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Brainstorming a rotating control panel
Batchman:
New here. Love some of the projects I have seen people working on. Am starting to get serious about planning out a hopefully absolutely awesome control panel that can play massive amounts of games, yet want to avoid the whole 'Frankenpanel' issue. Have really liked the look of a couple of the three way rotating control panels I have seen here, and figured it was one way to try and lessen the over-abundance of controls on a single panel.
So I thought I would throw in some of the things I was thinking about, and see what people think of the idea (assuming that anybody is interested in the topic, and that this isn't the kind of topic that has been done 347,698 times, and which people refuse to participate in, anymore.)
Some of the things I know I want in the overall layout are:
Four sets of joysticks and buttons for four player games (I know there is at least one six player game out there, but I think 4 player is taking things far enough.)
Four sets of spinners for Warlords and any other more than two player spinner games.
(Since I am going with the idea of a rotating set of 3 control boards, the main control area will not be wide enough to comfortably do four player, so players 3 and 4 will actually be on wings off to either side, lessening 'Franken-ing' and giving the players more room.)
Single and double track balls for their various games. (I don't know of any games with more than two trackballs, though I am sure they exist.)
Single 4-way joystick, hopefully that can somehow be rotated 45 degrees for games like Q*Bert or Congo Bongo.
Dual 8-way joysticks about a foot apart for games like Crazy Climber and Robotron.
Throttle/yoke and spinner combination for Tron.
At the moment, those are the things that are coming to mind. While it will take a little brain storming, it seems to me I ought to be able to fit all of the above into three panels without being too horribly over-done, and it ought to cover about 98% of the arcade games out there.
What I am wondering is A) what have I forgotten about that I need to have for the ultimate arcade machine, B) what the overall thought is on the feasibility of being able to pull off a good design with these current desires, and C) what kinds of controllers am I forgetting entirely that are used a lot that I ought to be including.
I have also thought (slightly) about the possibility of a steering wheel that can be fastened on to the front of one of the panels to better enable driving games, which I think I've seen on one of the Knievel cabinets, as an interesting possibility.
Thoughts? Comments? Or should I just shut up?
Drnick:
--- Quote from: Batchman on February 01, 2014, 03:10:52 am ---
Some of the things I know I want in the overall layout are:
Single and double track balls for their various games. (I don't know of any games with more than two trackballs, though I am sure they exist.)
At the moment, those are the things that are coming to mind. While it will take a little brain storming, it seems to me I ought to be able to fit all of the above into three panels without being too horribly over-done, and it ought to cover about 98% of the arcade games out there.
A) what have I forgotten about that I need to have for the ultimate arcade machine,
B) what the overall thought is on the feasibility of being able to pull off a good design with these current desires, and
C) what kinds of controllers am I forgetting entirely that are used a lot that I ought to be including.
I have also thought (slightly) about the possibility of a steering wheel that can be fastened on to the front of one of the panels to better enable driving games, which I think I've seen on one of the Knievel cabinets, as an interesting possibility.
Thoughts? Comments? Or should I just shut up?
--- End quote ---
Atari Football had 3 Trackballs if I remember correctly.
What have I forgotten that I need for the ultimate arcade? Very Deep Pockets. Seriously, you will need deep pockets for this.
Overall thoughts on feasibility. I dont think that a rotating panel is the way to go, I would go down the modular panel route there is a wonderful example that I can't see for the life of me at the moment. As you are planning on having Players 3 and 4 hang from the sides as required you have already started the modular route in your head.
Found it http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,112889.msg1198437.html#msg1198437
What controllers are you forgetting? 49Way Joysticks, Rotating sticks, Top Fire Sticks, (There's probably more)
Steering wheel attachment, You can get attachments for the spinners, But if you build a modular control panel you could have some real steering wheels.
Batchman:
--- Quote from: Drnick on February 01, 2014, 04:31:09 am ---Atari Football had 3 Trackballs if I remember correctly.
What have I forgotten that I need for the ultimate arcade? Very Deep Pockets. Seriously, you will need deep pockets for this.
Overall thoughts on feasibility. I dont think that a rotating panel is the way to go, I would go down the modular panel route there is a wonderful example that I can't see for the life of me at the moment. As you are planning on having Players 3 and 4 hang from the sides as required you have already started the modular route in your head.
Found it http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,112889.msg1198437.html#msg1198437
What controllers are you forgetting? 49Way Joysticks, Rotating sticks, Top Fire Sticks, (There's probably more)
Steering wheel attachment, You can get attachments for the spinners, But if you build a modular control panel you could have some real steering wheels.
--- End quote ---
Deep pockets ... yes, I can see that!
At the moment I am more interested in the rotating possibilities, but if that should fail, I might have to consider going modular. The great thing is, there are more than one example of each style to work off of on here!
49 way sticks and rotating sticks I will have to do some research to even know what they are / what they are for ... top fire sticks I will have to see if I can find some games for, and discover if I feel I need them.
I wasn't looking at something to plop down on a spinner, but rather a full wheel controller that could be added to the front of one of the control panels for a steering wheel ... would have to research what would be involved a bit, but even if the rest isn't modular, I was kind of figuring on the steering wheel being so.
Thank you for sharing some thoughts with me ... I really appreciate it!
Dawgz Rule:
For the amount of money you will spend on one rotating panel (along with the technical obstacles), you can build "x" number of individual cabs that will more than likely better serve the intended function. It is also very easy to be lured into wanting to be able to play everything but you are better off focusing your build on the games you really enjoy.
DaveMMR:
Having "everything" on your control panel is a great way to cover all possible games, but it's important to ask yourself how many times that odd game with the four spinners or three trackballs or Tron is going to be played. Are your friends really interested in playing Rampart or Warlords or Marble Madness over, say, Street Fighter II. (This goes for four-player games as well.)
In reality, a two-player joystick set-up (six button standard) will cover between 80-90%* of the games, especially if one of those sticks works well with 4-way games (e.g. switchable or U360.) Maybe add a trackball and spinner and maybe you're up to 90-95%*. The time/expense of covering that last 5-10% jumps dramatically and rarely justifies itself in the end. (I could be wrong, maybe you run with a group that has a strong affinity for the multi-special control games.)
By the way, look at some rotating projects and you'll see there are still games that would be unplayable on the setups. Why? Because rotating panels are actually more restricting than simple swappable (or modular)** panels. If you just have a system where you can remove/replace a panel, you can have the simple panel NOW and then add more as you go along limited by only storage space. (Hint: plan ahead and the base of you arcade cabinet makes for great panel storage.)
*Unscientific rough guesstimates - and I didn't factor in majong games or similar.
**I use swappable (full) panels and modular interchangeably but there's a different strategy in employing each one. The latter is more work but much more versatile while the former is cleaner but a bit more limiting (you'll have to repeat controls often times.)
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