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4 Player CP layout

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DougHillman:

It's a little unclear as to who's advocating what here.  :)  

Most people who construct 4 player CP's like this only angle the layout of the stick & button combo for P3 & P4, they don't actually angle the sticks.   On the 4 player CP I just built (linked in the previous post by me in this thread) ALL 4 of the main joysticks have their "Up" throw in the same direction.  Straight up torwards the top of the CP.  P3 & P4 "up" throws are not angled in.  There has been more than one thread discussing this in the past and the general concensus is that all original 4 player games were laid out this way, and that it just makes more sense.  

I can't find the thread that this came from, but I did keep the pic.   Layout "A" is correct, Layout "B" would be confusing for players 3 & 4 as well as being unusable for multiplayer dual-stick games.  (Though, of course, Layout "A" is incorrect in that there's no need for more than 4 buttons for P3 & P4.  ;)   )

cdbrown:
Layout A in terms of joystick orientation.  As for the buttons you can have them slightly rotated, located below the stick (P3) or above the stick (P4) to create more space - I have done this for my panel.

WwonderLlama:

--- Quote from: cdbrown on August 19, 2004, 10:44:44 pm ---If you were to check out the control panels for 4-player games like TMNT, xmen, nba Jam etc, you would see that all the joysticks are oriented the same direction.  I originally thought of having my joysticks like yours but after trialling them in cardboard I found it rather difficult to play properly.  Basically you can rotate the buttons around to make space but i would suggest straightening up the joysticks so that up on each joystick is perpendicular to the screen.

--- End quote ---

I found a pic of the TMNT cabinet at:
http://www.klov.net/T/Teenage_Mutant_Ninja_Turtles.html

The buttons for P3-P4 are rotated to 90 degrees of the monitor... are you sure the joysticks' "up" position points toward the monitor? If I were standing with my hands on the joysticks and buttons, I'd have to move my hand to the left to get an "up" motion from the joystick.  I haven't played TMNT in a long time, but I don't remember it being like that.

My current plan is to construct a few cp's out of $5 sheets of partical board and play-test them. Better to spend $20 getting a good feel than having a cp that's unplayable, right?

Bgnome:
you can barely see the carriage bolts in that pic but you can see that all the joysticks are mounted the same way: up towards the screen.  you dont remember because you most likely did not notice.  people playing 3 and 4 will be standing somewhat at the sides of the machine and turning their heads to look at the screen.  movement feels more natural when it is relative to the movement of characters on the screen.  if people on that TMNT cab were playing 3 and 4 and controls were relative to their position, UP would be towards the center of the cp, which would be 90 degrees off from the direction characters would actually be moving.  i think that would be a lot more noticeable and take some getting used to.
you dont even need to spend $5 on particle board..  you can use cardboard or i have seen some people use a plank for fences..

WwonderLlama:

--- Quote from: DougHillman on August 19, 2004, 11:14:36 pm ---...
Most people who construct 4 player CP's like this only angle the layout of the stick & button combo for P3 & P4, they don't actually angle the sticks.   .......  There has been more than one thread discussing this in the past and the general concensus is that all original 4 player games were laid out this way, and that it just makes more sense.  

I can't find the thread that this came from, but I did keep the pic.   Layout "A" is correct, Layout "B" would be confusing for players 3 & 4 as well as being unusable for multiplayer dual-stick games.  ...



--- End quote ---

(Quote edited for brevity.)

My first instinct is that it'd be harder to control if the joystick directions weren't inline with the buttons, but I'll play-test it and see which is more intuitive.  I'm not concerned with the 2-stick games, so having different angles on the joysticks won't be an issue on that front.

It's been way too long since I played a 4 player game in the arcade, but it always seemed that the players all stood at angles from each other and their controls were similarly angled.  After playing with a mockup cp w/ P1 & P3, I've realized that P3 is too angled and probably too close to P1.  I'm planning on widening the control panel and relaxing the angles of P3 and P4 to give the players more room.  I'm not quite convinced that having P3 and P4's "up" position facing the monitors is correct, but I'll give it a try.  (It's completely likely that I'll end up being wrong, but I guess I need to learn the hard way ;))

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