What 'admin' buttons should I be installing?

[Dechene]

hey guys, I'm new as a member here but you guys have been helping me out with the design of my first cab for a while now, 
but I'd like some info that I haven't come across as yet.

What sort of 'admin' buttons do you guys recommend?
I'm thinking along the lines of a pause & escape button, anything else I should be looking at including as well?
I'll be running MaLa as my frontend if that matters.

Here's a couple shots of my in progress cab, I designed it in Google SketchUp myself, the lean back angle may look strange to some, but I love it, it makes me feel like a little kid again staring up at a huge machine.






Cheers & thanks for all the advice in the past & future!
Mario

[RayB]

Arcade games dont need Admin buttons.

But MAME cabinets do! ;-)

Is your cabinet serious cut so that it angles back? (Looks that way in the photos)

[Rick]

Is your cabinet serious cut so that it angles back? (Looks that way in the photos)

...the lean back angle may look strange to some, but I love it, it makes me feel like a little kid again staring up at a huge machine.

 

[flashiv]

I have 4.  Pause, escape, enter and switch (alt-tab).  Sometimes my front end for all the other programs "hangs".  I have MAME, WolfMAME (for World Record attempts), PC Games, ZNES and Project 64 also in my cab so I need a front end to tie them all together.  If the front end hangs I just use my switch button to switch back to the game and hit enter.  Some day I'll figure what is hanging the front end.     OK may not, having too much fun playing the games.

[TOK]

I put coin and pause on mine but never up on the panel. The game exit can be done through the shifted functions of the encoder (hold player 1 and hit player 2). MaLa is also uses those keys, so you can hit the same keys a second time to exit the front end.

[Endaar]

I know there's a preference to not put too many admin buttons on a panel, but keep in mind every shifted function you 'need' to use to play a game will require an explanation (probably more than once) to your friends.

I personally have Pause, Tab, Reset, and Exit on my own panel. Originally I was using a shifted button for coin input, but recently connected the coin mech (using tokens) and found it made it much easier for a newcomer to walk up to the cab and play. Without a coin mech I'd defintely want a coin button on the panel.

Endaar

[gazz292]

i'm still planing my CP, but i deffo plan to have 4 admin buttons dedicated to just that, they will be smaller buttons than the main fire buttons and 1up and 2up buttons,

what i wont have are tons of duplicated fire buttons, i will have 2 x 4/8 way top switchable joys, 2 banks of 6 fire buttons, a track ball and a spinner,
the main fire buttons are used for trackball and spinner fire buttons, thinking of getting some translucent buttons and an led whizz so it can illuminate the buttons used in each game tho.

[Dechene]

hey thanks guys,

I wasn't going to put a tab button in there, but i guess it would be an easy way to figure out what button does what in each game hey?
At the moment I'm thinking just P1 P2 PAUSE, and I'll link P1&P2 for exit. I may link up some buttons for Tab as well.
I'm planning on getting a coin door so I'll use the button on that for my coin input.

I've still got a day or two before I have to decide, now that I've got days off work I should be able to get stuck in and finish a big chunk of the project off.
Thanks for the help, you'll be hearing from me again very soon I think!

[RayB]

Make this a project thread.

[Dechene]

Make this a project thread.

Done, here it is: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=106655.0