What additional buttons are essential?

[nickynooch]

So I'm completely new and apologize in advance for my ignorance on the subject

However, I am excited to be in the beginning stage of building my 1st arcade cabinet (the planning stage).

I have read the wiki (which I must give much respect for whoever created that).

How accurate does the "shift" button work in a cabinet?  I am trying not to have a million buttons on my cabinet (simple street fighter button style 6+6 and player one and 2 start buttons)  Is it possible to have no "extra" buttons for escape, next list, insert coin, etc and still function ok in your loader by using "player one start button" as a shift button without problems?

Once again I am stunned at the community here.  Seems very cool, and I'm stoked to find people helping each other out!

Thanks!
-Nooch

[Ginsu Victim]

If you use a key encoder like the Ipac or Mini-pac from www.ultimarc.com, you can set a shifted key (default is P1 start), then set every input to have a shifted function. It's possible to use the setup you're wanting.

[nickynooch]

Awesome! Thank you very much!

[ahofle]

It's pretty accurate.  The one issue I've run into with shifted buttons is that occasionally a shifted function is accidentally invoked.  This usually happens with 2 people playing some coop quarter-pumping game and one player hits player one start at the same time another player hits a shift function key.  The most common occurrence is both players pressing their start buttons at the same time and the game exiting!  You can reassign the shift function to something other than 1 if it becomes a problem though.

One other minor suggestion would be to not shift the coinup buttons.  IMO that is something each player should be able to do themselves.

[Ginsu Victim]

I had some friends over to test the new arcade cabinet. Their kids mainly played it.
I thought, if anyone is going to find these shifted functions by mistake, it's them.
So I got the chance to let them play and see what problems they ran into.
By the time they left, I had edited my shifted functions (got rid of three of them), ditched the 4-player versions of Konami beat 'em ups (Simpsons, X-men, and TMNT), and fixed some UGC maps in Ultramap (pretty much found out DON'T USE EASY 8-WAY).
Definitely avoid P1+P2 start to ESC. Luckily, I'd thought of that before ever doing anything.

[Kajoq]

I have P1 and P2 start, each with a coin button right next to them.  Then 3 more admin buttons for service, exit, enter

[Vash]

Can you do shift + button sequences to issue admin commands?  Say I want to have a coin-op cab, no easy coins allowed, but, just in case, wanted the  Konami code or something shorter to dispense credits while holding down shift.  Is that possible?

[BORIStheBLADE]

I don't use the shift functions. I have a 1p, 2p, 1p coin, 2p coin, play, pause and exit. I wanted to keep mine as simple as possible without using the shift function.

[nickynooch]

Initially I came in thinking that I wouldn't want all these extra buttons, but the more you guys suggest adding them, the more it makes sense.  I could easily see two people hitting the start button at the same time and exiting the game on accident, so I guess I may make extra buttons after all.

Thanks for the tips guys!  Anyone else having observations from their cabinet, on what is useful and not useful, please post advice.

[akcrash]

I am currently building my first cab, and also wanted as few extra buttons as possible. I ended up with three admin buttons, and I use player 2 start as the shift button. The default admin controls are - TAB, to bring up the in game adjustments, escape, to exit menus and the current game, and the last one is pause. If you hold player two start and hit the credit button, the purple one, it adds coins for player two. The far left and center black buttons are save and load state when shifted. So far I like this setup and it is pretty user friendly, once you use it a time or two. and it doesn't add too much clutter... Just my .02 cents.

[surface tension]

The buttons I find important are Exit and Pause, along with the P1, P2, Coin1 and Coin2. Anything else can be shifted.

If you hold player two start and hit the credit button, the purple one, it adds coins for player two.

If you are going to have a single credit button, why not have each press add a coin for both player 1 AND 2?

[nickynooch]

The buttons I find important are Exit and Pause, along with the P1, P2, Coin1 and Coin2. Anything else can be shifted.

I was thinking along those lines.  So basically 4 extra buttons. (Assuming player 1 and player 2 normal start buttons are there)  However, what do you end up pressing to "select game"?

[surface tension]

I was thinking along those lines.  So basically 4 extra buttons. (Assuming player 1 and player 2 normal start buttons are there)  However, what do you end up pressing to "select game"?
[/quote]

I use Player 1 for that. It seems to follow... Player 1 to select, (coin button), then player 1 to play.

[massive88]

I think the most common is player 1 start button to select games in front ends.

As for shifted exit, mine is P1+Pause, which will just about never get hit at the same time accidentally.  P1+P2 I would think could happen all the time if you are playing a quarter muncher game.

When I build another panel though, I will probably put a dedicated Exit button, but for now, the shift P1+Pause works pretty well, and people get the hang of it quickly.

"How do I exit?"
"Press and hold down start then tap pause, and let go of both."
"Ok."

[Ginsu Victim]

Yeah, I have a multi-purpose button next to each start.
In Mamewah, it's used for shifted functions.
In Mame, it's pause (and combined with P1 start, it's ESC).
In ZSNES and VirtuaNES, it's SELECT.
In Kega Fusion, it's MODE.

P1+P2 start never made sense at ESC. Too easy to kill your game.

[t0ucan]

Im only having 6+6 and the 1player and 2player buttons. But will be running about 15 emulators  I'm trying to keep it original as possible without additional buttons all over the shop. I know I wont be accidently setting off the shift setups ill have on it

[Ginsu Victim]

if you do it right, you won't accidentally shift any.