controls vs game

[rchadd]

I am in the process of trying to decide which controls i need on my control pannel.

Is there a list of all games supported my mame with details of the required controls (eg. spinner, trackball, 4/8 way joystick, number of buttons...)?

need to evaluate games vs controls vs CP space trade off. you know...if i don't have control x or only n buttons which games will be affected?

it would also be useful if the list also recorded if game is designed to be played in verical or horizontal orientation.

I have checked the games list on www.mame.net but it does not include this information.

cheers

- richard

[TalkingOctopus]

It is actually an ongoing project.  You can view the controls.dat here:

http://fe.donkeyfly.com/controls/controls.php

You can also find information about controls from the  sortinfo tool:

http://hem.passagen.se/robert.palmqvist/Downloads/downloads.html

[Howard_Casto]

What I can tell you right now.....

A 2 player setup with 6 buttons a pop and a regular joystick will take care of 80 to 90 % of the games in mame.  So what games use specifically what is pretty irrelevant.  You have to think back to your days in the arcade and make sure that your favorite games will run on this layout.  If not then you have to decide if it's worth adding specialty controls to play them.  

[SirPoonga]

I am pretty happy with my CP.  It;s 2 player, 1 8way joy and 6 buttons per player, a tball, and a spinner.  I will make a second control panel for the odd games.  It will have LS-30s, bzone/tron/dotron setup.

[rchadd]

i see many people having 7 buttons on their CP's (like on the X-Arcade) but can't for the life of me think of any game that needs 7 buttons. I just wondered if anyone knew.

[rchadd]

cheers sortinfo.exe is the sort of thing i was looking for!

[EtherHawk]

Don't know if you are still watching this thread, but the 7 buttons are not for 7 button games, but for neo-geo style games that use 4 buttons which you can rest your thumb, index, middle, and ring fingers on all at once.  I also found it more useful for something like asteroids/space duel where you need instant access to 3 buttons, it is just easier for me to use my thumb, index, and middle fingers than index, middle and ring fingers (probably just a personal preference).  Good luck with your design, and be sure to check out your top 10 games carefully to make sure they will work.

[rchadd]

Oh get it now! its a 4/6 button hybrid layout.

hmm still unconvinced whether worth going for the extra button or not - as i've never played neo geo games before (their mostly fighters right?) do all neo-geo games require 4 buttons? can i get away with playing them with 6 button config or too awkward?

[Felsir]

If you never used the 7 button NeoGeo layout, a 6 button layout will do just fine.

A lot of NeoGeo games only use 3 buttons (Metal Slug: shoot - jump - granade)
You might want to 'test' the layout first on cardboard to see what works best for you. I tested it like this:


Final layout:

[rchadd]

hey that is pretty much the layout that i was thinking - with 6 buttons laid out in a curve shape.

what size tackball is that? 3"?

[Felsir]

It's a 2 1/4" trackball (hmm, topic is not really software related anymore eh?   )