Trackball button placement

[rEd86]

Greetings.

I am about to wrap up my first cabinet build and I am running into an issue.  I built a template with the button/controller layout for testing and I am not sure if I like where the buttons that will be used in association with the trackball are positioned.  Here is the overall layout as seen in my build thread:



I initially positioned two buttons above the trackball (the yellow ones) emulating what you'd need if ever the trackball was used as a mouse.  Now that I am looking at the mockup, I don't think the buttons will play well in an arcade environment.  I think your hands will be hitting each other as you're scrolling around and trying to fire at the same time.

So should I spread the buttons out a little more, put them to the side, or just let the Player One (left) buttons be used for firing and more?  There is a spinner above that I think I will be lowering as well to use the same buttons as the trackball, so I am thinking it makes sense to just spread them out a little.

Any suggestions and examples of what you did would be greatly appreciated.

--Ed

[mwong168]

I have buttons on both side of my trackball and I don't know if I would position the buttons above like that cause you might hit them when playing games like golden tee?

[rEd86]

I've been trying to figure out what trackball games there are that would use a button. (for fire or something else)  I think for Golden Tee I would use the Player One buttons on the left for everything.

It's been a while since I've played most so my memory is a little fuzzy...  Wikipedia has a comprehensive list of arcade games that use a trackball but they don't mention what buttons are required/used.

Centipede needs a fire button.
Missile Command needs three buttons, so the player one buttons makes sense.

Hmmm...  The more I think about it, the more I'm leaning to simplifying the layout and just use the player one buttons.  (when I browsed the posts of people’s CP photos I really didn’t see any dedicated buttons so that might validate not needing them.

--Ed

[drventure]

Honestly, I think you'll be fine without any trackball buttons at all, just map buttons from either p1 or p2 as necessary in a game.

They are close enough that I can't imagine that being an issue.

I'm with you though, I don't think the "buttons over the trackball" would work very well. Same with "buttons under the trackball". Maybe to one side or the other, but again, you've already got buttons on either side...

[severdhed]

you can double up on your mouse buttons.    for playing trackball games, i just use my standard player 1 buttons. for instance, in centipede, i would use  p1b1 as fire (top left button)

i have player 1 buttons 5 and 6 connected to my optiwiz as left and right mouse buttons.  i can still use these as regular buttons in any mame games, even ones that dont use the trackball.  and when i am doing windows things, i can use them as mouse buttons.



it works out fine that way.  they are in a comfortable position to use, and i dont have any extra buttons cluttering my panel

[markronz]

i have player 1 buttons 5 and 6 connected to my optiwiz as left and right mouse buttons.  i can still use these as regular buttons in any mame games, even ones that dont use the trackball.  and when i am doing windows things, i can use them as mouse buttons.

If you rig it like this, doesn't the right click button bring up the right click menu all the time?  Or does MAME hide all that, and there's no downside?

I wish I would have thought of that for my cab...

[severdhed]

no, when playing a game in mame, the mouse buttons act just like any other buttons.  so, for instance if i am playing Donkey Kong, if i press either button 5 or 6, absolutely nothing happens.  if I am playing Street Fighter, it will kick.  when mame is running, it blocks all windows funcionality of the mouse.   when i go back to the front end (MALA) if i hit button 6, it is just like right-clicking and the menu pops up.

it works beautifully