Help please: Questions regarding number of bottons required on the panel

[Jm1010]

Hello every one I'm getting ready to build my first control panel and have a few questions  regarding the right number of buttons. It's a 4 player unit with four joystick and each player gets  4 buttons.

Beyond those 16 bottons, I have 3 questions:

1) Can I combine the credit button for each player with the player selection button (eg having 4 buttons instead of 8 for that) If it's a good approach, how does it work and is there any drawback to combining them?

2) Beyond those bottons, do I need only 2 more overall (select and exit) or do I need more than that.

3) I am thinking of adding a fifth joystick ( a dedicated 4 way joystick for single Pacman play etc.) Is there a way to have the control panel defaulting to using this joystick when playing PAcman and games like that vs the player 1 8 way joystick?



Thanks a lot. I would like to order my bottons and extra 4 way joystick asap!

Jean

[RetroACTIVE]

...why only 4 buttons for player 1 and 2?

...you can combine almost anything with shift function... its preference really

...select button is not really necessary you can use p1 b1 for that... again preference

...typically extra controls are wired in parallel with existing ones... so you don't really need to configure.

[HaRuMaN]

If you are planning on playing any fighters (SF, etc) or Neo Geo games... you may want to consider 7 buttons for players 1 & 2.

[Jm1010]

Thanks guys. I will make players one and two with 6 buttons.

I'm still struggling with what to do for the credit and start buttons. I know the usual approach is to have one button for credit and one for start for each player, making it 8 bottons in total for my 4 player machine).

What about using the same button for "credits" for all players, is there any drawback to that? Each player would still have their own start button.

e.g.             number of credit button = 1
                   number of start button  = 4
 

[CrazyKongFan]

See this thread:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=79863.0
for a discussion on number of coins inputs. It might matter on a handful of games.

[paigeoliver]

You DON'T want the same button to be both coin and player start for the same player. Some games hate that and make it near impossible to start a 2 player game when it is set up that way.