First Person Shooters - Best way to go?

[the3eyedblindman]

Im talking about games such as Medal of Honor and Halo (Pc Versions), ect. What is the best way to play these on a cab. The 3 choices I came up were A) just the keyboard and mouse, b) a gamepad and C) use your arcade controls ( I figured you could use your player 1 joystick for directions, have 2 pushbuttons be look up and look down, 1 pushbutton be fire, one pushbutton be change weapon and maybe 2 for jumping and crouching)
I mainly want to know how the majority of you go about playing first person shooters on your cabinet.

[JoyMonkey]

I think the ideal control panel setup for a FPS would be a trackball or analog joystick for looking (left hand), and a firetop 8way joystick for movement (right hand). Maybe some buttons could be placed to the right of the trackball for switching weapons/jumping/crouching (your left thumb could tap these).

[Lilwolf]

I would personally use a mouse (find a black mouse and cut the wire... wire it through the a whole (tie knot in other side) and reconnect the wires....   So you have a mouse cord coming out of a control panel. 

Then if you want to get fancy.. you could even route a little mouse pad area and put a real good mouse pad in its place.

Then I would take about 10 buttons and place them in easy to access spots.  Inverted T and spaces close to it for run / jump / duck.  And a few above it for misc commands...

but all in all...  you really aren't going to get more out of it then a mouse and keyboard.

[JB]

I would personally use a mouse (find a black mouse and cut the wire... wire it through the a whole (tie knot in other side) and reconnect the wires....   So you have a mouse cord coming out of a control panel. 

Then if you want to get fancy.. you could even route a little mouse pad area and put a real good mouse pad in its place.

Then I would take about 10 buttons and place them in easy to access spots.  Inverted T and spaces close to it for run / jump / duck.  And a few above it for misc commands...

but all in all...  you really aren't going to get more out of it then a mouse and keyboard.

I'd use a panel trackball. Always hated mice for game input.

[jcrouse]

I play a lot of first persojn shooters. We have a clan and use Ventrilo for doing voice comm while we play. Most all of us in the clan use a Belkin Nostromo Gaming Controller in conjunction with a mouse. This setup would be quite easy to simulate with a custom control panel. I've considered it many times. Here is a link to the device. It's awesome and the price is extremely reasonable.

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=&Section_Id=2071&pcount=&Product_Id=157024

Enjoy,
John

[the3eyedblindman]

I'll probably just hide a usb gamepad in keyboard drawer.

[Howard_Casto]

I would suggest oh... I dunno, a PC!

These games are intended for long-term play and thus don't work well with a cab.  Also the text is often too small to read on the pc versions.

[papaschtroumpf]

I have to agree with Howard. You won't find me trying to Play Unreal Tournament 2004 on my cabinet, the same way I don't play MAME games on my PC.

[elvis]

Thirded.  I play arcade games with a joystick on a cab, and FPS games with a mouse and keyboard on a PC.

Doing it the other way around is just painful, and rather silly.

[rchadd]

i'd use an XBOX controller with 2 analog thumbsticks

[ErikRuud]

I don't play many PC games, and even fewer FPS, however for the games I do play (ThinkTanks in articular) I use the trackball for aiming and top fire joystick for movement and shooting.  I do know that one of the better ThinkTanks players uses a Nostromo.

I have been trying out ZAP from GarageGames.  It is an online, multilplayer game that has a nice retro vector graphics look.  The controls are similar to robotron, but I find it easier to play using a dual analog gamepad.

[Howard_Casto]

Attempting to end on a positive note (hey I'll try anything once)  there are a good number of pc games that do play well on an arcade cab.  We have a thread about it, look it up. 

[the3eyedblindman]

Once again, don't wanna make Howard mad  , I will probably just buy an analog gamepad and hide it in my keyboard drawer.

[Howard_Casto]

So you enjoy standing two feet away from a monitor for several hours, thus ruining your eyes? 

Arcade machines are designed for short term play.... you'll go blind if you play too much.   

[ErikRuud]

So you enjoy standing two feet away from a monitor for several hours, thus ruining your eyes?

I earn a living sitting two feet from a monitor for several hours a day.

Actually my eyes have been bad since 2nd grade, which is was 4 years or so  before the first video arcade machine.

[Howard_Casto]

So you enjoy standing two feet away from a monitor for several hours, thus ruining your eyes?

I earn a living sitting two feet from a monitor for several hours a day.

Actually my eyes have been bad since 2nd grade, which is was 4 years or so

[the3eyedblindman]

Yes, I will play all games from my arcade, and this computer will be used for doing things like this.