Some help with my CP?

[kacz]

So my control panel is shown below. 

It's 48" in width.  I probably don't need the 8 buttons for players one and two, but I was going to go with 7, and I have an extra button now due to picking up a coin door and no need for the insert coin button I figured I'd throw it in there.

Still haven't decided on the amount of admin buttons.  I'm thinking: quit, pause, save, load, and tab.  I realize most people here think admin buttons should be at a minimum but I have the room, and don't think it makes it look like to much of a frankenpanel.

Some of my concerns.  I have been agonizing over the location of my trackball.  It will mostly be used for golden tee.  So I want it as far away from the from of the cab as possible.  But then I also need it to be a good distance from player 2's joystick.  Right now I beleive center to center on the horizontal is 6".  Is this enough?  Is it more than enough?  What does everyone else have? 

My next concern is the outside players cramping the inside players style so to speak.  It's like a damn juggling act trying to position everything.  So what do you guys think?  Looking for questions / comments / concerns please.  Thanks guys. 

[DaveMMR]

Still haven't decided on the amount of admin buttons.  I'm thinking: quit, pause, save, load, and tab.  I realize most people here think admin buttons should be at a minimum but I have the room, and don't think it makes it look like to much of a frankenpanel.

Don't think that you HAVE to use all the room you have.  With 4' of real-estate, you can run into trouble confusing everyone with too many buttons.  If you have space, then you should probably narrow down the panel a little (4' is a little wide unless you are making a showcase).  Exit button is fine.  Maybe a pause.  NO TAB, SAVE, LOAD buttons unless you want to have to "fix" your software settings after every gathering.  I'm not joking on this.  I have my "tab" (menu) button hidden (with a shift button) and people still manage to find it and mess things up.      

If you really have some room to burn, perhaps consider a spinner.   

 
Some of my concerns.  I have been agonizing over the location of my trackball.  It will mostly be used for golden tee.  So I want it as far away from the from of the cab as possible.  But then I also need it to be a good distance from player 2's joystick.  Right now I beleive center to center on the horizontal is 6".  Is this enough?  Is it more than enough?  What does everyone else have? 

Trackball should usually be centered (unless you have two).   Test it out on cardboard.   I never have a problem with horizontal spacing and it's practically up against my 2nd player stick - well the plate anyway).  It's vertical spacing (for Golden Tee) you should be concerned with.  I think you have more than enough space.

My next concern is the outside players cramping the inside players style so to speak.  It's like a damn juggling act trying to position everything.  So what do you guys think?  Looking for questions / comments / concerns please.  Thanks guys. 

Though I am familiar with the phrase, I personally don't know what you mean by your use of "cramping" and "style" in this context.  Are you implying aesthetics (style) or people crowding (cramping)?  If it's the former, I agree (real 4-player panels were never laid out in any eye-pleasing arrangement other than all the sticks being the *cough* same orientation and  *cough* not  *cough* angled).  If it's the latter, you may want to reconsider making a 4-player control panel (as a former aspiring 4PP builder I recommend thinking about it nonetheless).  Unless you make a ridiculously large panel, there will always be a little bit of crowding. 

[kacz]

Thanks for the tips.  I've already got the panel assembled, just need to start drilling holes for buttons, so going to stick with the 4'.  It really doesn't look all that out of place with the wrap around I've got going, and I've got a 27" TV in there, so it should be ok.  I will take your advise on the admin buttons.  Can I ask you where you hid your tab button?  Or what button you use for shift? 

I dont think I'm going to go with a spinner.  I don't ever recall even seeing one at an arcade!  I started going to arcades in the late 80's early 90's so just about all my favorites are side scrollers like X-Men, TMNT, NBA Jam, etc.  So I know it's a fought over subject here with the angled joysticks, but I think that is what will work best. 

How wide is your trackball plate?  I think maybe I will move the player one and two setups a little more inward, to give space to player 3 and 4 controls.  I was more concerned with people crowding, and while I dont think there's anyway around it, would like to give the most space possible, while leaving the trackball room to operate. 

Thanks for the reply. 

[DaveMMR]

Thanks for the tips.  I've already got the panel assembled, just need to start drilling holes for buttons, so going to stick with the 4'.  It really doesn't look all that out of place with the wrap around I've got going, and I've got a 27" TV in there, so it should be ok.  I will take your advise on the admin buttons.  Can I ask you where you hid your tab button?  Or what button you use for shift? 

I dont think I'm going to go with a spinner.  I don't ever recall even seeing one at an arcade!  I started going to arcades in the late 80's early 90's so just about all my favorites are side scrollers like X-Men, TMNT, NBA Jam, etc.  So I know it's a fought over subject here with the angled joysticks, but I think that is what will work best. 

How wide is your trackball plate?  I think maybe I will move the player one and two setups a little more inward, to give space to player 3 and 4 controls.  I was more concerned with people crowding, and while I dont think there's anyway around it, would like to give the most space possible, while leaving the trackball room to operate. 

Thanks for the reply. 

Off the top of my head, for the 3" trackball the plate is 6.5" square. 

If you are sticking with the angled joys, test it out on cardboard first while you still have a chance.  What LOOKS right is very, very different that what FEELS right.  It's a highly debated point, but just one post describing disorientation with angled is enough to make it worth it to spend time testing (and if you search, you'll see there's more than one post).  If you (and more importantly, your friends) are comfortable with it, proceed.

My admin buttons are all SHIFTED.  I use U360's and button 8 (wired to my starts) doubles as a SHIFT.  So to access pause, I would hold down start and P2 Button 4 (MAME sees it as Button 12).  To access tab, I hold shift and press button 5.  Etc.  The one change I recently made was adding a dedicated exit button (a cheap Radio Shack square button).  My original EXIT was a little too cumbersome. 

And a spinner is quite a nice control to have around for Arkanoid and Tempest.  But if you're not missing it, then you'll be fine.

[Lucky S.O.B.]

The angled 3 and 4 player controllers will be an issue if you want to play multiplayer smashTV and Total Carnage...

I personally like it when the admin buttons are on the bottom side of the control panel.

[Bonesaw Ownage]

I couldn't agree more with testing out the layout, I literally changed mine about 5 times during the process. You can get a roll of cheap "butcher" paper to sketch it out, You can even print out different button layouts available online and test them. I not only changed the button configuration of the 3p ad 4p, I also changed the angle of their sticks. I feel you on "cramping style", what I did to find a comfortable space was use a long 4 ft aluminum ruler and stood at the 1 player position then I layed it down on the panel and to show the angle of the farthest point of my elbow on my left side,  then while the ruler stayed in place as a marker, I stood in the 3 player position and made sure that my right side was far enough over so I wouldn't be bumping elbows with the 1 player. I repeated this for the 2 player position. I could of had someone just stand there to help position, but I was mostly working on this in the shop at my studio after hours. One thing I would like to say is that I  am building a showcase conversion, and I have plenty of room in the gameroom where it will live. So this might be larger than someone putting it in their house would like. With that being said, definitely test, test, and test the position before you commit to a layout.

Best of Luck,

-JC