Almost finished with my mock-up, what do you guys think?

[swaffar]

ok so i'm about to undergo woodcutting on my very first panel.  excitment.  anyway, here is my (hopefully) final draft of my panel.  sorry mods if this should be posted under art, but asking for layout help more than showing art.

so i've decided to go with two players but love smash tv so gotta have those 3rd and 4th sticks.  i'll be piggy-backing two trackball buttons to P1 buttons 1 and 2.  same with both spinner buttons..... unless you guys think this will be a mistake.

i'm using maximus arcade so i've decided to use P1 coin as my back button, P1 start as load game, and i've given the panel 4 dedicated admin buttons.  i have a mini-pac and i'm trying to avoid using the SHIFT FUNCTION, if at all possible.  i think pause, reset, quit, and shutdown should be all i need;  i'll worry about volume later.  oh, and i'll have two buttons on each side, one on front panel for visualpinball / future pinball... these will also be "piggy-backed" onto player buttons.

ok so i know the panel looks a little cramped but i figured the sticks shouldnt get in the way of golden tee too much as they're closer to the sides of my trackball, and not so much behind it.  my spinner way of front and center cause it's a turbotwist2 with a 7" wheel on the way.

so without further adieu..........

please let me know what you guys think
thanks for your time!


EDIT:
actually, after stepping back and looking at it again my trackball buttons might need to come down.  they are kinda hiding behind the joysticks....  eek.

[shmokes]

Move the trackball closer to the front.  Games like golf games and bowling games require you to get a big swing, and the further you can put the trackball from the monitor, the less likely you are to smash your hand painfully into it.  Also, if that thing is going to protrude out the front of the cabinet at all, I would round the front corners.  It'll make it look MUCH better.  If it will be completely within the side panels, though, it will look fine as-is. 

Also, I think the thing that pushes it over the edge into the maybe-a-little-cramped area is the spinner, and the two buttons down by it.  Ditch the buttons by the spinner altogether.  They're totally useless.  Use one of the other seven blue buttons when you're using the spinner.  They're like four inches away.  But here's a great idea that actually came from Xiaou2 recently in another thread.  Mount the spinner horizontally on the front side (as opposed to the top side) of the control panel.  With the trackball dropped down closer to the front (creating empty space between the two middle joysticks), and the spinner moved off the top surface of the control panel it won't seem crowded at all, but you'll retain all the functionality (and actually get more functionality out of the trackball).

[swaffar]

omg... thanks for the input but i forgot to mention.... this is going to be a self-contained coffee table control panel.  i'm building the pc inside so i'll only have power audio/video cables running out of it.  thanks for the input though!

[shmokes]

I actually only skimmed a few lines of your original post, so for all I know you already said that. 

I'd still move the trackball down, cos I think it would look better and be more comfortable to use.  Unless you decide to put the spinner on the front, as I mentioned in my last post, I think that there may just be nothing graceful you can do with it.  It does look kind of awkward there.  Maybe you could ditch your trackball buttons, since they are completely superfluous, and put your spinner up where one of those is.  Or put two spinners in, so you can use them to play multiplayer in games like Super Off-Road and Warlords.

[swaffar]

well i've thought of that, but i ultimetly decided to ditch a few multiplayer games so i could play ikari warriors and other rotary control games... (albeit by myself) that's why i have the trackball buttons.  come to think of it i'll probably need three buttons that are within reach of my trackball hand.

[shmokes]

If you want to play Ikari Warriors, why not make two of your sticks rotaries?  Happ still makes rotary sticks.

[ratzz]

Shutdown button on the CP?

Could get knocked easily there ... can you relocate it, or maybe use a different type of button?

[DaveMMR]

I like the CP.  Good design and not a terrible glut of buttons.  I agree with shmokes, move the ball down more.   The spinner can be moved somewhere else (maybe up/left of new TB location).   And I would ditch the dedicated mouse, TB buttons to free up space.

Otherwise excellent design.

[swaffar]

thanks everyone for the input... i think i'm gonna ditch the spinner buttons, leave the track buttons, and leave the spinner where it is.  i liked the sound of putting the spinner on the front face panel a lot but i made a mock panel and it didn't feel right for arkanoid.  too bad...  i just can't bring myself to put it in the back due to the fact i'll be using the steering wheel on it.  i'll probably even add a gas pedal setup once i save some more cash.

but like i said thanks for all the input.

[paulscade]

The graphic is pretty cool... how'd you do that?

[Xiaou2]

 Thanks shmokes.


swaffar,

 Try the Mockup (standing up) with Tempest,  Supersprint...etc.     Arkanoid is one of those games that rarely feels right even when the spinner is upright.   

 The reason:  Arkanoid spinner has super high resolution.   Many spinners
can not match that.   You have to up the settings in mame... and that only makes the
control sloppy.     The other factor is that the controller has multiple gears.   Those
gears create extra resistance... which helps you keep much better control over the speed of your character.   

 Also,   a note that one could also make the front panel sloped at a slight angle...
which would probably make attaching wheels to the spinner knob a little more
like the real standup arcade machines.