Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: fantoboy on March 30, 2006, 11:49:13 am
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I'm building a cab and trying to figure out what admin buttons to use.
I'm considering using an escape/exit button and pause. It wont be for commercial use obviously, but I think pushing p1 plus p2 might get annoying and confusing for friends.
What buttons do you guys like and actually use?
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ESC and PAUSE.
And I also reprogram the front-end's Exit key so it's different than the one in MAME. I don't want people exiting the front-end.
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tab - settings
Esc - Exit
P - Pause
5 - insert coin
I use the bottom two less frequently but I still use them when setting up a new mame system
F2 - reset
F3 - advance
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On my CP I am going to have 4 admin buttons. Mouse 1 and 2. Pause and Escape. These will be tied into a switch to disable them so once I set up a game it will play until i set up another. Most of the time I will leave the buttons active however.
Don
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ESC and PAUSE.
And I also reprogram the front-end's Exit key so it's different than the one in MAME. I don't want people exiting the front-end.
Can you tell me how to do this in Mamewah?
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Backspace, Up, Down, Left, Right, Escape, Pause and Enter...
(Subject to change)
;)
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*Dave tries desparately to resist posting an "O" and "K" joke here*
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obviously, but I think pushing p1 plus p2 might get annoying and confusing for friends.
Not only is it confusing for someone that hasn't played on the cab before.
But while your in the heat of playing one of those top down button masher shooters with two players you are guaranteed to both push those p1 and p2 buttons at the same time and have it eject you from the game your playing. I've had it happen several times.
It would be a great idea to add another, potentially hidden, button for doing the game exit.
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obviously, but I think pushing p1 plus p2 might get annoying and confusing for friends.
Not only is it confusing for someone that hasn't played on the cab before.
But while your in the heat of playing one of those top down button masher shooters with two players you are guaranteed to both push those p1 and p2 buttons at the same time and have it eject you from the game your playing. I've had it happen several times.
It would be a great idea to add another, potentially hidden, button for doing the game exit.
What I'm going to do for the exit button is actually wire two specific buttons together in series so that it only quits if both are hit. The buttons aren't used for anything else, and they're far enough apart so that you can't accidentally hit them both at once.
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"O" "K" buttons
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I'm building a cab and trying to figure out what admin buttons to use.
I'm considering using an escape/exit button and pause. It wont be for commercial use obviously, but I think pushing p1 plus p2 might get annoying and confusing for friends.
What buttons do you guys like and actually use?
Please read: http://www.retroblast.com/articles/zakk-03232006-01.html
;)
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the only buttons that belong on an arcade control panel are the ones to actually play the games... except MAYBE an exit button so that it's clear to the user without having to explain it. The savvy builder might even make it an "enter/exit" button used for both starting and ending a game.
all admin buttons should either be shifted or never used without a keyboard.
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Personally I like having an "enter" button on my control panel.
My kids like playing the odd PC game that I have listed in MameWah. A lot of these games require that you press enter (if you're not using a mouse) within the menus.
(for example: Lego StarWars. All the menus are navigated by the arrow buttons and then the "enter" key).
I found the combination of:
- tab
- P (for pause)
- Esc
- Enter
To be the essentials...for me
(I'm not counting the "insert coin" and "player start" buttons.....I dont consider them "admin" buttons
(I would if I could add an F2 and/or F3 to the mix but I didnt have enough connections)
Just my $0.02 worth.
Good Luck
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I'm building a cab and trying to figure out what admin buttons to use.
I'm considering using an escape/exit button and pause. It wont be for commercial use obviously, but I think pushing p1 plus p2 might get annoying and confusing for friends.
What buttons do you guys like and actually use?
Please read: http://www.retroblast.com/articles/zakk-03232006-01.html
;)
Just so we're all clear. This guy, who hosts the mameys is honored with a CRAPmame award:
http://www.wickedretarded.com/~crapmame/2.html
Both the cabinets on the retroblast site are HORRENDOUS. So I really don't think people should be taking advice from this guy.
I presume you linked this article because of this quote, "One last thing: leave the admin buttons hidden. For the last time you do NOT need
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ESC and PAUSE.
And I also reprogram the front-end's Exit key so it's different than the one in MAME. I don't want people exiting the front-end.
Agreed, don't allow people to easily quit your frontent.
If you come over to my house to get out the front end you have to hit player 3 coin and player 1 start at the same time. then scroll down to exit then hit player 1 start. I used to have it so you had to pull the keyboard out but I've been, shamefully, popping out into windows a lot lately.
Joseph Elwell.
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Hey jewel, if you feel the need to put 400 buttons on the panel, hey feel good about yourself. If you had read the article it would be clear that I was getting my opinions from mistakes made to panels that I have done. You see? Criticising myself instead of attacking others to defend my mistakes. Which is what I assume you are doing seeing all those buttons on that frankenpanel. Hey, you feel good about it? Great! However I think I may have hit a couple of nerves eh? 4 players...tiny monitor....admin buttons up the ying yang....cadash cabinet...should I continue?
It's all opinion fella, don't feel personally attacked. At least I am admitting to my past mistakes.
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[Agreed, don't allow people to easily quit your frontent.
If you come over to my house to get out the front end you have to hit player 3 coin and player 1 start at the same time. then scroll down to exit then hit player 1 start. I used to have it so you had to pull the keyboard out but I've been, shamefully, popping out into windows a lot lately.
Joseph Elwell.
Well Joseph, it sounds like you've got it down to a science! Tell us more! I am always eager to learn a better way to do things! :)
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ESC and PAUSE.
And I also reprogram the front-end's Exit key so it's different than the one in MAME. I don't want people exiting the front-end.
Agreed, don't allow people to easily quit your frontent.
Definitely. I remapped MameWah's exit key to F1 and all the emulators to the standard esc. MameWah can only be exited using a keyboard.
Personally, I put the following on every panel:
Coin (one per player)
Pause
Reset
Exit
I've found people are less confused when they have a coin button of their own. Also, hiding admin buttons makes it look nicer, but makes it way harder when you are actually playing and have people around the cab. Just have them on top on the panel, within reach of everyone. Also, be sure to label them properly, so everyone knows what they all do.
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I've found people are less confused when they have a coin button of their own.
Not only that but some games require different coin slots to work properly. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Gauntlet, and The Simpsons just to name a few.
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I think Joseph's cabinet was renamed the "Skittles" cabinet because with all the random colored buttons it looks like someone spilled a bag of Skittles on the CP.
I personally think the ZELDA control panel was incredible. It got hammered by the Crapmame guy for being "console" themed. Since the cabinet was a console cab, it made a lot of sense. If you have seen the entire cabinet, you would realize that it all ties in beautifully and looks much better than the butchered CADASH cabinet Joseph has.
As one of the MAMEY judges, I can assure you that Joseph's cabinet would never get voted in, and that may be why he's throwing stones.
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(http://www.singleclick.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=46435)
WTF is that? The panel looks as wide as the cabinet is tall... How can players 3 and 4 even see what they are doing?
Franken panels suck IMHO if you don't have the space for a couple cabinets with various controls for the different games then think about swapable panels...
I'm guessing the only reason why you havn't won yourself a crapMAME yet is that the right people havn't seen it yet...or perhaps they were just hoping someone would flush it allready.......
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Heh, you're more forgiving than I am on the Zelda ;)
I'm definitely not against a coin button and a pause button, even though you can do both through shift or shazam! keys. Coin because we don't use the coin slots and it's kind of weak to set everything to 'free play', and pause, because damn, you just have to use the little boys room sometimes! Everything else is fluffy.
Again, this is just MY opinion. Believe it or not people, I actually do get ASKED my opinion fairly often :soapbox:
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Is there any place that you can get buttons that say coin, exit etc??
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There was a thread in here somewhere that had cool $.25 inserts for lightable clear buttons. Those would look cool.
Just don't order the O, the K, the ENTER, the WIPE YER NOSE, the TILDE, the SCREENSHOT or the GETMEABEER buttons. ;)
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Is there any place that you can get buttons that say coin, exit etc??
*cough* shameless self-promotion *cough*
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Just so we're all clear.
You wouldn't be clear if you took a shower in Windex.
I've got an idea. You go back, click that link, and read the article and comments by Kevin ABOUT Zakk first, because not only do you have hearing problems, you've got reading comprehension problems. Give "Hooked On Phonics" a whirl.
Zakk was ASKED to post an article about his opinions, the story you NEVER BOTHERED TO READ (that's your only excuse for so completely missing the point, take that escape and don't make a further fool of yourself) spoke exactly of how Zakk ----follow me on this one, it's kinda tough, since you didn't read it the first time--- learned from his mistakes while completing TWENTY THREE cabs in SIX YEARS, and the newer ones DEMONSTRATE the mistakes HE IS ADMITTING TO
Here's an idea. Look around at what Zakk's contributed to our little hobby and what he's helped others to learn, tips he's offered, opinions he's been asked about, etc.
After you're done, just avoid posting in this thread anymore to avoid embarrassing yourself - you've already done a bang-up job. No further improvements to YOUR project are necessary.
If you didn't want harshness rained down on you, you shoulda done some reading and some comprehending of the article he was linking to instead of going off half-cocked about how he doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground. You're clearly wrong, and painfully so.
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Is there any place that you can get buttons that say coin, exit etc??
*cough* shameless self-promotion *cough*
Yeah, those are them. I might be a huge hypocrite for suggesting such 'admin buttons', but I am after all, a very flawed person :)
Those look awesome. I need to get it all together with the leafswitch conversion, lighted clear button ledwiz disco trackball stuff. I may not like admin buttons too much, but man I love blinky lights! :cheers:
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Yeah, those are them. I might be a huge hypocrite for suggesting such 'admin buttons', but I am after all, a very flawed person :)
Those look awesome. I need to get it all together with the leafswitch conversion, lighted clear button ledwiz disco trackball stuff. I may not like admin buttons too much, but man I love blinky lights! :cheers:
Thanks a lot... Huge compliment considering the quality of your work. :-*
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Yeah, those are them. I might be a huge hypocrite for suggesting such 'admin buttons', but I am after all, a very flawed person :)
Those look awesome. I need to get it all together with the leafswitch conversion, lighted clear button ledwiz disco trackball stuff. I may not like admin buttons too much, but man I love blinky lights! :cheers:
Thanks a lot... Huge compliment considering the quality of your work. :-*
Oh no, my work sucks! 8) Remember, one of my drawings made it into crapmame. How could I even think of voicing an opinion again! ;)
I read the thread about those inserts, and really was intrigued. I figure if you could use the ledwiz to make that coin button blink when you had to 'coin up', it would be killer. I was going to use some of my sacred stash of volcano buttons for my next personal project, but I think I'll be using one of these. Do you have a link to the thread for everyone here, since we are talking admin buttons?
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I just bought one of those wireless keypads that people usually use for laptops. I'm hoping to use all those buttons (with the exception of 8,4,6 and 2) to admin functions. Like mapping "esc" in mame to the numlock key. I dont think mame uses many of the keypad keys with the exception of the ones I mentioned above so I should have plenty of options and no extra buttons on the CP. I'd of course have to relabel the keys...
Hopefully it works.. otherwise I'm $30 in the hole... :-\
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Hey jewel, if you feel the need to put 400 buttons on the panel, hey feel good about yourself. If you had read the article it would be clear that I was getting my opinions from mistakes made to panels that I have done. You see? Criticising myself instead of attacking others to defend my mistakes. Which is what I assume you are doing seeing all those buttons on that frankenpanel. Hey, you feel good about it? Great! However I think I may have hit a couple of nerves eh? 4 players...tiny monitor....admin buttons up the ying yang....cadash cabinet...should I continue?
It's all opinion fella, don't feel personally attacked. At least I am admitting to my past mistakes.
I did not direct any attacks at you personally. I offered opinions on cabinets that the linked article points to. If that happens to be your cabinet and you feel offended, I apologize.
Joseph Elwell.
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I've got a pause button between the two player starts, and the two flipper buttons.
I have them set up as follows:
Pause (Shifts on press, and pauses on release)
NOTE: I'm using an I-pac, which operates this way by default.
Left Flipper (P-1 Coin up / "O" when shifted)
Right Flipper (P-2 Coin up / "K" when shifted)
P-1 Start (P-1 Start / TAB when shifted)
P-2 Start (P-2 Start / Enter when shifted)
The "O" and "K" buttons are not necessary when you have a joystick connected, but come in handy for a trackball-only layout on my modular CP.
All my other admin functions (game switching, quitting, etc...) are handled on my cordless mouse.
That is really nice during parties and such because I can just hide the mouse, and I don't have any problems with people messing up the cab.
I'll usually switch to a different game if requested, or will just randomly switch games a few times during the evening.
My thought is, if you don't like the game I picked, bring your own cab and play whatever you want.
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Just so we're all clear.
You wouldn't be clear if you took a shower in Windex.
I've got an idea. You go back, click that link, and read the article and comments by Kevin ABOUT Zakk first, because not only do you have hearing problems, you've got reading comprehension problems. Give "Hooked On Phonics" a whirl.
Zakk was ASKED to post an article about his opinions, the story you NEVER BOTHERED TO READ (that's your only excuse for so completely missing the point, take that escape and don't make a further fool of yourself) spoke exactly of how Zakk ----follow me on this one, it's kinda tough, since you didn't read it the first time--- learned from his mistakes while completing TWENTY THREE cabs in SIX YEARS, and the newer ones DEMONSTRATE the mistakes HE IS ADMITTING TO
Here's an idea. Look around at what Zakk's contributed to our little hobby and what he's helped others to learn, tips he's offered, opinions he's been asked about, etc.
After you're done, just avoid posting in this thread anymore to avoid embarrassing yourself - you've already done a bang-up job. No further improvements to YOUR project are necessary.
If you didn't want harshness rained down on you, you shoulda done some reading and some comprehending of the article he was linking to instead of going off half-cocked about how he doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground. You're clearly wrong, and painfully so.
Way to take this thread off topic and at the same time add nothing useful.
I think Joseph's cabinet was renamed the "Skittles" cabinet because with all the random colored buttons it looks like someone spilled a bag of Skittles on the CP.
I personally think the ZELDA control panel was incredible. It got hammered by the Crapmame guy for being "console" themed. Since the cabinet was a console cab, it made a lot of sense. If you have seen the entire cabinet, you would realize that it all ties in beautifully and looks much better than the butchered CADASH cabinet Joseph has.
As one of the MAMEY judges, I can assure you that Joseph's cabinet would never get voted in, and that may be why he's throwing stones.
I sense a lot of bitterness towards CRAPmame wrongly directed at myself. I'll have you know that I personally submitted my cabinet (and a friend's cabinet that I helped on) to CRAPmame. Chill on the accusations. So I don't like the ADMIN buttons you decided on. This thread is and was about ADMIN buttons.
I always wonder. When people say ADMIN buttons, do they mean buttons that users won't use? Oftentimes it seems like they mean Buttons that weren't on cabinets at Chuck E Cheese.
Users won't use:
Volume Buttons
Exit frontend
Mouse buttons
Frontend buttons? (like next list - my users never seem to notice them)
Didn't exist at Chuck E Cheese:
Credit Buttons
Pause
There seems like there should be a defined separation here. If only the "Administrator of the Machine" will use the features than it seems pretty clear they should be out of the way. Especially if they'll end up crowding your cabinet.
Joseph Elwell.
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I figure if you could use the ledwiz to make that coin button blink when you had to 'coin up', it would be killer. I was going to use some of my sacred stash of volcano buttons for my next personal project, but I think I'll be using one of these. Do you have a link to the thread for everyone here, since we are talking admin buttons?
Ahh I like the ledwiz idea, there's really no shortness of creativity on these forums!
Here's the thread for the buttons:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=51813.0
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Way to take this thread off topic and at the same time add nothing useful.
I addressed your putdown of a respected member of the community and your blanket statement that we shouldn't listen to him due to your opinion of a few of his earlier cabs.
I also addressed the fact that you clearly didn't read the article Zakk wrote, which I HAVE read, and the usefulness of that article.
Those two points have added to the thread. They've pointed out your failure to read and comprehend the article. Had you demonstrated a basic comprehension of what Zakk was trying to put forth by posting the link, there wouldn't have been anything to add, and you WOULD be correct. As it is, it's just one more thing you have no clue about.
This thread was taken off topic by yourself with your asinine comments about why we shouldn't be taking advice from Zakk. Feel free to scroll up, because you're acting as if that comment exists in a vacuum. Assuming this has everything to do with a shite site is simply living with your head in the clouds. It's because you personally put down a respected member of the community. Get a clue.
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Hey jewel, if you feel the need to put 400 buttons on the panel, hey feel good about yourself. If you had read the article it would be clear that I was getting my opinions from mistakes made to panels that I have done. You see? Criticising myself instead of attacking others to defend my mistakes. Which is what I assume you are doing seeing all those buttons on that frankenpanel. Hey, you feel good about it? Great! However I think I may have hit a couple of nerves eh? 4 players...tiny monitor....admin buttons up the ying yang....cadash cabinet...should I continue?
It's all opinion fella, don't feel personally attacked. At least I am admitting to my past mistakes.
I did not direct any attacks at you personally. I offered opinions on cabinets that the linked article points to. If that happens to be your cabinet and you feel offended, I apologize.
Joseph Elwell.
Well at least I know you got my PM. Why...why....you turned what I said to you.....my own quotes even....and turned them against me! That is darn, darn clever. Brilliant even! Yesirree. Whew. Well I'll know not to cross intellectual swords with you again! Whew! I need to sit down a while. I'm spent.
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I dont have any admin buttons on mine. I use a wireless keyboard and mouse for that.
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This was in your original reply:
Quote from jelwell:
Just so we're all clear. This guy, who hosts the mameys is honored with a CRAPmame award:
http://www.wickedretarded.com/~crapmame/2.html
Both the cabinets on the retroblast site are HORRENDOUS. So I really don't think people should be taking advice from this guy.
This is what you just said:
Way to take this thread off topic and at the same time add nothing useful.
What did you think was going to happen? I am also going to chime in just to add to the party acknowledging that you are indeed an asshat. Now dc414 has the March title, but you are honorable mention. Where should the award be sent? If you have some personal problem with Zakk, save it for EE or other threads that don't involve serious topics in our hobby. Making comments like that just make your further replys just that much less credible.
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Since people can't seem to stick to facts in this thread, I tried to help out by migrating the valuable information in this thread to the wiki. :)
http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Control_panel
Joseph Elwell.
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You mean, you insulted me, then added what YOU think should go on a panel to that wiki? Hope you add to it: "A minimum of 40 admin buttons should be used. Trackball plates should NEVER be recessed or hidden, and joystick dust washers are definitely optional. Also, order one of every single colour button you can find, and slap them haphazardly all over the panel. You won't know which button is the fire button, but you're in luck! Just press the 'wiki' button on the panel, then alt, then F12, then maybe enter, oh and esc...don't worry those are there...and then pause twice, then tilde, and BOOM you're at a command screen where you can figure out which button you want as Player 1 fire!"
As long as the wiki conforms to YOUR cabinet, all will be right with the world jewel.
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Since people can't seem to stick to facts in this thread,
The facts are that you stated "I really don't think people should be taking advice from this guy."
I don't know what part of the world you come from where that's NOT a personal attack.
Have the balls to admit when you've been caught and called out on something. As it is, you're being quite disingenious.
You may continue to ignore the fact that you personally attacked Zakk until you're blue in the face, but your own words betray you.
Now you're just making yourself look like a brazen idiot, as if sticking your fingers in your ears and screaming "LALALALALALALALALALALALAIAMNOTLISTENINGLALALALALA" will make it all go away.
The facts are you personally attacked Zakk. To act as if you did otherwise is a lie.
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You wouldn't be clear if you took a shower in Windex.
:laugh2:
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You wouldn't be clear if you took a shower in Windex.
:laugh2:
One of the few things I've learned here (slow learner), is that before attacking another member, be ready to stand up for your attack, be ready to back down and apologize, or just "take you ball and go home".
Rarely have I seen someone get away with this?
The other thing is to READ THE POST before commenting (I've done this too) :banghead: ....but be ready to suck it up when wrong.
If you don't agree, well....I hear Harpel might be starting a club!
***EDIT...well, I screwed this post up, not sure how to fix it, but...oh well.....Hey JELWELL, wouldn't it be nice to be able to delete postings?*** :hissy:
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Sing with me now!
We're going to hell,
We're going to hell,
...
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Is that to the tune of:
Here comes the bride
Here comes the bride
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I dont have any admin buttons on mine. I use a wireless keyboard and mouse for that.
i do this too and i've found that it works best. hide the kb and mouse when people
play with the cab, and they will never be able to get into the front end.
I like the look of a real machine found at golfland, so no extra buttons for me.
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I've been trying to figure out what I'd do for admin buttons on my panel and thought I'd post what I ended up with.
I definitely wanted an obvious and dedicated Pause button, and Exit function so guests could figure it out and change games on their own (I'm using Mamewah for my front end).
Upon reading this thread, and a few others, and asking another few questions of my own, I determined that there are other admin functions I might like to have accessible from the control panel but that nobody else would need them, so I don't see putting dedicated buttons in for this.
I also wanted to avoid the P1Start+P2Start = Exit problem. Which also made me think, I don't think I want a simple single dedicated Exit button where somebody could hit it accidentally and exit a game when they didn't really want to. I decided I did want Exit to have to be a combination of two different buttons so you'd have to deliberately press both to Exit.
I also do have enough extra inputs on my I-Pac/4 that I could add some admin buttons without having to use a Shift function. (Though I ended up using a Shift function anyway as you'll see below.)
So here's what I ended up with.
I have 2 admin buttons on the top of my panel, the same number I'd have if I had a single dedicated Pause and Exit button. BUT, both buttons by themselves are Pause. The left Pause button is also my shift button. Then the shifted function of the right Pause button is to Exit (Esc). So Exit is press and hold the left Pause button, then press the right Pause button. (And the buttons are on opposite sides of the panel so somebody can't accidentally press both buttons at the same time with one hand.) These 2 buttons are wired to P1B7 and P1B8 on my I-Pac/4 since I'm only using 6 buttons for P1 & P2. So I used WinIPac to redefine P1B7 as the Shift key.
So, while I was at it, I figured nobody would accidentally hold down the pause button like they might a P1Start button, so I added more admin functions using the Shift function.
Shifted P1B1, P1B2, and P1B3 correspond to F1, F2, and F3 respectively. Then I have the P1 shifted joystick directions mapped the same as they come in the I-Pac by default.
While the argument could certainly be made that I don't need those additional shifted admin functions, I definitely don't think it can hurt to have them based on me using the Pause button as the Shift key and not having to have any additional physical buttons to support them.
Oh, and I took the other advice of changing Mamewah to use something other than ESC to exit it so typical players won't be able to exit the front end. I did program a shift function though to exit Mamewah so I could still do it without a keyboard if I wanted to.