Uninspired with CP and Marquee... need help!

[AlanS17]

Hi yall. I'll rebuilding my control panel for a street fighter layout. I also need some marquee ideas. I need some help with a design for it. I don't know what i want, though. all i know is what i DON'T want...

I don't want fighting game characters (since most games aren't fighting games) even though they look really cool. I also don't want a classic theme cuz I don't want to pigeon hole myself into one game.

The colors on my machine are black, blue, and red (and white.) The machine is painted black with red t-molding, coin door, and speaker grill. The sideart is traditional (big) MAME logo artwork. I haven't desided what color of buttons and joys to use, but it will be either red or blue.

Also, I don't have a name for this machine. I'm not sure I should even bother. Unless I can come up with a really good one I don't see the point.

Any suggestion???

The control panel is only 6"X24". It's from a Bad Dudes machine.

PLEEEEEEEEEEASE!!!

Is anybody out there feeling creative today? I'm technical - not artistic. I would assume something MAME-related would be good - incorporating the MAME logo on the CP and marquee...

Oh one other thing... If you look at the control panel you'll notice the 2 start buttons are at the top in the middle... I plan on those being an "Enter" and "Escape" button instead. The start buttons would be somewhere above the players' buttons... Any other ideas are very welcome, though. (Including layout issues)

Maybe I can have some sort of contest for the best ideas!   I still need round up what I can give away, but I'm certainly open to suggestions... (I just don't know what people would want.)

[paigeoliver]

I spent a lot of time on this one. I can modifiy it to change colors, and change the Stern Logo to a Mame one if you want. The actual size on it is perfect for your control panel (24" x something or other).

Let me know if you want a changed version, or the complete version, or anything.

[AlanS17]

See, something like that is what I'm looking for. But I suppose I forgot to mention a couple minor things...

First off, the controls need to be at least an inch from the sides because of the way the control panel clamps down. However, an inch should provide more than enough clearence.

Also, that box that says "Stern" in the top center would be sitting right where I have 2 buttons. I suppose the 2 buttons could go inside the box. And the Start buttons would be probably up near the top corners (though not crammed all the way into the corners.)

Other than that... you got the layout pretty much nailed down! You're reading my mind here.

Did you have any other designs with the same layout in mind?

[paigeoliver]

I did a whole bunch in another thread. (My first try at an overlay).

Most everything on that overlay can be moved around, or simply removed.  I did it with a whole bunch of layers.

Lately I have been working more from classic overlay scans and just converting them to two players (much harder than it sounds).

Any particular classic overlay you like, I could try to convert it to that layout.

[AlanS17]

Actually I'm not a big "classic" fan. I was hoping for a more modern look to it because I feel a classic look just doesn't match with all those buttons. When I think "clasic" I think 2 joys and a couple buttons. Plus my sideart and pseudo-modern. I't sMAME with the blue swirlies gonig on. I would imagine you know what I'm talking about.

Do you have anything more modern? Where is this post you're talking about with all the examples?? I rememebr seeing something of the sort, but I wouldn't know where to look.


Edit: I found the post, but they are pretty much all clasic. I want maybe something dark and fluid (if that makes any sense) like a few of the control panels have come out lately using just blues. Excapt I would like to find a way to throw some red in there. Does that makes any sense at all?