Critique My Arcade Controls Layout

[Valiam Arkais]

Here is my layout, I'm limited to a 23" by 10" space.

I have a 2 inch track ball, and I'm going to use a hard drive hack for the spinner (So no Oscar controls).  Is it too cramped?  Will the 1/2" plywood by ok with this much stuff?

Also, does anybody see a problem with me mapping the player 2 buttons into the trackball hack?  Also, in general do most people just map the 4 way joystick to the same place as the player 1, 8 way joystick?

Thanks

[Tiger-Heli]

Here is my layout, I'm limited to a 23" by 10" space.

Errrm, where?

[Valiam Arkais]

Here is my layout, I'm limited to a 23" by 10" space.

Errrm, where?

Not sure, hopefully it works now.

[SirPeale]

It looks really, really cramped.  And it looks like your controls are running over each other.

[bionicbadger]

 
Looks really crowded and not too comfortable.
Try building that in a cardboard or cheap wood prototype and see if its even playable.
Having all that stuff crammed in there can make it a pain to work on too.

What with all the extra buttons at the top?

Also keep in mind that you have to mount the control panel somehow, that means you will probably have to leave room along some/all of the edges and cant put controls there.  It will cut down the available space on your control panel even more.

[Valiam Arkais]

What with all the extra buttons at the top?

These are control buttons.  To run excess stuff in MAME (Pause, Exit...).

[atog]

definitely build it out of cardboard first to try it out.  I took the time to do this when I made mine and boy was I glad.

Also keep in mind that putting your 4 way joystick directly over your trackball like that will keep you from playing Golden Tee golf, bowling games, etc.  I don't know what all you want the trackball for, but for me, those are the games I want to play on the trackball.  

[bionicbadger]

You don't really need those buttons.  If you are using an IPAC or similar you can do all of those functions with the shift/shazam key.  Hold down player1 and joystick1 down pauses the game; player1 and player2 exits, etc.

You will have a much cleaner looking / less crowded control panel without those buttons.  And you can still have all the functionality.

[Valiam Arkais]

You don't really need those buttons.  If you are using an IPAC or similar you can do all of those functions with the shift/shazam key.  Hold down player1 and joystick1 down pauses the game; player1 and player2 exits, etc.

You will have a much cleaner looking / less crowded control panel without those buttons.  And you can still have all the functionality.

This is a subject that was kind of unclear to me.  I thought that I would need at least 1 extra button for the shift/shazzam key.  The way it is mapped out by default on the KeyWiz (of which I own), it seems like it's wired for seperate buttons for the Pause, Exit buttons, and the shift + joystick is used for special purpose like F3.  Am I just confused?

[u_rebelscum]

... the shift/shazam key...  

This is a subject that was kind of unclear to me.  I thought that I would need at least 1 extra button for the shift/shazzam key.  The way it is mapped out by default on the KeyWiz (of which I own), it seems like it's wired for seperate buttons for the Pause, Exit buttons, and the shift + joystick is used for special purpose like F3.  Am I just confused?

I'd wire the shift/shazzam ("sh/sh") key to it's own button.  Then you could assign (in the encoder board) sh/sh + player1 button1 to send "p" for pause, sh/sh + player1 button 6 to send "esc" to exit, etc.  You can assign any output for any button, and any (different) output for that button + the sh/sh button combo.

Some say wire a normal button as the sh/sh key; IMO you can run into problems with this.  The biggest being you exit in the middle of a 2 player game because you and your friend accidentally pressed the sh/sh button and the button that is the sh/sh exit button at the same time.

The keywiz is a little different than the ipac in that the keywiz shazzam key is a separate key, while the ipac any of its keys can also be the shift key.  But nothing's wrong with wiring a button to two keys, so you could wire a button as both the shazzam key and a normal key.

IMO, nothing's wrong with having those buttons for pause, another tab, etc, although you might want to move them off the top of the CP, or only do one button (the shazzam key).

4ways are often wired the same as player 1 8way.
I'd put player 1's buttons as trackball buttons, but you can do player 2's if you want.  (You might need a ctrlr default.ini and mouse.ini file so the TB buttons are assigned to the correct player in the correct games.)

That spinner might be in a hard to use place.  Are you a lefty-spinner or a righty-spinner?  Which button(s) would you use on a spinner game?  Is the player 1 8way or buttons in the way?

I don't play golf or bowling games, so I wouldn't worry about the 4way stick.  I would worry, however about player 2's 8way stick.  The way I play, I might hit my fingers when I do a heavy roll right or (especially) right & up.

1/2" high quality plywood would be okay if you didn't do the trackball, 4way, and spinner.  With them, especially the TB and 4way lined up in the middle of the longest dimension, might weeken the wood enough to brake within a year of only medium play.

Also been mentioned before, but are you going to have wood sides underneth the CP top?  That would take ~3/4" off around the sides and top and bottom, cramming you even more.

my $0.02

[shmokes]

Make your player 1 station and player 2 station way further apart.  Push them as close to their respective edges as possible (I'm assuming that they can go as close to the edge as the p1/p2 start and coin buttons).  Not only will this free up some more room for your trackball mounting, but it will help keep you and your buddies from getting too intimate every time you play 2-player games -- "...what?  it was my elbow...I swear!".