Karate Champ Controls

[snekse]

I'm just starting the planning stages of my first cab and I need guidance in the joystick department.  I'm making a list of my favorite games and splitting them into different categories (e.g. Must play, Should Play, Hopefully will play, etc...)  

One of my all time favorite games was Karate Champ (A MUST game).  The problem I'm having is figuring out placement.  Part of that problem lies in the fact that I'm not sure how well it will play with (2) 8-way controllers per person.  Has anyone tried this configuration before?  If it doesn't work that well then I have to stick (4) 4-way controllers towards the top of the CP and I've been warned against that due to bumping.  Any feedback on this game would be greatly appreciated.

Since I'm on the topic of game specific configurations, is there a 4 player game that requires 6 buttons per player?

Thanks!
-sneksE

[TalkingOctopus]

Since I'm on the topic of game specific configurations, is there a 4 player game that requires 6 buttons per player?

You only need 4 buttons for player 3 + 4.  To the best of my knowledge, only 2 games use all 4 of those buttons.  (D&D:Towers and D&D:Shadows)

I think that two 8-way joysticks work allright for karate champs, however, I am not a diehard fan.  I think that very few people have the proper panel for 2 player karate champ and that if you want to make the perfect panel for that game, it probably would be best to consider swappable panels.

[snekse]

At the moment I'm strongly considering a rotating panel.  Swappable would be a pain due to storage of the panels when not in use.  I don't want to leave them laying around or even have them in sight really.

For Karate Champ I was thinking maybe doing one panel with dual top fires so I could play Battle Zone as well, but I'm just not sure if I could play Karate Champ like that.

[hooded_paladin]

there's no way you're gonna put 4 dedicated 4-way joysticks on your cab, so use the OSCAR controls joystick retrictor plates

each joystick gets a metal mounting plate and then you add little plastic things to keep them out of the diagonals for 4-way mode.

(they can either come with screws [so you screw them in] or with pins [so you just set them in])

They won't work with topfires, though, because of the weird fat base those joysticks have.

[snekse]

there's no way you're gonna put 4 dedicated 4-way joysticks on your cab

If I build a rotating panel I don't see why there would be a problem...

Am I missing something?  

[hooded_paladin]

well, remember that top-fire joysticks are 8-way not 4-way.  So a 4 top-fire panel wouldn't work very well.

[jerryjanis]

I'll second TalkingOctopus - from a non-diehard fan, dual 8ways work great.

[snekse]

well, remember that top-fire joysticks are 8-way not 4-way.

Yeah, that I knew.  Sorry, didn't clarify.  Basically I was thinking that if I wanted to use (2) 8 ways vs. (2) 4 ways, then maybe I'd use something more conducive to playing tank type games (think dual Tron sticks.  Again, this would only be if I built a dedicated CP.

I'd do something like this...
http://www.happcontrols.com/joysticks/50250800.htm

I think at this point though I should just get the hardware and build out a proto.  See if 8 ways are acceptable.

[SirPoonga]

At the moment I'm strongly considering a rotating panel.  Swappable would be a pain due to storage of the panels when not in use.  I don't want to leave them laying around or even have them in sight really.

Depends on design.

[Lilwolf]

You have some freedom with hotswappable control panels that rotaries dont have.

Like 2 / 3 360 steering wheels.  You want them to stick out the front of your cabinet a bit so you can get a good spin on them.  I don't think they would fit on a rotary similar to 1ups... It would be cake on the horizontal rotaries (but building one will probably bring down the wrath of Howard...hehe).

If you are only going for 2player cab... But you want 2 player smashtv / totalcarnage / karate champ.  Then you might go with oscars restrictor plates with some buttons between them.  Not a bad solution.  You might also decide if you can get away with 8way sticks.  I think they are pretty good with KCamp... but I don't have anything to compare it with... (that helps... a lot of games where great on my system until I played the original... then I had to search ebay for a better / different controller)

[Howard_Casto]

I have no problem with horizontal rotaries.... Of course I have no problem with people who like polka music either but that doesn't mean I'll go umpha dancing with them.  :-)

I'm doing hot swappable modular myself.  Seems to be the best of both worlds.  All you need to do is put adequate shelving inside the bottom of your cab and storage isn't that much of an issue, assuming your access door is large enough.  Also, it's like lilwolf said.... really hard to do steering wheels, yokes and other huge controls with a rotating panel.  

[snekse]

Also, it's like lilwolf said.... really hard to do steering wheels, yokes and other huge controls with a rotating panel.  

I have to disagree with this.  I think 1UP had a nice solution that would allow a steering wheel setup.  All you have to do is use your 3rd panel for your large controls.  

Since the panels never rotate past that point and you have to open the front to rotate the panels, you can put a fairly large setup on it.  Plus, if you make the third panel modular like he did, you really DO get the best of both worlds.

http://www.1uparcade.com/arcade-const-panels.html

[telengard]

At the moment I'm strongly considering a rotating panel.  Swappable would be a pain due to storage of the panels when not in use.  I don't want to leave them laying around or even have them in sight really.

For Karate Champ I was thinking maybe doing one panel with dual top fires so I could play Battle Zone as well, but I'm just not sure if I could play Karate Champ like that.

I got around this by making modular panels.  Not much to store really.  I keep the controls in a small plastic bin.  Plus I can use 4 4-ways for 2 player Karate Champ if I want.  The flexibility is nice.

[MinerAl]

Again, I recommend the switchable Ultimarc's T-Sticks for close to authentic feel with KC.  

I have a real KC cab, but on my MAME machine I have each player with one T-Stick and a the first four player buttons in a diamond pattern.  It takes a few plays to get used to the idea of pushing the up button instead of jamming a stick upward, but it translates very quickly, and makes your CP useful for lots of other games as well.

It looks something like this:  O=T-Stick   o=button

        o
O    o  o
        o  

Another option would be to put a 4 way and a Happs 3-trigger stick, then you could play KC normally and you could get used to using the trigger stick's 7 switches (up, down, left, right, 3 triggers) as buttons for every other game.