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Help deciding what encoder(s) to use for my 4 player cabinet
ShadeValryn:
My control panel has
4 players each with a U360 (which frees up 4 directional switches per player since they're USB)
1 dedicated 4 way switch joystick
1 trackball
1 spinner
9 buttons to each main player (7 reg buttons, one coin, one start)
12 misc buttons
(so basically I'm going to be using 52 switches, one trackball, and one spinner)
I didn't know if maybe the u360 breakout cables were my best bet or what I should really do. maybe an ipac4 and a mini pac? I really want as few boards as possible. I hate to ask you about it, but maybe you have an idea I never would have thought of. The trackball is kind of crappy and I'm considering swapping it for a new 3" trackball, so there are possibilities there.
So far I'm leaning toward getting an i-Pac4 for all my switch-based controls, then an opti-wiz for the spinner and trackball. Anybody else have a better solution or ideas for me?
AndyWarne:
Are there any 4-player games which use 7 buttons per player?
Seems like too many buttons. But, if you were to connect 8 buttons to each U360 this would mean you would not need an I-PAC 4 for the rest, an I-PAC 2 or Mini-PAC would do. The Mini-PAC could also interface the trackball and spinner.
ShadeValryn:
The 7 buttons are for 4 player smash brothers and other wii/gamecube games. But anyways, 4 harnesses for the U360s sounds like a good idea to me. Then I can probably just put the rest onto a mini pac or something like you said, just wish I didn't just sell my mini pac in a lot -_- oh well.
IAmDotorg:
--- Quote from: ShadeValryn on October 07, 2014, 07:37:28 pm ---The 7 buttons are for 4 player smash brothers and other wii/gamecube games. But anyways, 4 harnesses for the U360s sounds like a good idea to me. Then I can probably just put the rest onto a mini pac or something like you said, just wish I didn't just sell my mini pac in a lot -_- oh well.
--- End quote ---
I ended up deciding to use Wiimotes via bluetooth for Wii/GameCube games and did 4 buttons for P3/P4.
IAmDotorg:
I should've also said what I did about buttons -- probably useful :)
I have a similar setup, only without the explosion of misc buttons. You might want to think about what you really need, especially given that the U360 supports shifted buttons, as do the iPacs.
My trackball and spinner are both USB connected, so they go straight to the PC.
The P3/P4 U360s are managing the 4 game buttons, the player start button, and the "admin" button (which is really just "pause" for HyperSpin -- HyperPause has a lot of the admin controls in it already). The pause button is a shift button for additional functionality on the 4 game buttons and admin button.
P1/P2 U360s are not running buttons. I have an IPac Ultimate which the P1/P2 buttons (8 each), plus the P1 start/P2 start and shared "pause" button go into. Additionally the 4 "coin in" buttons and two pinball flipper buttons are on the IPac Ultimate. The IPac Ultimate is controlling most of the RGB LEDs, but I have a PACLed64 handling a few straggler LEDs.
I have a Bluetooth keyboard for doing anything more complicated than that.
There really aren't any 4P MAME games I found that need more than 4 buttons. Some consoles had more, but most console games kinda suck with arcade controls. For those I have a couple USB ports for wired Xbox One controllers, which can be used instead of the controls on the cab for games like that.
And, like I said, Wii games use normal Wiimotes over Bluetooth.
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