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Smash TV inspired control panel -- please comment!

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m_mcgover:

Sorry in advance for the long post....

OK, so last year I picked up a 25" Smash TV cabinet with the plans to Mame it to play the classic games from my youth.  So that now makes 3 STVs with dgame and IDDQDs in the fold.

Before you ask - don't worry - I have not, nor will I, do anything to harm this game.  Everything I will do will be completely reversible.  With that said, I've been working hard to put together a control panel does not look out of place on this cabinet.  I want the control panel  to stay consistant with the Smash TV theme, yet be flexible enough to let me play a lot of the classics.

I am eager to hear any comments or suggestions for making my control panel better, so please comment!

And, although no artwork yet, I have some ideas for extending the original Smash TV control panel art to keep this panel consistant with the original machines theme...

OK, on to the design.  The biggest decision that I struggled with was whether to go with a 2 person or 4 person control panel.  I tried to come up with a 4player panel since I know my kids would love one and with the 4 sticks already there, it makes sense.  But, in the end, for version 1.0, I think I will stick with a 2player only panel.

Here is my design:


Some details that are not coming through due to text sizes:
- middle joysticks are Williams 49-ways controlled by 2 gpwiz49s, to give a lot of flexibility for playing 1p alternating games that use different joysticks like Ms. Pac, Qbert, etc.
- outer joysticks are (for now) wico leafs (but may become) wico p360s
- buttons along top, from left to right are - p1 coin, p1 start, pause, esc, p2 coin, p2 start
- J1 & J3 are about 14" apart, which I think would feel pretty good for Robotron
- the panel is 30" wide (just 2" wider than original 28" panel) x 16" high (again, just 2" higher)
- the bottom area will allow for pinball flipper buttons, and the width is 19 1/2" wide, which I think is close to normal pinball tables.

I am toying with making the lower 2 trackball area a rotating panel.  If I go this route, one of the sides will have spinner + flightstick for Tron.  I'm not sure what to put on the other side...(I have a dedicated Star Wars, so a yoke it won't be)...maybe a steering wheel for Spy Hunter, although I'm not sure of the room.

As for the 4player version, I figured that with another 2-3 inches, I could squeeze in two sets of 4 buttons in a diamond arrangement for joysticks 2 & 4.  But, the resulting panel was not symmetric, so I'm not so sure I like it....

So, whaddya think?





Aceldamor:

I think it looks really well done.

Curious to know why you went NEO GEO with the buttons vs. Jamma.

As for the trackball idea, I like it as well.  I know some of the other peeps here have made some pretty sweet rigs for hot swappable panels, you might look into that.

m_mcgover:

Thanks Aceldamor-

I have four buttons instead of 3 as I wanted 1 button in a defender/stargate reverse position.  I mirrored the 4th button for joystick 2.  In fact, I will probably try to add two more buttons in a close to stargate positioning near joystick 2, since I really like that game and want my machine to support it properly.  To do that will mean doing something with the right hand trackball -- either moving it or cutting its mounting plate...I'm open to ideas on what to do here...



Aceldamor:

Do you not plan on playing any kind of fighter, or something that will use more than 4 buttons per player, or will this literally be a pure "old skool" cab...80's style?

As for the stargate buttons, placement will determine what you want to do with the panel.  There is room under the buttons as they are configured now for extra buttons, but that will not be authentic.

You could just go with a completely modular panel, 2 levels deep.

top can be for sticks and button combos, bottom could be trackballs, spinners, etc.

m_mcgover:

I was not a fighter guy, I am definitely going for more of an "old skool" feel...but if I wanted to, I could always add another 3 buttons for joysticks 1 & 2 above the three already there.  I'm not sure I want to go two levels (by levels you mean elevations?)...one idea I had was to include the missing stargate buttons on the rotating/modular trackball area. 

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