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Working on my 3 trackball layout
leapinlew:
--- Quote from: Avrus on October 10, 2007, 12:17:51 pm ---
--- Quote from: Neverending Project on October 10, 2007, 11:23:57 am ---
--- Quote from: Avrus on October 08, 2007, 09:53:31 pm ---How much room do I need reasonably for the balls, about 11" of travel before you smoke a joystick?
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... mmmmust resist... can't say.... don't do it.... :banghead:
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Yes yes I know. Everyone is all about 'don't do' something. I don't intend to do it poorly, or haphazardly. There are tons of projects on here from people who broke the 'mould' by doing things that others didn't want to attempt.
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Don't be offended. These people are trying to provide you with good feedback - not negative feedback on a different design. Many of us have rebuilt control panels because we tried something different just to realize why some things are built the way they are.
unclet:
Funny .... I was thinking similiarly to "polaris" ...... however, I would recommend have two pullout drawers in the front of your cabinet which each hold one trackball. Kind of like having a pull-out keyboard drawer, but instead (or in addition to) have one left pull-out drawer for the left trackball and one right pull-out drawer for the right trackball.
Not sure what what "rampart" is ..... but I would not think you would really need to spin the trackballs like you do for Golden Tee golf games. If my assumption is correct, then you would not need to have a lot of room for "follow-through" for the left/right trackballs so pulling them out of a drawer to use might work well.
Now, if you move center trackball to the front of the control panel so you can play Golden Tee properly, and have the other two trackballs in a pull-out drawer, then this should also reduce the depth of your control panel a lot as well .... making it look less like a monster.
PS: If you do not like the pull-out drawer idea, then perhaps having some sort of flip-up wings attached to the side of the control panel would work better.
Oh yeah ..... my main recommendation would be not to mount the trackballs behind the joysticks (as you currently have in your drawing) since they would be very annoying to use (in my opinion) ......
BULL:
how about somthing like this. I have my P3 and P4 on the sides and it works great for me, they are standing at about 30* angle from the monitor.
Avrus:
--- Quote from: BULL on October 10, 2007, 07:30:25 pm ---how about somthing like this. I have my P3 and P4 on the sides and it works great for me, they are standing at about 30* angle from the monitor.
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But how wide is that CP? 21" just for the trackballs, that has to be 55"+ wide is it not?
--- Quote from: unclet on October 10, 2007, 02:20:53 pm ---Funny .... I was thinking similiarly to "polaris" ...... however, I would recommend have two pullout drawers in the front of your cabinet which each hold one trackball. Kind of like having a pull-out keyboard drawer, but instead (or in addition to) have one left pull-out drawer for the left trackball and one right pull-out drawer for the right trackball.
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That's an intriguing concept. Could put it on rails so it slides out and then is flush when not in use. I'll have to explore that.
--- Quote from: unclet on October 10, 2007, 02:20:53 pm ---Not sure what what "rampart" is ..... but I would not think you would really need to spin the trackballs like you do for Golden Tee golf games. If my assumption is correct, then you would not need to have a lot of room for "follow-through" for the left/right trackballs so pulling them out of a drawer to use might work well.
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Only one of the greatest trackball games of all time. You create a castle, place cannons and then defend your castle against invaders and other players. So much fun.
DaveMMR:
I had to do some research and my suspicions were right: there was a joystick version of Rampart - albeit only a two player version (the 3-player version was trackballs). I've never really tried it out with joysticks in MAME or whatever so I can't attest to how it affects playability.
I like how Bull (haha, now you have me thinking of Night Court), implemented your idea. The outer players and outer trackballs can be sort of "out of the way" in as much as they don't need to to be high on the priority list of assigning space to controls. Start with a standard two player layout with trackball in the middle, and go a few inches to the left/right, placing the other balls below the joystick (these will not be used for Golden Tee, so you don't need "vertical swing space").
As for the width... let me put it this way: I fit the standard 2-player, 6-button layout on a 25" panel. I think with the extra mounting plates and a little extra space, you can keep the width under 40" (less if you use 2-1/4" balls and even less still if you forgo mounting plates - it can be done, just a little more work).
I'm curious to see how this comes out. Good luck.