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Adding slide in panels for player's 3 and four.
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tel0004:
I'm in the planning stages of my first cabinet build, and one thing that I'm trying to figure out is how to be able to play with four players, on occasion, yet not have a huge control panel.  My first though was a standard controller, like and XBox 360 controller designed for windows, but that isn't really an arcade feel.

Then I though of using a controller that slides in on the side.  The controller would plug in using cat 5, and somehow you could latch in in place.  If you had a 2x4 or something like that, which slid in it should be pretty stable.  Here is a rough picture.  The control panel would have 2 joysticsk, and the 'wing' would slide in. 

One way to secure it in place would be to have both contol panels attach together, and slide a dowl rod or something to hold them in.  Just an idea I had, but I'm sure there is a better way.  One disadvantage of this is you would have to attach both panels, even if you only wanted 3 players.




Since I havent even build the cabinet yet, it would be easy to move the keyboard tray down so its out of the way.  I would also have to make 3 and 4 players kind of tall, so the 2x4's or whatever I use don't get in the way of the main CP.


I'm new with google sketup, so I know the pictures suck, but you get the point. 

I'm mainly wondering if this has been done, and if not, I'm looking for ideas to improve on this. 

This is also my first post, so I want to thank everybody for all they do, as this looks like a great forum.
TheShanMan:
I think that's a clever idea and if you go that route, please keep us updated with the progress, and of course share pics.

I'm in the middle of doing swappable panels and I really wanted to keep to the approximate size of the normal centipede panel (since I have that cab) - the only thing I did was make it a little deeper.

My solution for 3 or 4 player games is somewhat like yours, but wings aren't really an option for me. What I've chosen to do is have db9 connectors exposed on the bottom side of the panel (I have a metal panel, so this would not be unlike how a serial port is exposed on a computer). A serial cable would then lead to a mini lap panel with standard arcade controls (8 way joystick and 3 buttons). Obviously this requires those players to be sitting, but I think this will be fine for me.
BASS!:
Remember, unless you are going to be using the six buttons for console emulation, mame really doesn't have any games that use over 4 buttons for 4 player games.
tel0004:

--- Quote ---Remember, unless you are going to be using the six buttons for console emulation, mame really doesn't have any games that use over 4 buttons for 4 player games.
--- End quote ---

Thanks for the information.  One game I wan't to play is Secret of Mana, for the SNES, which is why I went with 6 buttons.  The game is only 3 players, so I could always go with 4 buttons for player 4, but I think that might look strange, so I'll probably go with 6, just for a uniform feel.
severdhed:
this sounds like a great idea...i have often thought about doing something similar to this, but I wasnt sure how to go about attaching them, and since I very rarely have 4 people there to play, it probably isn't worth the effort for me... but please keep us posted on your progress..this is an awesome idea.
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