Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum

Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: teddyboyblue on July 23, 2006, 07:11:10 am

Title: Buttons how many ?
Post by: teddyboyblue on July 23, 2006, 07:11:10 am
Hi all

I have just started to build my first Mame cabinet and now i am going to make the control panel

Now my question is how many buttons should I have on the control panel ?

I am using an ultimarc I-Pac and a ultimarc Opti-Pac

Best regards

Teddyboyblue
Title: Re: Buttons how many ?
Post by: Bones on July 23, 2006, 07:27:40 am
Players 1 and 2 should each have seven buttons. Players 3 & 4 should each have four. The more admin buttons you can fit on your CP the snazzier it will look.

Anybody who tells you different from the above probably works part-time as a circus clown and circus clowns can't be trusted to make good control panels can they?
Title: Re: Buttons how many ?
Post by: teddyboyblue on July 23, 2006, 07:34:06 am
Players 1 and 2 should each have seven buttons. Players 3 & 4 should each have four. The more admin buttons you can fit on your CP the snazzier it will look.

Anybody who tells you different from the above probably works part-time as a circus clown and circus clowns can't be trusted to make good control panels can they?

OK

so far i will make a 2 player CP and i will use 7 buttons for each player

and 3 buttons for the trackball right ?

i will the use 2 for pin Mame

but what about the admin buttons how many should i use there ?
Title: Re: Buttons how many ?
Post by: javeryh on July 23, 2006, 08:56:32 am
If I were building a standard 2 player MAME cabinet I would use Knievel's exact CP.  Check out his "Woody" thread over in Project Announcements and copy it!
Title: Re: Buttons how many ?
Post by: yalborap on July 24, 2006, 08:08:10 pm
Personally, I'd go up to eight buttons. That way, should you get into the console emulation stuff, you can play everything up to SNES no  problem, amongst other uses.

But that's just me. You might despise everything that's ever touched a home console, and in turn not need that extra button.
Title: Re: Buttons how many ?
Post by: severdhed on July 25, 2006, 08:54:24 am
on my 2 player cabinet, i have 6 buttons for each player, plus the start buttons.  2 pinball buttons, and 4 admin buttons.  no coin buttons, just the coin mechs.
Title: Re: Buttons how many ?
Post by: BlinKY1337 on July 25, 2006, 12:32:01 pm
I went with the 7 button neo-geo setup but if I could do it over I would make it 8 for console emulation.
Title: Re: Buttons how many ?
Post by: davieboynj on July 25, 2006, 01:47:09 pm
for snes emulation i've never had any problems with a 6 button standard layout:

coin = select (when do you use select anyway?)
1P = start
and the buttons:
 Y X L
B A R

and if you want to use it for neo geo just do:

 B C D
A - -
and move the top buttons a half inch to the right so that the hand feels comfy on ABCD.

If you're emulating a game on an arcade that requires more than 6 buttons you should really be plugging in a controller, as arcades are not conducive for such complicated play (such as holding down triggers and multiple sequences button presses).  By bastardizing the control panel you're only bastardizing your play. 

As of right now i only have SNES support for "Super Ghouls and Ghosts".
Title: Re: Buttons how many ?
Post by: pointdablame on July 25, 2006, 01:58:32 pm
42
Title: Re: Buttons how many ?
Post by: kiddk1 on July 25, 2006, 02:43:20 pm
here is mine, the hole to the right of the 8 buttons at the top now has a 4 way joy in it.
Title: Re: Buttons how many ?
Post by: teddyboyblue on July 25, 2006, 05:17:48 pm
Thanks guys for all the input i have decided to go with the Knievel's woody control panel layout  ;D

Is there Any one how can show me how to wire the admins buttons to an i-PAC just so i doesn't do something wrong ma by take a picture
Title: Re: Buttons how many ?
Post by: javeryh on July 25, 2006, 05:27:03 pm
It's not the best picture but you can see how it's done.  The bottom 4 wires on each side are the admin button wires for player 1 (green) and player 2 (red).

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/992/1469/1600/ipac%20partially%20wired.jpg

Here's the finished ipac wiring - I wired 2 sets of controls to each side of the ipac:

http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/6107/p1010338lp8.jpg