Control Panel advice... <--- noob

[OC_Ryan]

I was wondering if anyone had any advice for me when it came to my control panel. This is my first cabinet, and it is pretty small, as it use to be a Lil' Hustler cabinet. The control panel is about 7.5" x 24" rectangular. I want to do two player for sure, and I was thinking about adding a track ball as well, I'm just not sure if I'll have room. So...

What are a couple of the popular games that use a trackball? I see quite a few people putting trackballs on their MAME machines, but I'm not sure which games it would be used for. Pretty much the only one I know of it Golden Tee.

Do you think I'd have room between player 1 and player 2 for a trackball with the dimensions I'm working with? Any control panel mock ups would be great if anyone has some or could point me in the right direction.

Also, how many buttons per player should I do? I see a lot of people doing 6 buttons per player, but I'm not familiar with a lot of games that use that many buttons. I'm guessing some of the old fighter games?

Any insight is appreciated, this is my first cab and I've been banging my head against the wall trying to get caught up!!! 

[Jack Burton]

Missile Command
Centipede
Marble Madness
all bowling games


off the top of my head.

I think you could just barely fit it between player one and two if your panel is 24" wide.  That's how wide mine is.

[OC_Ryan]

Gotcha, thanks for the reply. You shoved a trackball on yours and it's the same width? Had to be pretty tight!  Got any pics? I'd love to see how it turned out.

Thanks!

[Jack Burton]

nah, I didn't put a trackball on mine, but just from looking at it I think it could fit.

[ghettodish]

list of trackball games:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_trackball_arcade_games

[OC_Ryan]

nah, I didn't put a trackball on mine, but just from looking at it I think it could fit.

Hmm, I'm gonna go draw up some plans and see how close of a fit it would be. I don't want it to be crammed and end up looking like crap.  :

Thanks for the list ghettodish, I see from a couple of other posts you're waiting on some parts to arrive for your first cab too?

[OC_Ryan]

Anyone have any advice on the number of buttons? I'm thinking 1 player start, 2 player start, and a joystick and 6 buttons per player. I haven't decided to add a button for each player to coin up, as my coin mech works, but I'd have to set a big bucket of quarters next to it.

Can anyone see the need for more than 6 buttons per player?

Thanks!

[Jack Burton]

You can use a shift function for your coin button when you are too lazy to put in a quarter.

Start + Fire 1 works pretty well.

Some people put a seventh button to the left and down from the fire 4 button to have a Neo-Geo layout

  123
  456
7

otherwise, unless you play a lot of mahjong or cherry picker there's no need for more than six buttons per player.

[cmoses]

I had the same dilemma with my first cab and its the reason I am now building a second bigger cab to replace my first one.  I realized with a control panel that small I would have to make some sacrafices somewhere.

I have seen a couple of cabinets that are that size with 2 players with 6 buttons and a trackball in the middle.  It is very tight and you need to have some skills wood working wise in order to make it work.

Here is a good example by Knievel - it only has 3 buttons per player but I think 6 would be easy.  The amazing part is that it's a full size 3" trackball.  Look at the wood working he had to do to get it to fit.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=65678.0

I think it would be real hard to get a 7 button layout in that panel.  You also have to remember you may not have all that space to work with either.  The control panel has to have some support and be able to attach to the cabinet which sometimes sacrafice some of you room.

[OC_Ryan]

Gotcha, thanks for all the responses. I think I'm going to keep it simple on this first one and leave the trackball out of it. So, probably just a Player 1 start and a Player 2 start, along with a joystick and 6 buttons per player.

I'm a bit uneducated when it comes to the neo geo games, although I'm a big fan of a couple, I'm not familiar with any that use 7 buttons. What do you mean by the neo geo layout? If I'm not going to have a trackball, I might as well have 7 buttons per player!

Thanks again everyone!

[PsychoAU]

I have what used to be a Centipede cabinet that has long since been converted.  I built mine with 2 players with 7 buttons each and a 2.25" Trackball.  The CP on those is 23.75" wide.  But, there are two supports under the CP that are 3/4" on each side, so really I have 22.25" to work with.  I built it about 10" deep, but the front piece of MDF takes 3/4" off the depth, so I really have 9.25".  I am using two U360s so I don't have to worry about joystick microswitch clearance.

I have attached the Visio template of my CP so you can play around with the layout.

Instead of a Tornado Spinner like in the template, I am going to use a TurboTwist 2, but you can see how a Tornado would fit there (it takes a 2" x 2" footprint).

I even had room to have a row of buttons at the top.  I am only putting the Player 1/2 start buttons and two in the middle which are mouse buttons.  I have the shift button under the bottom of my CP box and some pinball buttons on the sides.

It was a really tight fit, but it can be done.  Hope this helps you a little.

Here is a video I put together real quick stepping you through my finished CP.  Gives you a better idea of how everything looks using my template on the final product.

[Visitor Q]

I put a TB on my CP and I enjoy it. I was playing Marble Madness last night infact.

I went with 7 buttons for player 1 and 2, you could get away with 6 but I went with 7.

[sWampy]

I've put the 2 1/4" ultimarc trackballs in several 2 player 24" wide cabinets, it's a nice compromise.

[csa3d]

Not sure what a Lil' Hustler cab looks like, but in my Galaxian cab, I had a small control panel and originally wanted a two player, six button layout with trackball and spinner.   No matter how I spun it, even if I managed to squeeze all those controls in there, two adults would have to bump into one another to play collaboratively.  Also to note, the high sides of my cab meant that I had to leave room on the outer edges for my hands to not knock the sides of the cab when mounted.  Speaking of mounting, take into account how the control panel box fits onto machine itself.  That hardware takes up precious realestate as well.  I ultimately settled on a one player layout as follows:



See thread here:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=59170.msg748082#msg748082

-csa

[mr_doles]

I built mine with 2 players with 7 buttons each and a 2.25" Trackball.  I am using two U360s so I don't have to worry about joystick microswitch clearance.

PsychoAU, that is the exact layout I was looking to go with.  I wanted to get the U-Trak 3" trackball, which has a footprint of 176 mm wide.  I could not find the footprint of the 2.25" trackball.  Is there a big difference between the two?  IE how much wider would I need to make my CP to accommodate the 3".  I tried to view the vsd file but don't have Viso and could not get it to open with Viso Viewer.

[OC_Ryan]

PsychoAU and csa3d, I really appreciate the information! Thanks so much for the videos/pictures. I wasn't completely accurate on my control panel dimensions, like you guys, I only have 23.75" to work with as well, and I have the same supports that get in the way, so that's even less space I have. That being said, I'm going to leave out the trackball for now and just work on fitting two players in there and see how it turns out because I think trying to fit two players and a trackball on a 22.25" CP is going to be damn near impossible or just take some skill that I don't have yet being that this is my first cabinet.

Like I said, I'll be posting a new project in the projects section of the forum when I get enough pictures to actually make it a decent read!

Thanks everyone!