Does this look like a good control panel setup?

[boogieman]

I have a new image attached later in this post with updates

I have been messing around with some control panel ideas.  Do you guys think this would work for most games?

A little explanation:

This is the exact style of cabinet I am using: here

I plan on getting a Joust marquee and possibly some scaled down side art, or maybe try my hand (or my wife's) at painting similar side art.  This may be a later project since Joust side art is pretty expensive for my budget.  As you can see this is a Joust inspired control panel.  I plan on getting the regular cp overlay printed way larger and eliminating the top half, or alternatively trying to get a custom one with just the bottom half scaled to fit my cp.  The part I will be using is the part that used to sit on the vertical surface (front wall) of the original Joust cp.

First off, this is not to scale, and is a first attempt at using the software so forgive the unpolished nature of it.  The "curved" buttons will be placed better based off of an arcade stick for ps2/xboc/game cube that I have at home.  Similar to the pics in the above auction, but not quite.  There will actually be a larger black border at the bottom so the track ball wont really be that close to the bottom.

The 3 black buttons on the top left are esc. tab. and enter.  On the red William's circle will be either a black or red spinner that will cover up the "W" logo.  Directly across the "William's" name will be a 4 way stick with either a black or red ball (probably black).  In the middle bottom (in the fire part) will be a red or maroon (if I can find that color) track ball.  8 way bat style sticks.  The rest is self explanatory I hope.  I also plan on adding a couple of side buttons for a pinball emulator I plan on adding in the future.

So, what are the general thoughts about this set up?  What do you guys think about the color scheme?  Questions, comments, etc? 

[Blanka]

How big is it? Seems like it sticks out quite a bit. There is lot of room for compacting. Did you try it in cardboard? Guess the palm-space for the spinner is more than enough, yet operating the trackball can be off-the-edge. And if you a Joust fan: does Joust need 9 buttons per player? Thought 7 was the maximum for fighters, and that even 6 buttons/player is more than enough for most games.

[Timstuff]

I would definitely agree w/ Blanka. That design looks to be excessively big, and when it goes on that cabinet its going to be extremely awkward-looking. I would take a look at the sizing on the actual Soul Edge machine's CP and try to keep it as close to the same size as you can. Also, I agree that 9 buttons is a bit much. I was tempted to use 8 buttons at one point in my CP design process, but ultimately I realized that the common "Connecticut-shaped" 7 button layout was plenty for virtually any game I would ever want to play, which is why it's one of the most popular setups.

[Ginsu Victim]

Glad to see everyone else wondering the same thing I was:

Why nine buttons?

Seven is pretty much the max you'll need (I use six), unless you're putting a PS2 in your cab, then I'd say eight buttons, with a select next to each start.

[boogieman]

Well a couple things.  That panel is not to scale at all.  I just couldn't get the image to size right in the cp design program so I sized up the cp till the image fit.  I think it's like 50"X14"   It will be the same size as the soul edge board in real life.

9 buttons... well, I plan on playing Snes games and Sega, Atari (one button woohoo!  )  So I will need 8 for those (remember some genesis used 6 button controllers).  The 9th button is actually oriented wrong, it's supposed to be the extra button for Neogeo stuff.

Also, I have been thinking about this, I may put the 3 admin buttons on the bottom of the cp, or under the monitor, as there is a nice big spot there.  Look on that auction, there is a red strip there covered with plexiglass.  I may even put the p1 and p1 and coin buttons there.

If it weren't for the Snes and Sega stuff, I would probably go with 7 button setup.

I also thought about deleting the Williams word on the cp and moving the player/coin buttons there, but not sure.

[GAJoe]

Couldn't you use the arcade start buttons for the SNES and Genesis start buttons, and those middle buttons (coin buttons?) for select?

[boogieman]

Couldn't you use the arcade start buttons for the SNES and Genesis start buttons, and those middle buttons (coin buttons?) for select?

Hmm... never really though about that!     I imagine that would work just fine.

Were there any games using 8 buttons?  I can't really remember any.

I think I will go ahead and eliminate 2 of the buttons, and I can do just like you said, p1 for start and coin for select.  Cool, thanks! 

I am thinking strongly about incorporating an add on part to the front of the panel.  I could make some detachable "boxes" to go on front of the CP.  These would hold two of those mini racing wheels that fit on the spinners from groovygamegear.  I don't want a frankenpanel, so I think removable wheels would be the way I will go.  Plus, I want to get this up and running and the wheels are something I could always add later.  The idea of attaching extra modular boxes to the front could also really help with the games taking odd controls and such.

Also, I am really set on getting the 3 menu buttons off the cp to under the bezel.  I think I will put the player and coin buttons under the bezel too.  No use having extra crap on the cp.  This is a lot of fun.  Sort of like building a chopper, as in, how much can I remove from this and it still works.  Clean and bare bones is the name of the game!     Unfortunately I will be playing tons of games so I cant really get rid of the 7 button layout.  I could drop to 6 but I really love the Neogeo stuff so I won't get rid of the thumb button.

I am really set on the Joust theme now.  I probably only played Joust a dozen times on the arcade, but many many times on atari 2600.  I always liked the Joust concept and especially the side art.  It just has a real appeal to it.

I will try to get some other pics up tonight.

[leapinlew]

Well a couple things.  That panel is not to scale at all. 

So... what are we looking at exactly? If it's not to scale - not sure whats the point.

I like the artwork, but scale everything and you'll get a good idea if the artwork will work the way you hope it will.

[boogieman]

Here is the updated one.  It should be to scale, what do ya think?

I removed the admin, player, and coin buttons.  They will go under the bezel.  This should clean things up a bit.  I also added a second 4 way so the second player will have one too.

Sorry about the bad pic from yesterday, I wasn't really sure how to use the cp design program, I messed with it a bit today and got it working.  I had to set the size of the cp, then measure the cp's size (in the program window) in pixels and then modify my background image to be the same size.

I still wonder, does anyone know what fighting games used 8 buttons?  I can't recall any.

[Arshad]

Looks great!  What games make use of the 7th button?  Or are two of the buttons mapped identically?

[boogieman]

Looks great!  What games make use of the 7th button?  Or are two of the buttons mapped identically?

Thanks!  Yeah, 2 will be mapped the same, it's for Neogeo games that use 4 buttons.  It basically makes it feel more natural for the game for all 4 buttons to be laid out in a line like on the actual Neogeo arcade games.