Newb needs some help

[Martin van Klaveren]

Well you guessed it me is newb

I've been researching this project since a Guy i know from a online game i play posted his cabinet on a forum.

I've got my basics sorted and know what i want. The only problem is eehh well getting there

What i mean is, I want to have a trackball incorperated in my cabinet. The only problem is most controller setups i've seen seem way overcrowded with buttons and such.

What i would like to try is make a couple of interchangeble controller setups.

Like 1 for 2 player(8 way sticks), 1 for a trackball (prolly with a spinner), and one with 4 way stick.

Basicly it should be posibble to route every setup into a connector that could be plugged in to the Hagestrom ke72...

Any1 of you have any expierences with this?
and if so is it harder to realise?

Ohh almost forgot this one is I-pac a option, i've been seeing it jump up on a couple of sites, but unfortunatly i can't reach theirs atm to read up myself..

Well thanks for you time and answers, i'll be browsing the boards to see if any1 had something i might have forgotten

[slug54]

Martin
Good luck on your project.
I just had a couple thoughts about your interchangeable C-panels. If I were you I would give
some serious thought  to going with 1 "over crowded panel" versus interchangeables. When I started my cab I also didn't want a huge bunched up panel I wanted something  clean looking. but after a lot of thought and planning I was able to make a 1 nice looking panel with
2 - 8 ways
1 - 4 way
1- happs 3" T-ball
1- Oscar Spinner
16- buttons
2 - pinball flippers (on the sides)

the key is making cardboard or cheap plywood cpanels
till you get it right.

The key factor for deciding on 1 panel was that my wife and 13 year old daughter (and her friends) can barely work the tv setup to get a dvd movie playing , let alone swap panels on an arcade cab. These girls would never use it if they had to change a panel to play centipede then to another for frogger,it just wasn't going to happen. Now if it was just me and my buddies using it thats a different story I could see swappables then.
but I have a long list of nieces,nephews and neighbours
who think  my house is the video game Mecca.
So in the end I went with "ease of use" over "looks".

as for the encoders I have no experience with Hagstrom
but I give 2 thumbs up to the I-pac and Opti-pac.
Plus with the I-pac shift key function you can eliminate some of the buttons on your panel.

Which ever way you go, Good Luck and Game On!

                               Slug54

[Martin van Klaveren]

well tnx for the reply , seeing as my family will be using it as well, your point is quite pesuading

i'll try and make some cardboard tryouts before going at full frontal

Still not decided on i-pac or hagestrom , but i'll read up on it. No date set for start of build it will prolly end up being somewhere in september coz of holiday and all

[Carsten Carlos]

The only problem is most controller setups i've seen seem way overcrowded with buttons and such.

Same to me. I first thought of getting it all on one panel, but my goal is to regain childhood-memories with my cab (the golden 80s) and there never were such big overloaded controlpanels those days.

If you like you may have a look at my homepage (click on www under my avatar), although I discarded the controlpanel there it looks decent enough with 2 sticks (4-/8-way easy switchable), 6 buttons for each player and one trackball.

Of course, it depends on what do you want - more or less authentic feel & look, or unlimited gamefun without the need of swapping. Which of course my girlfriend probable wouldn't do herself, too, but anyway, most time I expect her to play together with me anyway. And why not play trackball games when there is the trackball-CP at the moment in?