CP overlay

[DougHillman]

Here's the CPO for the contracted cab I just finished building.  Nothing fancy.  Not a big fan of busy CPO's with photo's in the background and alot going on in the foreground.

While I can appreciate the artistry and work that went into some of them (GSXR's & motorfish's come to mind) they're not for me.   (Don't get me wrong, I love the look of some of these type's of panels.  Just not something that fits into the "feel" I'm going for when I build a cabinet.)

So like any good artist, I stole the things I liked and made my own.  



Pretty simple deliniations of the players.  Lables for the few control buttons that need them.  Geometrics that visually explain the controls.  (8-way designs and the fading circle around the rotary sticks.)   My monitor bezel will have some instructions which will explain button layouts and how to switch the P1 & P2 sticks between 4 & 8-way.   Don't wanna clutter up the CP with that stuff.

The red "eyes" are both trackballs, with a spinner in between.
 

[njchan]

VERY NICE ....

I too can't decide whether or not to have a "busy" CPO or a simple yet graphically appealing one like yours ... perhaps even have a plain formica one ... although that's not much fun .

what program did you use to make this?  Any tips for a "newbie" with little to no graphics experience?

[snekse]

Joysticks between front and side players?  Is that for dual joystick games like Karate Champ?  Do you have the CP built already?

[mahuti]

It has been suggested on this board many times that you shouldn't angle the outside players. Do a search and I'm sure you can find some of the arguments pro and con (mostly con)

[snekse]

It has been suggested on this board many times that you shouldn't angle the outside players. Do a search and I'm sure you can find some of the arguments pro and con (mostly con)

Well, suggestions are just that - suggestions.  It's all a matter of personal preference.  Personally I wouldn't have angled them to such a degree, but that's just me.  I prefer the lines of a 22 1/2 or 30 degree angle.  The less you angle the outsides, the more room it gives you in the center of your CP.  I think the biggest drawback to NOT angling the CP is slamming shoulders in a 4 player game.  

[DougHillman]

njchan, this CPO was designed in Adobe Illustrator.   The file has a template layer that was used to lay out all the controls (then printed & taped to the CP blank.  Drilled right through the template.)   My girlfriend then designed the CPO on another layer over the top of the template to ensure that everything will line up correctly.

snekse, the sticks between the main Player sections are Rotary sticks for games such as Ikari Warriors.  A requirement of the customer this cabinet was designed for.

mahuti, I don't need to do a search.  I've read these forums since the beginning.  I'm firmly on the side of angled P3 & P4.  Most original 4 player cabinets are this way, for one.  I've never come across anyone who has a problem playing Simpsons or TMNT or whatever at a slight angle.  I've also never seen anyone who has any real trouble playing 2-player Smash TV or Karate Champ with the controls as they are.   The human body/mind adapts.  I'd encourage anyone who believes that they have to be laid out straight to play some games on an angled panel.  Most importantly, this looks a bazillion times better aesthetically.  Those 4 foot wide straight CP's with all 4 players laid out horizontally are hideous.   These are maybe a slight bit more angled than I would have preferred, but we had space considerations.  And it plays fine for the tiny percentage of time that they are ever used.  (On the off chance that you're speaking of the actual stick DIRECTIONS being angled, they're not.  Look at the graphics around the stick.  They make it pretty obvious that UP is straight towards the screen.)



   

[mahuti]

Don't need to convince me. I don't really care either way, just wanted you to be aware that it's an issue that's been discussed in the past. If you're informed and happy with what you've got, then you're good to go.

[snekse]

snekse, the sticks between the main Player sections are Rotary sticks for games such as Ikari Warriors.  A requirement of the customer this cabinet was designed for.

....I've also never seen anyone who has any real trouble playing 2-player Smash TV or Karate Champ with the controls as they are.    

So I have 2 questions.

1. Does Ikari Warriors take 1 or 2 Rotary sticks per player?  Which buttons do they tend to use with this layout (left or right)?

2. Which sticks are used for Karate Champ?  Player 3 & 1 OR Rotary & 1?

[DougHillman]

snekse, the sticks between the main Player sections are Rotary sticks for games such as Ikari Warriors.  A requirement of the customer this cabinet was designed for.

....I've also never seen anyone who has any real trouble playing 2-player Smash TV or Karate Champ with the controls as they are.    

So I have 2 questions.

1. Does Ikari Warriors take 1 or 2 Rotary sticks per player?  Which buttons do they tend to use with this layout (left or right)?

2. Which sticks are used for Karate Champ?  Player 3 & 1 OR Rotary & 1?

1: Ikari / Heavy Barrel are 2-player simultaneous games which use 1 rotary stick per player.  Player 1 uses the rotary on the left and can use either the regular P1 B1 & B2 or the two lower buttons in the P3 grouping, depending on which hand they wish to control the stick with.  Player 2 is the same deal on the right.  

2: Player 1 in games such as Karate Champ and Smash TV uses the P3 & P1 sticks, with Player 2 using P2 & P4.  The rotary sticks are wired to the same inputs as P1 & P2 so they cannot be used in a situation like this.    They could just as easily be wired as P3 & P4 and used in the dual stick games though.   It'd require setting up the controls in Ikari, etc. and the rotary sticks have a slightly different feel to them than the rest of the Ultimarc sticks, but I was thinking of setting them up like this for a bit and seeing which the customer preferred.   He's had a coupla weeks to play with them as they are now.  

[njchan]

doug ... this is nice ... thanks for getting back to me.  I willl definitely have to do some reading on illustrator to see if I can make something of my own.

did you also create the graphics or did you get them from a vector graphic site?

[DougHillman]

doug ... this is nice ... thanks for getting back to me.  I willl definitely have to do some reading on illustrator to see if I can make something of my own.

did you also create the graphics or did you get them from a vector graphic site?

She created them.