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PL1:
Since you mentioned levers, here is a design that should work.

The shift levers (green) have springs that pull them back to the rear crossbar (orange circle) when not latched or pushed forward.  The microswitches are mounted to a pivot bar (gray). The pivot bar is either spring loaded (black loop) or counter-weighted to return to the upright position when not pushed forward by a lever.  Both the levers and the pivot bar turn around an axis (blue) that runs all the way through all 4 levers and the pivot bar.

The starting position on the left shows lever 1 forward with the spring-loaded latch (yellow) engaged.  When you push lever 2 forward, the ramp on latch 2 slides up and over the pivot bar.  As you continue to push forward, lever 2 pushes the pivot bar until it is stopped by the forward crossbar. (orange square)  As levers 1 and 2 reach the forward crossbar, both latches ride up on the forward crossbar, disengaging both of them from the pivot bar.  Since you are not holding lever 1, the spring pulls it back to the rear crossbar. (orange circle)  As you release lever 2, the pivot bar returns to the upright position allowing the spring-loaded latch on lever 2 to slide down to engage and hold lever 2 in the forward position.

The latches (yellow) should not pivot down lower than 90 degrees relative to the lever body to ensure that they can ride up and over the pivot bar. If you look at the side view, the latch is at the bottom of the white cutout.

Mount the lever-arm style microswitches so that the pivot bar prevents the lever from crushing them.


Scott

DaOld Man:
For the real die hard do it yourselfer.
I have come up with a way to maybe use arcade pushbuttons to do what you want.
The drawing shows the button pressing the relay armature which "seals in" (or latches) the armature being pushed while killing power (unlatching) all other buttons.
I show limit switches as the switches that do the electrical work, but you could possibly use the switch to actually press against the relay armature, and use the actual relay contacts in place of switches, but the travel of the button wouldnt be very far, and unless you attach the button to the relay armature, the button would spring back up. Detaching the relay armature and attaching it to the button will give you a lot more button travel.
The spring in the button pulls the armature off the coil when power is cut by pressing a different button. If the armature is very heavy, an additional spring may have to be used.
Plus another set of contacts or switches may have to be used to do the interfacing to the computer.
I think small solenoids could be used instead of relays, but they would have to be rated for continous use.
At the bottom of the pic is a schematic diagram of the circuit.

DaOld Man:
After studying my circuit, this may not work, due to the limit switch of the button being pressed may be faster than the releasing of the armature of another relay that is currently made, resulting in two buttons being held down at once.
But maybe this will be fuel for someone else to think out?
Using a micro controller such as pic chip would probably make this idea work better.

DaOld Man:
Ok, when I get something on my mind I cant eat sleep or drink beer until I get it worked out (well, two out of three aint bad).

Using a NOR gate and some AND gates will make my contraption work.
When button A is pressed, switch 1 is made, which sends a pulse through capacitor CA to set a low at output of the NOR gate. Once CA charges, a high is outputted on the NOR, which sets the AND gate output high, which turns on relay A through it's buffer circuit. the AND Gate output stays high because switch 1 is held closed by the relay.
When another switch is pressed, (lets say switch B), The NOR Gate output goes low until capacitor CB is charged.
The NOR gate output going low causes the AND gate on relay A to go low, which turns off relay A.
When capacitor CB is charged, the relay B turns on, same as relay A did above.
The resistors on the NOR gate inputs tie the inputs to ground.
How long you have to hold the button is based on the capacitor and its grounding resistor. Larger values mean longer time required to hold the button in before it seals.
The time period should be long enough to allow the other relays to clear their associated switch, but short enough to catch a quick push, such as you would have during game play.
The relay buffers are switching circuits that can handle the current of the relay coil. Not shown are protective diodes around the relay coils.



Le Chuck:
^ This is awesome.  It's also out of my experience so I have a few questions.  I take it this uses SPST momentary switches and the state is held by the logic gates?  That being the case where can I jack in LEDs to signal which switch is currently active ?  Also, can you do a design with 5 states so I can map N to fourth gear?  Lastly, any chance of some help with a shopping list  ;D ?  I'm still going to fiddle with my incoming mechanical switches but I think I need to build this for side by side play comparison.  Thanks boss!

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