Thoughts on my CPO thus far

[Vulgar Soul]

So finally got around to preparing a CPO for my first upcoming 4 player unit...

Yes, some of the "anchors" are there and a bit screwed up. I did a lot of relentless trial and error putting this together. I'm no AI expert, but considering this is the first time I ever really used the program I think it's not so bad.
Also I still need to put a label for my the track ball and spinner.

Went with a purple - baby blue - neutral white, color scheme. Really aimed for kind of a retro look for this with the ring/bubble style labeling. Something neat and vibrant, but at the same time not to distracting. I was heavily inspired by Koenigs, Weecade, though I think he did a much better job capturing a old-school look than I managed to http://www.koenigs.dk/mame/eng/, still it really helped me with some design ideas.

I was a little bit concerned about my choice of colors. I wanted to do more gradient designs between them but found it took a bit away from an authentic old-school look I wanted, and kinda looked off and a bit to flamboyant for my taste. Went with plain straight colors instead. I just hope people don't look at it and mistake me for a big Utah Jazz fan or something lol.

I still would like to know how to place an outline  over the entire outer area of the panel. As a matter of fact, I'm working on a Marquee now and would like tips on outlining in general if any AI experts can help with that. I'm open to any other design ideas (especially if it shares my vision of a retro look) granted my AI skills are weak. And any advice or suggestions as far as the placement of my buttons and functions are concerned would be great. I'm really concerned about the panel feeling comfortable as well as looking comfortable.

So any thoughts?

[Honkyharris]

Looks good thus far. Two points I'd like to make : 1) You probably don't need 6 buttons for players 3-4 as I don't think any 4p games require more than 4 buttons for each player. 2) Why do you have 5 coin/start buttons? Are you planning on the middle setup at the top being a 4-way setup for older games? If so you could double wire it as P1 to make things more simple.

Just my 2 cents obviously do what makes you happy!

Honkyharris

[Vulgar Soul]

Looks good thus far. Two points I'd like to make : 1) You probably don't need 6 buttons for players 3-4 as I don't think any 4p games require more than 4 buttons for each player. 2) Why do you have 5 coin/start buttons? Are you planning on the middle setup at the top being a 4-way setup for older games? If so you could double wire it as P1 to make things more simple.

Just my 2 cents obviously do what makes you happy!

Honkyharris

Yeah, I'm really only gonna give each player 6 buttons just to keep it consistent for now. I'm considering whether it's worth it but really It doesn't bother me to much. The two buttons in the upper center are actually going to be administrative functions. One for the Tab menu, one to exit a game. I know about 'shift' keys, but I think it would be more easy and intuitive for the panel to do this. I just hope those are all the admin buttons I need.

[drventure]

I've found one button for pause, one for exit is all the admin I've needed. I suppose a TAB button would have been nice to get into mame's control screen, but, i've got a wireless keyboard for that, and after a while, you don't end up in there much anyway.

Nice layout though!

[DillonFoulds]

So far I've been using:
P1+button 1 - Pause
P1+button 2 - Exit (return to MaLa)
P1+button 3 - Tab

I haven't needed any other admin controls, and didn't need the extra admin button either. On the other hand, I have hit exit a couple times by accident in a heated round of Gauntlet. 

That being said, I'm sure there's a slightly better arrangement, but i think that if you dig enough, you won't even need any extra admin buttons at all.

[rezero]

The one thing I learned from my first attempt was to space the buttons slighly (min of 1/4" between the buttons).  I found when they are adjecent, I inadvertantly bump them while playing.  Secondly I would stick with darker colors (black, blue, purple, deep red, etc...) instead of yellow, whites, etc...  as they will begin to show dirt, etc...  I had one I designed in a Bart Simpson mode with bring yellow and white and was always cleaning it, when I switched to the black lightining strike theme, it seemed to never need cleaning.