Main Restorations Software Audio/Jukebox/MP3 Everything Else Buy/Sell/Trade
Project Announcements Monitor/Video GroovyMAME Merit/JVL Touchscreen Meet Up Retail Vendors
Driving & Racing Woodworking Software Support Forums Consoles Project Arcade Reviews
Automated Projects Artwork Frontend Support Forums Pinball Forum Discussion Old Boards
Raspberry Pi & Dev Board controls.dat Linux Miscellaneous Arcade Wiki Discussion Old Archives
Lightguns Arcade1Up Try the site in https mode Site News

Unread posts | New Replies | Recent posts | Rules | Chatroom | Wiki | File Repository | RSS | Submit news

  

Author Topic: Planned Control Panel  (Read 1629 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

dollaman

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 12
  • Last login:February 28, 2010, 08:26:57 pm
Planned Control Panel
« on: January 03, 2008, 06:35:42 am »
This is my proposed control Panel Design

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r40/dollamanxxx/ControlPanel.jpg


This machine will eventually play :
Super Nintendo
Nintendo
Nintendo 64
Game Boy Advance
Sega Genesis
Sega Game Gear
Sega 32X
MAME
Visual Pinball
Future Pinball
Possibly Atari and master System.

I will probably use Maximus Arcade.

Does anyone know if the .45 Cal Optical Guns will work with Console Games that use a light gun?
I am going to use a Hagstrom Keyboard encoder.

Any suggestions.

Green Giant

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1124
  • Last login:September 29, 2016, 06:50:57 pm
Re: Planned Control Panel
« Reply #1 on: January 03, 2008, 10:37:36 am »
Not too bad, but a few questions for you.

Have you heard of the U360 joystick?  It is analog and can automatically switch through software from 2way, 4way, 8way, 49way, 16way, analog, and whatever else you need.  It would eliminate the 4way need.

Everything I have read about the TurboTwist2 from groovygamegear.com is that it is better and more accurate than the slikstik spinner.

Why 9 buttons per player?  I thought for start and coin but those are at the top right.  Why not relocate the start and coin to where those two random buttons are above the regular 7.

Most of those administrative buttons aren't necessary.  You can setup your machine to use the spinner to control the volume.  You don't need menu back as you should be able to use the joystick.  If you really want favorites, then go for it, but you might want smaller buttons, since they aren't taking alot of abuse.  You didn't even label a use for button 8.  You can use any button to select a game, no need for a designated one.

The guns you chose are designed for the original games, not mame.  You want either the LCD Topgun or Actlabs guns.

Also, I have no idea why you would choose a hagstrom encoder, unless you are following the book possibly.  DON'T!  Use either groovygamegears many styles of encoder or an ipac from ultimarc.  Both are a fraction of the price with easier setups and more features.

Lets see, it sounds like you aren't really up to speed on development right now.  The three most popular frontends with the most up to date development are Mala, AtomicFE, and GameEx.  Do some research on those three, read the wiki.
"He lives down there in his valley,
The cat stands tall and green,
Well, he ain't no prize, and there's no women his size,
And that's why the cat's so mean"
Toxic Arcade, my first build

Jdurg

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1127
  • Last login:October 04, 2020, 09:26:27 pm
  • A young guy feeling older than sin......
Re: Planned Control Panel
« Reply #2 on: January 03, 2008, 12:17:26 pm »
Well with the 4-way stick it all really depends on what "feel" you're going for.  Just because you can turn an 8-way stick into a 4-way stick doesn't mean that you still can't move the joystick into a diagonal corner and watch as mario gets killed by a barrel because you held up-right and not up.   :P

In building my panel I went with a dedicated 4-way stick for the older games because of the feel that a 4-way stick has.  It just feels different than the multi-way sticks that are turned into 4-way via software.
Donkey Kong High Scores:
1): 49,500
2): 35,600
3): 30,100
4): 29,400
5): 28,200

LeedsFan

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1042
  • Last login:January 17, 2021, 06:14:23 am
Re: Planned Control Panel
« Reply #3 on: January 03, 2008, 12:45:04 pm »
The only reason for a dedicated 4-way stick nowadays is for the purist who wants the geniune feel of an old-skool 4-way. You can feel the stick move diagonally along the gate as you move from left to up etc.

The old problem of hitting a corner when you meant to hit a straight is totally solved with the U360. Just load the correct map for the game and that old chestnut is totally blown away. Yeah... the only thing the U360 doesn't have is the 4-way feel. But it was designed to cover most bases for joystick input and in that respect it works brilliantly.

dollaman

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 12
  • Last login:February 28, 2010, 08:26:57 pm
Re: Planned Control Panel
« Reply #4 on: January 03, 2008, 10:59:11 pm »
Thanks
Should have explained better.

Have you heard of the U360 joystick?  It is analog and can automatically switch through software from 2way, 4way, 8way, 49way, 16way, analog, and whatever else you need.  It would eliminate the 4way need.
The 4 way is going to be used solely for navigating with in the front end. It will be used to move up or down a game list, and to page up or down by letter (left, right)

Everything I have read about the TurboTwist2 from groovygamegear.com is that it is better and more accurate than the slikstik spinner.
Hadn't heard of it. Will check it out.

Why 9 buttons per player?  I thought for start and coin but those are at the top right.  Why not relocate the start and coin to where those two random buttons are above the regular 7.
I need 9 to play Project 64 N64 games.
(A,B,C-UP,C-DOWN,C-LEFT,C-RIGHT, Z, L, R).  The P1 and P2 start and coin buttons will only be used when playing Mame games through MAME 32.

Most of those administrative buttons aren't necessary.  You can setup your machine to use the spinner to control the volume.  You don't need menu back as you should be able to use the joystick.  If you really want favorites, then go for it, but you might want smaller buttons, since they aren't taking alot of abuse.  You didn't even label a use for button 8.  You can use any button to select a game, no need for a designated one.
These were set up for use with Maximus Arcade FE.

Button:

#1. Everything is set up as a hiearchy. So when I am looking at a N64 games and I want to look at Game Gear games, I have to back up to a main list. That is what the Previous menu button is.
#2. Maximus Arcade has it's own volume settings. I was going to use that as the systems sound controls, but now I'm going to use the spinner as the volume control.
#3 & #4. I can probably take these out. I just wanted that so if I was browsing games and I wanted to play one at a later time, I could add it to a favorites list for quicker access to it. Like was to take a game off the list.
#5 - This is to move to another genre list for a particular system.
#6 - This was to select a game from the front end. Doubles as a start/pause button in console games and a pause button in Mame32.
#7 - This is to End a game and go back to the front end.
#8 - Forgot to delete it. Wasn't needed.


The guns you chose are designed for the original games, not mame.  You want either the LCD Topgun or Actlabs guns.
Ok, that totally answers I a question that I have had for a while. Now it poses as another question, Can I hack one of those and add a recoil effect to it?

Also, I have no idea why you would choose a hagstrom encoder, unless you are following the book possibly.  DON'T!  Use either groovygamegears many styles of encoder or an ipac from ultimarc.  Both are a fraction of the price with easier setups and more features.
That was the only one I knew about. Initially I was going to do a complete keyboard hack but decided against it. Checked those out and will not be using a hagstrom.

Lets see, it sounds like you aren't really up to speed on development right now.  The three most popular frontends with the most up to date development are Mala, AtomicFE, and GameEx.  Do some research on those three, read the wiki.

Was going to use AtomicFE in the very beginning. Was kind of confused by the configuration, layouts, etc.

MaLa - I like but I want to be able to view a text file for other game systems instead of just the history.dat file that I can get with the MAME setup.

GameEx - Not bad but it looks too much like windows. Will look into it further.

Maximus Arcade - Liked the graphics and feel to it. Setup was a breeze. One problem - Still want to be able to push a button or key, and view a text file for a highlighted game.




LeedsFan

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1042
  • Last login:January 17, 2021, 06:14:23 am
Re: Planned Control Panel
« Reply #5 on: January 05, 2008, 03:00:15 am »
I wouldn't install a 4-way stick just for the purpose of navigating a FE menu system. Seems like such overkill. If you use MaLa with U360 you can set it up where the correct map is loaded for each game.... and on exiting to the FE it also loads up a 4-way map specifically for navigating the menu.

I think it's a really a nice touch to be able to do that for sure. But the FE menu isn't exactly top priority for 4-way only movement. And certainly not for a dedicated stick.  :dizzy: