Control Panel Design Help

[dicedtomato]

Hi,

Some friends and I are planning a 4-player cabinet that will be used for about 50% SNES games, 25% N64 games, and 25% Indie games (like Little Fighter 2, Streets of Rage Remake, Cave Story, etc.) It's the first time for all of us.

1. One possibility is 4 Ultimarc Ultrastik 360, since the N64 games use analog (can Project64 handle 4 analog inputs)? The downside is that it is expensive, but this joystick says it supports eight buttons, so would we be able to save on an encoder?

2. Another possibility is 4 switch-style joysticks like the Ultimarc Mag-Stik or Happ Super (which joysticks would you recommend btw)? I heard that games like Mario Kart, Smash, and Gauntlet are okay with the 8-way joysticks, is this correct? Also we are only playing N64 about 25% of the time, so switch-style joystick might be alright.

It seems that #1 would cost about 4*59=$236 and #2 would cost about 4*19 (joysticks) + 65 (encoder) = $141. Since there are a lot of experienced people here we thought we would ask for advice. Also how many buttons would be good for each player? We were thinking maybe six per person possibly expanded with a shift key for start, select, and other buttons. But do players three and four really only need about four buttons? We tried to do our research but it seems like there is a lot to consider, what is your advice on the button design in general?

I tried some of the games on a homemade cabinet before and fell in love with the controls. It was so much fun to pound away! By the way sorry for not playing actual arcade games on our cabinet... none of us really grew up with them. But thank you for your help!

[fjl]

1. Not sure if you should rely on the 8 buttons of the U360 since the N64 controllers had way more button inputs than 8. Not sure if PJ64 supports 4 controllers. I assume it should but don't quote me on that.

2. Happ super are pretty good. I don't know about the Mag-stick since I never tried one. Although the Sanwa joystick are considered superior to most switch type joysticks. I wouldn't recommend switch style joysticks for Smash Bros. Mariokart is okay and I really don't know about gauntlet.

Buttons for players 3 and 4 is usually limited to only 4 buttons when your thinking about MAME games. For Snes and N64, I would not go for only 4 buttons. As for the button design, the N64 is the real problem since it uses both a digital input and an analog input for movement. I guess you can put both a U360 and a switch joystick next to each other.

[DaveMMR]

Off the top of my head, an N64 controller has 10 buttons as follows: the A, the B, the L, the R, the Z, four (4) "C" buttons, and "Start".   Now, considering the "Z" takes the place of the "L" in a lot of games (when using the analog nub), you can get it down to nine.  Shift a button for "Start" (the U360 supports the shift function), and you can get away with only having eight inputs.   The whole analog stick thing is another story and if you're interested in playing games that rely on the analog stick (a good portion of the N64 library), you will definitely want something along the line of the U360s. 

Here's where it gets a little messier: One of the best games for the N64 - that'd be Goldeneye - uses the pad AND the stick (IIRC)... well pretty much the whole controller.   You can always buy a cheap "Super" along with the U360 - and an encoder along with the wiring harness, but now you're total cost goes up a bit.   And that's for each player - Goldeneye is best as a four-player shootout.

Instead of percentages, you should concentrate on exactly what games you want to play on your cab from the N64 library and work from there.  If it's mostly fighters, you can get away with good ole inexpensive digital, 8-way sticks. 

Once you get the N64 playlist out of the way, everything else is easier.  SNES is all digital and there are only 8 buttons to emulate.  Systems older than that use even less buttons.

[dicedtomato]

I guess we will look through the list of N64 games and think about how our control scheme relates to each game, then plan our control panel from there. 4 U360's plus 4 digitals seems messy! We might narrow our playlist instead. We will probably decide in a few weeks and post our reasoning.

We'll also check out the Sanwa joystick, and also try to find out if Project 64 can support 4 analog joysticks. Thanks for the advice =)