Few Questions about building control panel?

[DavGerm4]

It's been a while since I've been back here, but since I got a decent computer, I've decided to use it for the arcade machine I wanted to build so long ago.  Anyways, I have the build plans from MameRoom to build the Ultimate Arcade II as it's called.  So while looking through the plans of it, I noticed that the only thing it didn't cover was a Control Panel?!  I contacted them, and they said they don't have project guides for the Control Panels.

So what I'm asking; any good tutorials on building a Control Panel, that would fit for the Arcade Cabinet linked above?  Now that I think about it, i want to make it a 4 player control panel (was originally 2, but want to change), and they actually have a kit to just put together on that site shown here, and total if I just got that, it would be about $200 for it.  So another question is, would it be cheaper building it myself, and how difficult it would be?  I've got friends that are woodworkers, so they could help with that.  I've also got a keyboard encoder, but it's only for a 2 player, so if I end up building a 4 player one, I may just sell that on here, but that's a different section I guess!

Last question; for a 4 player control panel (or any control panel), what would the trackball be used for?  I've been seeing those on the Cabinets that people make, and also a lot of extra buttons near the top of the panel?

Thanks again, you guys are really helpful with all of this!

[Gatt]

You'll find info on pretty much everything you need on these forums.  Search,  and FAQ's,  will pretty much cover everything.  Please take note of the recent,  excellent,  diagram for wiring encoders in the FAQ forum.  If you do a search,  there's another thread that covers what type drills you'll need and the sizes.

You can post a design and ask for critique,  and the members will generally tell you if something's not going to work like you thought.  You can also find plenty of other's designs that way.

You can buy and build a 4-player,  but you might want to reflect on how often you'll actually use it.  These are big,  twice the expense roughly,  and TBH,  most people say they don't use the extra 2 players and end up redoing a 2-player.

Trackball is used for a variety of "Must-have" games like:  Missle Command and Crystal Castles.  It also works very well as a mouse when in windows or navigating some front ends like MameUI.

Edit 2:

You might want to spend a bit of time thinking about swappable control panels too,  at some point,  the addiction will get you,  and you'll be wanting more elegant solutions.  I'd suggest thinking about it.  I say this out of the voice of experience:  I bought a Hotrod,  then bought a Slikstick 2-player blank(Ended up costing me $1000 after I put the controls in),  and here I am in the planning stages of doing swappable panels because the 5' long thing is too unweildy and inelegant.  Just wanted to throw that out there so you have the option of avoiding my expensive mistakes.

Edit:  

The buttons can be a number of things.  Some people put a pause button up there,  some an escape button.  A specific pattern of 5 buttons are the duplication of Asteroid's controls,  which is a very popular option.  

[Nacimroc]

Here is a post about installing a trackball or not I posted a few months ago. After finishing, I personally would not install a trackball again as I haven't used it yet and its a huge expense in comparison to other items. I would scrap the trackball and spend the money on 2 x U360's instead and these make a huge difference in my opinion.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=95410.0

A 4 player cab is just far too excessive! 2 player is fine and for the amount of times you will have 4 people playing it versus the much bigger size and the extra costs isn't worth I reckon. If you have 4 kids go for it, 4 friends who are always there at the same time, go for it, otherwise naw!