Tell you what, I'll post a pic and my design philosophy, but I have 2 more questions I need help on:
1) If anyone happens to have a pinball machine around, I'd much appreciate if you could measure the distances to the center of the button, just for a guideline/comparison.
2) I got a brand new Happ trackball, but it has sat around for the last year, and now the ball doesn't spin nearly as smoothly -- how do you guys usually correct that problem? Do I clean the bearings?
Okay... a pic of the layout -- it's not completely different from anything anyone has ever seen, but it's the first attempt to fit everything into the width of a pinball machine (23"). The pic looks distorted because I quickly and carelessly took it up close with a big honking wide angle camera. The fighter buttons are equidistant apart, though it doesn't look like it. Obviously, everything is just in there as placeholders, and I have work yet to do.
My design changed dramatically over the last year. Here are the design principles I jotted down throughout the process:
1) AutoCAD is nice, but real world designs on cardboard/wood are much more realistic, and give you a better idea of how things will look and feel. Make mockups – and bear in mind that form follows function. The point is to make a CP that works for your purposes.
2) Conventional forum wisdom on how far apart items must be is not necessarily correct. It is possible to cram and allow some space. Real arcades are, by nature, fairly cramped anyway. There *ARE* limitations set by the actual width of the controllers/microswitches, and you must avoid putting things in the way of other things. With those rules in mind, again, make sure form follows function.
3) The goal of this design is to integrate pinball, classic fighters, trackball games, spinner games, and classic 4-way games into one portable CP (not easy).
4) To make it portable, and integrate pinball, the width of the CP is limited to 23” (standard pinball machine width). This is not much wider than a standard keyboard, for comparison. Surprisingly, it is feasible to fit all the aforementioned controls into the design and not be cramped. The challenge was to keep things out of the way of each other, and squeeze every millimeter of space in terms of button placement. With fighters, the buttons should be close together, anyway.
5) To further make it portable and usable socially, games and emulators will be loaded into a flashdrive that is part of the USB “central hub” in the CP. This way, there is only one usb plug for the CP, and it has most major games built into it. Plug and play.