A hybrid control panel?

[foleykoontz]

Hey I've got a 2-player X-arcade that's great but now I want to build a 4-player control panel. The problem is I want to use the X-arcade guts for the 1 and 2 player so it can still play on my dreamcast (Or do some 4-player setups come with that hookup also?). So what should I do, I was thinking of buying a 2-player encoder for the 3rd and 4th player but can you change the keyboard layout on those or would I have to change the X-arcades? Any suggestions on a good encoder?

[Necro]

Wire the second X-Arcade through the first and change the second to a custom keyset.   I think people have done this before.

So...you have it like this:

PC ---> (X-Arcade 1 w/Normal Config) <-- (X-Arcade 2 w/custom config)
Dreamcast ---^

[u_rebelscum]

There are many ways to go about this.  To list a few:

X-arcade + 2 PC gamepads.  Leave X-arcade alone, but remap mame so the gamepads control players 3 & 4 instead of 1 & 2.

X-arcade + u360/gp-wiz/ or gamepad hack.  Same as above, but make a CP for p3 & p4.

X-arcade + ipac2/key-wiz.  Again, leave X-Arcade alone, but remap the ipac/keywiz encoder.  Remap mame to match the encoder.

I didn't know the x-arcade could be remapped.  If it can, what Necro said.

X-Arcade + ipac4 + parallel wiring the x-arcade to also the ipac4.  Ipac4 hooked to PC, x-arcade hooked only to dreamcast.  Careful about one system shorting the other.  (IMO hard.)