admin buttons

[Kangum]

my current project consists of the arcade depot kit. my coctail control panel has 6 buttons. 4 buttons for play 1 player select and 1 coin.

real time use really suggests that at the very least I need an escape key to get out of any game I am currently playing. Most projects I have seen do not seem to have any kind of dedicated key for this. Is there some common key combination coctail users are using or is the key hidden under the panel.

This esc key seems to be one of the most important keys im missing so far for true seemless operation without a keyboard. Yet most peoples Ive seen dont have a key for it. so what do people use or what combination to exit out of a game if any.

[loadman]

You are right..  ESC is commonly used to bail out of a game.

That is why you don't want a button dedicated to it or you (or a child) may accidentally hit it .

To avoid this most users use 'Shift functions' on their keyboard encoder

What encoder are you using? (I hope not a keyboard hack)

On my cocktail table I hold 'Player 1 button' then hit 'Player 2' button to 'ESCAPE'

EG default of the I-PAC:.
From the Ultimarc Website:

Holding "Start1" and pressing other buttons sends a range of codes for MAME functions such as "escape", "Coin 1", "tab", "enter". This means no extra buttons are needed on the cabinet. In programmable mode any input can be the shift key and all keys can be programmed with a shifted code.

[Kangum]

i am using an ipac.

player 1 panel is 1-2-3-4 normal button then 1 player and coin insert
player 2 panel is 1-2-3-4 normal button then 2 player and coin insert

so basically if you want to play a 2 player game the person on the player 2 side has to hit it. seems natural set up this way though.

since player 1 and player 2 are on opposite sides of the cab for me the only choice for an escape is player key and coin key at the same time. i wonder if this would be a problem as far as hitting it by accident.

its still tempting to put a volcano button on the bottom side of the panel.

[loadman]

...The possibilities are endless   

since player 1 and player 2 are on opposite sides of the cab

You could always consider moving the player 2 button to the the same side as player 1. Or you could have and extra player 2 button on the player 1 side. You are unlikely to play on the other side of the cab by yourself  :-)