Posted by dna on 9, 2001 at 10:50 AM:
Before I build my ultimate control panel, I'd like to ask a few questions and get some opinions:
1) I want a 4 player version, with the ability to play games such as Street Fighter (needs 6 buttons). Should I make all 4 players have 6 buttons, or would you suggest to only make 2 with 6 buttons and 2 with only 3 or 4 buttons? Are there any 4 players games where each player needs 6 buttons?; Are there any 1 or 2 player games that need more than 6 buttons?
2) Since I want 4 players, but realize most games are 1 or 2 players, I'd like the 1st and 2nd player to be in the middle of the panel, and 3rd and 4th to be on the outside (left and right). My question is when playing most 4 player games (ie nba jam), is team 1 usually player 1 and 2, and team 2 player 3 and 4?? If so, do you think such a layout will be unfair since one team will always be in the center and the other will always be on the outsides? Preferably, I'd like team one to be say player 1 and 3, and team 2 to be player 2 and 4 (is this possible to set up in MAME automatically for all 4 player games??)
3) I'm considering adding a track ball - do I need separate buttons for this or can it be setup to use the buttons say from player 2, which will have 6 buttons?
4) I plan on having the following 6 buttons along in inside front (below the control panel) to handle all the usual buttons needed in MAME - are there any others that you'd suggest
- ENTER
- ESC
- TAB
- ~
- F12 (to capture screen images for ArcadeOS)
- PAUSE
5) lastly, with all the controls I want, what would you suggest the dimension be to fit it all without being to crammed.
Thanks