Posted by Bill Connolly on 20, 2001 at 8:44 AM:
In Reply to: Help on what to do posted by Tom Wende on 19, 2001 at 7:33 PM:
I agree with the others. You should rethink trying to build an all-in-one panel. I resisted swappable panels for 3 years, but after being dissatisfied with 3 different all-in-one panels, I am now doing thing swappable thing.
But even with swappable panels there are trade offs. There are just too many different types of controls and configurations. IMHO it is better to have a comfortable, playable panel for most games then to cram it all together to get those few extra games.
A boot menu could allow you to select a different control panel configuration, then when your front-end load only games for that control panel show. Extra work, but a nice touch. I have 1 player simultaneous control panel with a 4way, 8way, trackball, and buttons. I am building a 2 player simultaneous panel with 8ways and buttons. In the future there will be a driving panel and a flight yoke panel.
I would test out several front ends to see what you like. I started with AOS a couple of years ago, know it well and have stuck with it. There are other great front-ends. I prefer the DOS arcade experience over Windows.
Good Luck!
: Hi, I was wondering if anyone could help me on how to build my MAME cabinet. I don't have any trouble with the cabinet, but I don't know what to use for my controls interface. I want to have it be 4 players, where each player gets a joystick and a trackball and 6 buttons. I'm not sure if i'm supposed to use a keyboard hack or what. The system I'm putting it on is fairly new and has USB ports. Also, what MAME program should I run and what front-end should I run on the system, which will be running Windows 98SE
: Your help would be greatly appreciated