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Critique my 4 player panel
pointdablame:
I'd drop the 2 buttons for the 4way altogether... you can just use the first 2 buttons on either the P1 or P2 button layout, and it will look much better IMO. You also give people the choice of which hand to use like I mention below.
I'm also assuming those silver things ARE spinners, despite what PCTech said. They certainly don't look like buttons to me. If they are spinners, you are losing the ability to choose which hand to use for the spinner if that means anything to you. A number of games had a spinner at the center and symmetrical button layouts to either side so that you could use whatever hand you wanted... with your layout, P1 has to use his left hand for the spinner and P2 his right. That may potentially bother people depending on how they used to play spinner games.
I agree with PCTech tho.. you should consider the coin/start buttons on the sidewall of the upper tier, not the front.
Also, are those 4 white buttons up top admin buttons? It's totally personal preference, but you might want to consider using shift functions or putting them somewhere besides the actual control panel to make it look cleaner. Again though, that's personal pref.
What are your plans for trackball buttons? Will you be using the 3 button layout from P3 and P4? It's not an ideal layout for missile command :P but I'd think that the P1 and P2 buttons would be too awkward to use directly beneath the trackballs.
mrjah:
Wow, this is some great feedback so far. Thanks!
Some notes about your comments:
- I definitely wanted the dual trackball setup, and there are precious few ways to do it without a two-level CP. Putting the trackballs on the lower level causes the same finger-jamming problem when your hand hits the front wall of the second tier, and I definitely wanted all 4/8 way joys on the bottom level. so I threw the trackballs up top. I'm not a big fan of MAME Golden Tee anyway, as the required trackball clearance takes up too much real estate for me to justify it.
- All sticks are ++++.
- Regarding the sidewall buttons -- they're strictly coin and player start buttons. I don't anticipate any problems if people accidentally give themselves more credits or hit Start. But if I can find the clearance around the trackballs, I'll probably try to move them up to the walls of the upper tier.
- Those are indeed two poorly modeled spinners on the front corners of the panel. Not sure what to do about the left hand / right hand problem. I tried putting the spinners directly beneath the P1 and P2 joys, but they get in the way of players who prefer to use a five-fingered Death Grip on the joys when they play.
- Thanks for the tips re: the buttons on the 4-way. I'll probably remove them and let the player choose between the P1 or P2 buttons.
- I have absolutely no idea what to do for trackball buttons. It seems that only two are necessary per trackball. If I put them on the outside of the trackballs, it'll force people to roll left handed on the right trackball. I see that as a bigger problem than the spinner issue. Any ideas?
- Other than the panels, what would be a good place to put the admin buttons for easy reach?
mccoy178:
Is that control panel proportionaly correct? How long is it? 48x?
Crazy_Mack:
I have been considering a control panel design similar to this. A couple things I will be doing differently:
1) The area for the upper level will be larger. Given joysticks and buttons don't require much movement, the lower level doesn't need to be as big as you have it. This gives more area for manipulating the trackballs on the upper level.
2) The trackballs will have their own buttons - which you'll have room for if you increase the area of the upper level.
3) Given there are a handful of games in which multiple players can use a spinner, I intend to give every player a spinner just right of the buttons.
4) I'm considering putting two 4-way joysticks on the upper level between the two trackballs. One for pac-man type games, and the other for QBert.
5) My design has a little more curve in the button layout and spread just a touch farther apart from each other. The intent is to have seven buttons of which any subset can match the layout of a variety of games (Mortal Combat, Track and Field, Guantlet, Basket Ball, etc). Button illumination will be used to indicate the buttons needed for any given game.
pointdablame:
--- Quote from: mrjah on March 22, 2006, 05:52:33 pm ---
- Regarding the sidewall buttons -- they're strictly coin and player start buttons. I don't anticipate any problems if people accidentally give themselves more credits or hit Start. But if I can find the clearance around the trackballs, I'll probably try to move them up to the walls of the upper tier.
--- End quote ---
The possible problem here is shifted functions. P1 start is the SHIFT button for the Ipac, so if someone were to say accidentally hit P1 start and P2 start at the same time... that would be the shifted function for Exit Game.... not fun. If you bump that button and another is pushed, all kinds of crazy stuff may happen, so if you can put them elsewhere, it'd probably be worth it.
--- Quote from: mrjah on March 22, 2006, 05:52:33 pm ---- Those are indeed two poorly modeled spinners on the front corners of the panel. Not sure what to do about the left hand / right hand problem. I tried putting the spinners directly beneath the P1 and P2 joys, but they get in the way of players who prefer to use a five-fingered Death Grip on the joys when they play.
--- End quote ---
There's not really much you can do, I just wanted to mention it. I suppose you could try to jam them next to the trackballs but that isn't really ideal. The only other option I see is putting a spinner in between the trackballs and using the P1 or P2 buttons, but that leaves you with only one spinner, and I assume 2p spinner games are important to you based on the layout, so that won't work.
--- Quote from: mrjah on March 22, 2006, 05:52:33 pm ---- I have absolutely no idea what to do for trackball buttons. It seems that only two are necessary per trackball. If I put them on the outside of the trackballs, it'll force people to roll left handed on the right trackball. I see that as a bigger problem than the spinner issue. Any ideas?
--- End quote ---
Missile command requires 3 buttons, and it's worth the extra button just for that IMO ;) As I mentioned, you could use the 3 buttons on Players 3 and 4 for the trackball. For missile command, you ideally want a row of 3 buttons, not the triangle design you have, but I don't see that as a huge problem... it would probably work ok.
--- Quote from: mrjah on March 22, 2006, 05:52:33 pm ---- Other than the panels, what would be a good place to put the admin buttons for easy reach?
--- End quote ---
Depends on your cabinet really. You may be able to fit them under the monitor, on the side of the CP, on top of the cab for functions you don't want everyone to have access to, etc etc.
It's just personal preference though... I much prefer a simple (or as simple as possible) control panel, and I like to put the "other" buttons (coin, start, admin) somewhere else. That's probably only because I think extra buttons make a panel look cluttered.
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