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Help! How many buttons on control panel?

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BASS!:

--- Quote from: grumlenz on February 28, 2009, 04:03:55 pm ---Thanks! Do I lose any functionality by not having more buttons for players 3 and 4, or is 4 buttons always enough? I assume this is because there are no 4 player games that require over 4 buttons for the 3rd and 4th player? Do the people that do 6 buttons for every player just do it for looks?

--- End quote ---

The only reason that people load the controls on all 4 players is for console games. For a mame machine though, 6 buttons for players one and 2 is more than enough. If you use that layout you can play just about anything mame throws at you (unless you are a Japanese house wife). People often wire the 1-2 players with an extra button on the bottom for neo geo, but I myself have never even changed the layout once to use that button. Players 3-4 only need 4 buttons ( no games you would want to play in mame use more than 4).

Last but not least. Use the forum search, because this question has been asked and answered so many times, you will have an extremely hard time getting answered with such broad questions.

severdhed:
MAWS is down right now so i can't search, but i don't think there are any 4 player games in mame that use more than 4 buttons.  the only reason you would need more than that for players 3 and 4 would be for console emulation.

for just mame, 6 buttons for players 1 and 2, and 4 buttons for players 3 and 4 is all you should need.  the 7 button layout is for people who want the 4 in a row neogeo layout available.  

console emulation is different however..

the start and select buttons can be mapped to the normal start and coin buttons that you would use for mame..then

NES needs 2 buttons, plus start and select
SNES needs 6 buttons, plus start and select
N64 needs 9 buttons, plus start
genesis needs 6 buttons, plus start
master system needs 2
atari needs 1
dreamcast needs 6, plus start
playstation needs 8, plus start and select

so you need to decide what you want o be able to do, and perhaps make some sacrifices.  if you want to play playstation games, then you will need 8 buttons each for players 1 and 2.

if you want 4 player N64 games, then you will need 9 buttons each (technicall you could use the coin button and go with an 8 button layout, which would work for most games)

and for the record...i have found that playing console games with arcade controls just isnt that much fun...yeah sure some types of games work ok..but generally, it just doesnt have the same feel.

grumlenz:
Thanks everyone for your replies. So if I am not in need of the neogeo layout (which is really just to have 4 buttons in an arc for neo geo games right?) then I will be fine with six buttons? And If I do decide to play neo geo games I can just use say the top 3 buttons and one of the bottom buttons? According to Wikipedia there are only 93 neo geo games http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Neo-Geo_games, does that sound right? If so, no reason to have an extra button for those games I will probably never play. The only thing I am sacrificing with 6 buttons is the ability to fully play Playstation or N64 right? But even if I had 7 that's still not enough, I would need 8 or 9...so it sounds like 6 is the best option because there is no advantage to 7. And then go with 4 buttons for players 3 and 4. The only thing I read in some other posts is that the 7th button is good for turbo on NBA Jam or for run on the newer Mortal Kombat games. I don't know how often I will have 4 people playing but I figured if I was going to take the time to build a machine, might as well go with 4.

Does anyone have any input on how comfortable the button setup is to play with 2 rows of 3 buttons across completely straight (like reply #14) http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=59359.0 Or 2 rows of 3 across like in this curved button layout (as seen in reply #20) http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=59359.0 that one has 7 but I am concerned about the main 6. Don't know if I should "curve" mine or leave them straight. Unfortunately, I don't have a local arcade that I can go to to test them out. Thanks!

Turnarcades:
6 P1+2, 4 max P3+4. Full stop.

grumlenz:
Thanks! So I think I am set on the general button setup. Just a couple more questions:

1: How many buttons are used with the spinner? If I am going to left hand control the spinner (is that how most right handed people do it)? How many buttons will i need to the right of it?

2: If I add a dedicated 4 way joystick for left hand control, how many buttons will I need to the right of it? I am just not sure what all games this supports and how many buttons are needed?

Thanks guys! You are helping me out more than you know!

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