Designed my layout, opinions please.

[RedSquirrel]

Spent the past hour or so drawing out my layout.

It's not perfect, some of it isnt centered right etc but its just a quick mock up.

Any opinions about it?

I also am not 100% sure whether I am using a trackball or not. I do want to get one but its a) finding one in the UK (or one that will ship from the USA) and b) finding one thats cheap.

[paigeoliver]

Move the trackball buttons to the top or side of the trackball. They are unusable where you have them (or at least they are not usuable as mouse buttons that way).

[RedSquirrel]

Move the trackball buttons to the top or side of the trackball. They are unusable where you have them (or at least they are not usuable as mouse buttons that way).

thanks. Yeah I was gonna move them to the top actually. Also does it really need 3 buttons? I only did three because most trackballs seem to come with 3 buttons. I would have though two would be enough.

[jdjuggler]

Well... What you can do is just wire the 3 trackball buttons to the player one's 1 2 3 buttons instead of your keyboard encoder.
In this layout, that is -

   1  2  3
   4  5  6
 7

The bottom row numbers may not suit you, but the top 3 can be used in joystick games as fire, jump or whatever and also function as your mouse buttons.
And, of course be used for trackball games like Missile Command that need those 3 buttons.  Or just the same they'll work fine in a mix with the bottom row for fighter games.
I'm sure some BYOAC members have done this as well.  Right?
JD

[RedSquirrel]

Well... What you can do is just wire the 3 trackball buttons to the player one's 1 2 3 buttons instead of your keyboard encoder.
In this layout, that is -

   1  2  3
   4  5  6
 7

The bottom row numbers may not suit you, but the top 3 can be used in joystick games as fire, jump or whatever and also function as your mouse buttons.
And, of course be used for trackball games like Missile Command that need those 3 buttons.  Or just the same they'll work fine in a mix with the bottom row for fighter games.
I'm sure some BYOAC members have done this as well.  Right?
JD

Ah as in remove the three from under the tracker ball and remap them to use the buttons for P1. Yeah, I guess thats a good idea. Ill think about it.

Does anyone think I should use a more standard 3 x 2 layout with the 7th button under neath?

ie

  1  2  3
  4  5  6
7

to the one in the picture?

[mccall]

Are you going to be using an Ipac? If so you can take advantage of the built-in shift feature and you wouldn't need to have your admin buttons on the panel.

The Ipac shift keys come configured in default setting as: escape, tab, enter, tilde, pause and coin. The Ultimarc site has more info.

[RedSquirrel]

Are you going to be using an Ipac? If so you can take advantage of the built-in shift feature and you wouldn't need to have your admin buttons on the panel.

The Ipac shift keys come configured in default setting as: escape, tab, enter, tilde, pause and coin. The Ultimarc site has more info.

Yeah, I am getting ipac. I just thought it might be nice to have seperate buttons for those things. Ive still got a while before I start building it so, nothing is concrete yet.

[mccall]

If you are going to use the regular 2 player Ipac you won't have inputs for all those admin buttons. The two player Ipac supports 8 butons per player plus coin 1 & 2. You have 7 buttons per player and coin 1 & 2 on the panel. That leaves only 2 inputs free.

[Hoagie_one]

im gonna make sure i have a big Pause button on mine.  I get interrupted so much its a crime.

[Minwah]

If you do use dedicated admit buttons, I'd seriously consider moving 'escape' and even pause away from those start buttons - you don't wanna quit while trying to continue!

[zaphod]

I agree that your ESC key is not in the best location.  I have the pause button where your ESC key is.  I programmed the I-Pac to make that the Shift key.  Pressing the Pause and P2-start creates the ESC, in my example.  As jdjuggler mentioned, you could use some of P-1's buttons for the mouse buttons.  I use buttons 5 & 6 for the two mouse buttons.  Frees up space on your panel.  In my opinion, I'd  eliminate most of your admin buttons and just define them with the I-PAC.

[RedSquirrel]

I agree that your ESC key is not in the best location.  I have the pause button where your ESC key is.  I programmed the I-Pac to make that the Shift key.  Pressing the Pause and P2-start creates the ESC, in my example.  As jdjuggler mentioned, you could use some of P-1's buttons for the mouse buttons.  I use buttons 5 & 6 for the two mouse buttons.  Frees up space on your panel.  In my opinion, I'd  eliminate most of your admin buttons and just define them with the I-PAC.

yeah I might get rid of the admin buttons.

But the thing was, you can assign the buttons to other keys right?

P.S I was using 6 buttons per player with the 7th "cloned" from button 4 or whatever for neo geo games (thats right, right?). Leaving me four buttons.

[zaphod]

But the thing was, you can assign the buttons to other keys right?

Absolutely!  I have my two trackball buttons wired to player 1's 5 & 6.   In Mame's ctrlr default def, I define button 5 as input Mouse_button_1 and 6 as _button2.  In Windows they perform just like the left- and right-click.  In Mame, they are seen as buttons 5 & 6.

I have my Pause button (upper left button on yours) wired into the I-Pac as button 7 (as I only have 6 buttons on the CP).  The I-Pac sees that as a 'P' as well as the Shift key, to make all your admin functions work.  Then just assign the Shift functions you want to the buttons that are the most convenient.  It's a lot easier than I make it sound.  Very nice configuration utility handles it all.

By redefining keys in software, you eliminate a lot of button clutter.  That's just what I did.  It's ultimately your controller so make it however you wish.  As you can see in all the examples on this site, there are a lot of differing designs, all which work just fine.