Question on coin doors

[korbitz]

Do i need a 2 slot coin door or will a 1 slot door be okay with all mame games? My CP is based on 2-players.

Cheers

[Kevin Mullins]

Really the only need for a multiple slotted coin door is for a select few four player games. The ones where each slot is designated for a particular character, etc. But there are two player versions of those games as well.
So for just the simple task of "coining up" on most games, all you neeeed is one slot.

It's a personal choice then.

[Beretta]

like what kevin said, most games either used common coinage or had a option to do so.

generally speaking a 1 or 2 coin slot wont stop you from playing most games.. they either dont care about more coin slots, have a option to use less.. or have a version that uses only 2..

even the ones that there is no way around it you could use this work around.

setup mame so that for example on a 4 player game that NEEDED 4 slots you could tell mame to only coin up when for example 1p start + coin is hit..

you could do this for all 4+ players..

it would'nt be perfect though..

for example you'ed have to hold start when putting a coin in.. also 1 coin would credt all players who had start held.. so you could get say 4 credits out of 1 quarter.

of course there is nothing stopping you from making the "coin" switch in mame a joystick+button combination or even a dedicated button.. it's your choice some people dont even use the coin mechs or even have them in their cabinet, mame is super flexible on remaping input.


this is one of the reasons i was looking for a 4 player cabinet to start my mame project.. it has 4 coin slots and enough room for 4 players obviously, some 4 players cabinets still only used 2 coin mechs though.. and like has been said in those cases they use common credits.. so even though it has and might even bookkeep 2 coin mechs those games dont care which coin mech was triggers everyone had access to the credits.


i'd say it depends on your personal taste.

why dont you look at your favorite games and see if they need individual slots.. i know the first thing i do when i play a new game is check the dip switch settings and check out the test menu, some of them are interesting.

[SirPeale]

Some two player games also depend on a particular slot to determine which side of the CP gets used, but a lot of those games have a DIP switch setting to determine common wiring, or separate. 

In a money making situation you'd want separate wiring.  If one side went down (say a switch got stuck) you could block off that side but let the other side continue to make money.

[protokatie]

Although as it has been pointed out it is more of a personal choice, if you are trying to recreate the feeling of games from the mid 80's and onwards, I would recommend a 2 coin slot mech system. Also, as Peale pointed out, if one of the mechs dies, you have the other as a backup.

Personally, I like the 2 coin door look and feel. Also, single coin systems remind me too much of gumball machines for some odd reason... (I am sure some of the old school purists will hate me for saying that, as the really early games usually only used one coin slot)