4 Player control panel design

[motorfish]

Hello All!

I've decided to do a 4 Player version of my control panel in a way that I think will best utilize the space on such a large area, not compromise gameplay, and still have an aesthetically pleasing look, while maintaining the general feel of my previous control panels.

As such I'm attempting to have the following:

- two rotary joysticks for Ikari Warriors style games

- two Super 8 way joysticks for fighting games (rotary joysticks for fighting games just aren't responsive enough for my discriminating taste)

- spinner

- trackball

- three and four player 8 way sticks (four buttons for Players three and four)

-  a dedicated 4 way stick in there as well with a few buttons near it

- my usual emulation buttons


I've composed a rough (an I mean rough) draft of my initial thoughts on how I would set this monster up. (The image is cut n' pasted together from a jpeg of the Golden Tee CP.

Again, this is a rough draft! I know that the graphics are chopped up and crappy at this point. This is all for spacing and placement concerns.

I think that this would totally work out great.  Here's my rough draft. An actual clean version will come soon, complete with new graphics. I like the old black and blue, but it's time for me to move on and design something even better:
http://csoft.net/~krelgoni/motorfish/Temp/4playerCPlayout%20copy.jpg

[GGKoul]

I just have 2 comments.

I have a 4 player panel and I tried to fit as much as possible on my CP, but it just didn't work too good.  It maybe best to figure out what games you really want to play instead of trying to fit everything on one panel.

4 way above the Trackball.  If you planning on playing Golden Tee type games, then people are going to wack their hands on the 4 way with their big upswings.

[unclet]

I would be concerned about hitting my right forearm on the Super Joystick when using the trackball.

[clanggedin]

Get rid of the 4 player joystick and just get a 4/8 joystick. Make player one joy a top fire too for Tron and Battletank

[Pixelhugger]

Really looking forward to seeing the final artwork!

[hulkster]

I would be concerned about hitting my right forearm on the Super Joystick when using the trackball.

[Silver]

I dont mind loads of controls on one panel - I know where you are coming from.

However, 7 joysticks needs a bigger panel - or lose the trackball. The biggest problem I see is that the trackball is hindered on 3 sides by joysticks - it looks like a right of left handed players would be hitting the joysticks either side all the time.

If you want all those controls, I think by far the best option would be to have a split level CP - Like Supercade. Stick the trackball/spinner/4way/admin on the smaller uppershelf, exactly high enough to competely avoid the the other joys.

[GGKoul]

Build a mock up of the control panel and try playing everything and let us know how you make out

[fleevo]

One of the biggest issues i had when i started using your control panel overlay was the position of the trackball and the 4 way, but that was because i wanted to use golden tee. Ive seen guys rip their palms off of the older "rivet" style GT control panels. In this case, i'd be buying a new joystick everytime golden tee was played.....as well as paying lawsuits for broken hands.

All in all it's a great design......but not for golden tee.

by the way, my layout happens to be 4 feet long. I did this to save materials by cutting MDF widthwise rather than ripping it since they only come in 4x8 sheets. Something you may want to consider if your panel is larger than 4 feet.