in series.  This way both have to be held down to send a signal to my computer.  I spaced one on each side so on two player games when I am kicking my friends butts, they can't just hit the exit without me hitting it too.  Its also easy to hit when you are playing by yourself.  There are two pause buttons, but each has its own input as pausing doesn't really ruin a game.

[DaOld Man]

My exit button is ESC. This exits from the game.
To exit glaunch and shutdown the computer, the shutdown button does that, but it only works from glaunch, so pressing it during game play does nothing.
On my first machine, I used the same button to do both functions. Bad idea.
People would hit the button twice when exiting the game, thus prematurely shutting down the machine

[ARTIFACT]

reuse whats already there aqs much as possible...

i only have 1 extra button set to escape.
it both exits the games, and also goes 'back up'' in mala's tree menu.

reused P1 Start to select in mala tree and to start games

reused trackball to scroll list up/down (this rocks! throooww!)

using my IPAC 2's built-in shift button for the rest... right now its set to p1 start but i wil probably set it on a pinball / side button

using ahofle's awesome hotkey+spinner audio volume app...

i hope this helps

less is more!

[mrserv0n]

On my panel to prevent accidental exiting, I wired up my two exit buttons in series.  This way both have to be held down to send a signal to my computer.  I spaced one on each side so on two player games when I am kicking my friends butts, they can't just hit the exit without me hitting it too.

Lol nice idea. 

[mountain]

The more admin buttons the better in my house. My two kids can easily remember what buttons to push to navigate the system. My admin panel has Power, Exit (esc), Next List, Next emulator and Pause. 

[Encryptor]

The more admin buttons the better in my house. My two kids can easily remember what buttons to push to navigate the system. My admin panel has Power, Exit (esc), Next List, Next emulator and Pause. 

mountain - I did have one question about your admin panel. What kind of headphone jack did you use? It doesn't look like the typical stereo jack. Is it soem kind of special panel mount?

Encryptor

[mountain]

The more admin buttons the better in my house. My two kids can easily remember what buttons to push to navigate the system. My admin panel has Power, Exit (esc), Next List, Next emulator and Pause. 

mountain - I did have one question about your admin panel. What kind of headphone jack did you use? It doesn't look like the typical stereo jack. Is it soem kind of special panel mount?

Encryptor

I extended the jack off of the amplifier that came with the computer speakers. I used epoxy to secure it.

[ratzz]

Sorry guys, idiot question time, but I'm really new to all this and haven't got as far as my CP.

Can someone tell me what "shifting" is?   

[DaveMMR]

Sorry guys, idiot question time, but I'm really new to all this and haven't got as far as my CP.

Can someone tell me what "shifting" is?   

Many encoders (e.g. the iPac) can have a button act as a "shift" button.  So if P2 Start is your shift button, it can be held down and pressed alongside another button to perform a function (e.g. Escape, Pause, etc.). 

[ratzz]

Ahhhhhh ... now I see ...

Would there be much part in having any admin buttons in this case? Surely all admin buttons could be routed using a shift button ... Again, I'm happy to be proved wrong !! 

[mountain]

Ahhhhhh ... now I see ...

Would there be much part in having any admin buttons in this case? Surely all admin buttons could be routed using a shift button ... Again, I'm happy to be proved wrong !! 

This is true. However, it is very hard to explain the shift function to visitors, kids, wives, etc. This is why I like the dedicated buttons that are labeled. If they can read, they can use the machine 

[ratzz]

Ahhhhhh ... now I see ...

Would there be much part in having any admin buttons in this case? Surely all admin buttons could be routed using a shift button ... Again, I'm happy to be proved wrong !! 

This is true. However, it is very hard to explain the shift function to visitors, kids, wives, etc. This is why I like the dedicated buttons that are labeled. If they can read, they can use the machine 

Absolutely true Mountain, I hadn't thought of that. And my wife and little girl will no doubt want a go on the cab when I'm not around to tell them how to run things ...

Thanks guys ... 

[DaveMMR]

I will provide the other side of the debate (without really disagreeing with mountain).  Shift keys are good for admin buttons to free up clutter on your cp.  And the other side of the coin of dedicated buttons making things easier is that sometimes you don't want visitors using these functions (plus there's the whole "authenticity" thing).  You can provide simple instructions on "game exiting" and "pausing" to everyone. 

That being said: dedicated buttons for "PAUSE" and "EXIT" are definitely easier than shifted buttons.  If you have the space, you can put them on without too much clutter.  (Same goes for coin buttons if you are skipping the coin door - though I think coin doors are more fun in the long run but that's just an opinion). 

For my panel, space is limited and I wanted to keep it simple as well as functional.  So shifted buttons was the way to go for me.  I recommend that for people looking to simplify their panels.

However, buttons for opening the option menu (e.g. "TAB") or any other button not needed for basic running/playing I highly discourage.  My belief is that you should be able to do absolute no administration using only your control panel.   Set it all up ahead of time and plug in a keyboard during downtime for tweaking if needed.  Because if you can open and change options easily - so can your guests.  Plus too many buttons can get more confusing than shifting.

[mountain]

I will provide the other side of the debate (without really disagreeing with mountain).  Shift keys are good for admin buttons to free up clutter on your cp.  And the other side of the coin of dedicated buttons making things easier is that sometimes you don't want visitors using these functions (plus there's the whole "authenticity" thing).  You can provide simple instructions on "game exiting" and "pausing" to everyone. 

That being said: dedicated buttons for "PAUSE" and "EXIT" are definitely easier than shifted buttons.  If you have the space, you can put them on without too much clutter.  (Same goes for coin buttons if you are skipping the coin door - though I think coin doors are more fun in the long run but that's just an opinion). 

For my panel, space is limited and I wanted to keep it simple as well as functional.  So shifted buttons was the way to go for me.  I recommend that for people looking to simplify their panels.

However, buttons for opening the option menu (e.g. "TAB") or any other button not needed for basic running/playing I highly discourage.  My belief is that you should be able to do absolute no administration using only your control panel.   Set it all up ahead of time and plug in a keyboard during downtime for tweaking if needed.  Because if you can open and change options easily - so can your guests.  Plus too many buttons can get more confusing than shifting.

As it has been said before, it is a matter of choice.

My kids (9 and 12) have yet to mess things up with the Admin buttons I have. The only gateway into the settings with my current setup is the player 2 button. Exit, List, and Emu functions are essential for navigating a game system capable of playing several thousand games.

When I was thinking about which setup I was going to use, I decided that labeled buttons were the way to go. I figured having a visual of the button's function will help the guest user (or young child) retain that knowledge the next time they are front of the machine.

I definitely understand the whole authenticity argument as well as the clutter issue. I think this is where design and craftsmanship can make a huge difference. For me, the overall goal was to build a machine that captures the look and feel of an authentic cabinet while making it simple to use.

[DaOld Man]

I dont want to veer off the original topic of this thread, so if this needs to be posted somewhere else, Id appreciate the pointing in the right direction.
Ive seen the pause button mentioned several times in this thread.
I thought about putting a pause button on my arcade, but after testing it on my desktop I noticed the screen saver never comes on when mame is paused.
I was afraid someone would be playing the game, pause it and walk off and leave it like that, possibly burning the crt screen.
How do you guys deal with this potential problem?

[mountain]

You aren't going to burn your screen in a few hours, or even days. Maybe if you were building a machine dedicated to one game. Even then, I doubt it would be an issue.

[DaOld Man]

Maybe so, but is there anyway to run a screen saver while in mame?
I cant figure out how to do it.

[kelemvor]

I know this is old but I'm looking at this right now.  I'm thinking of just having a dedicated PAUSE button and then a Shift button to do Exit, Tab, etc.

I will have Coin1, Start1, Coin2, Start2 but I don't consider those admin buttons.  They are kid of necessary to do much of anything.

[unclet]

I have kids playing on my cabinet who get frustrated when they mess up at the start of a game, so I added a "Reset" button as an admin button so they can easily restart the same  game again without the need to exit then restart the game.  Saves a step ..... and easy for the kids.

Are you going to put pinball buttons on your control panel .... maybe a plunger button (or real plunger for that matter)...... just some ideas.

[Jack Burton]

I have my cab set up so that the admin buttons only work when the shift button is held down.  The shift button by itself does nothing.

So I have

Shift
menu/tab
pause/menu confirm(enter)
escape

I have dedicated coin and start buttons also. for each player.

I am not that worried about kids messing my cab up.  If I ever had really small children over who I though would mess things up I would just quickly unlatch the control panel and disconnect those buttons. 

I guess I could also save an alternate config file that has those buttons mapped only to keyboard functions if I wanted too.

[Jack Burton]

On my panel to prevent accidental exiting, I wired up my two exit buttons in series.  This way both have to be held down to send a signal to my computer.  I spaced one on each side so on two player games when I am kicking my friends butts, they can't just hit the exit without me hitting it too.

Lol nice idea. 

Man, I gotta second this.

[DeLuSioNal29]

Just wanted to share what I do which you may want to consider (if you have room to do so on your panel):   

On my panel (not quite finished building it yet) I have an Asteroids layout, that will double as Admin buttons when the shift button is pressed (left flipper will be shift)  See pic below.  The Asteroids layout is located in the top center of the panel and consists of 5 buttons that control your ship in the game:  left, right, hyper space, thrust and fire.  While the shift button is pressed, the buttons become: exit game, launch game, favorites, back button (using Maximus Arcade the back button lets you choose which emu you want to play) and reset game.

I have dedicated "1 - 4 player" buttons with credit buttons (lit in the appropriate color for each player) and two "pause" buttons (one on each side of the panel on top - black).  I don't consider these admin buttons.

P.S. - My front end is "Maximus Arcade" which I believe supports a screensaver during any inactivity which should include pausing (I have to verify this).  You can configure how long the time out period is in the config area in Maximus Arcade.  I set mine for 20 minutes.  Anyone who pauses longer than that kind of deserves for it to kick out of the game and go to the demo mode (which is how my screensaver is configured - it loads a random game out of the list and demos it for 4 minutes each).

Since I was still working on the control panel, I wasn't sure how I want to label the admin buttons yet.  I was thinking I can have something like:  Left / Menu Back; Right / Launch Game; Hyper Space / Exit Game; Thrust / Favorite; Fire / Reset Game.  I would have the Asteroids commands in Red text and the Admin buttons in White Bold Text.  (not sure on colors of text yet).

Either that or I can have something mounted on the inside of the glass/plexi with admin instructions.

Either way, the whole point of this is that the admin buttons would double as an Asteroid layout.

~ DeLuSioNaL

[CrazyKongFan]

I have an old gutted Robotron cabinet that had been converted to a Final Fight that I MAME'd. I have the following buttons: ESC, TAB, P on the control panel, in addition to the 2 joysticks, 3 buttons per player and the PL 1 and 2 buttons. On the front of the cabinet, I utilized a couple of lock bar bolt holes to put in 2 push buttons for coin 1 and 2 (one of the coin mechs works too, so I have it wired in parallel to coin 2). Also inside the coin door, where the test switch is, I have it wired up for service and reset (F2 and F3). I hacked a keyboard to make the encoder, so the buttons are regular keys, one joystick functions as the arrow keys, one button is control, another is enter. I can pretty much do whatever I need to shut down the PC and navigate thru MAME32's interface with this setup. You can access the Windows start button (bottom left corner of the screen) with ESC and control, which lets you shut down the PC.