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IYO The Best Arcade Cabinet Control Layout


r1pilot

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This topic is directed as those that have an arcade cabinet or have done the research and are in the process of building one.

 

What would you describe as the best layout for a Hyperspin Arcade cabinet?

 

Personally, I am leaning towards a 4-player layout with each player having a 4/8 way control stick, a thumb button and 6 player buttons.  I considered pinball buttons on the sides, however, with a 4 player layout they would be an uncomfortable distance apart.

 

 

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I don't have a cabinet, for the moment I just play retrogames on a PC.

 

With relation to building a cabinet (or just a custom joystick), I have been thinking about what could be my ideal rig. And the answer is that probably there isn't one :D simply because there are esp. arcade games which require very different rigs, and trying to build "one rig to rule them all" would not be ideal for a lot of those games, but instead just clutter the whole cabinet, at least for me...

 

Some games require 6 buttons (or maybe even more), some require 2 joysticks, some require a trackball, some require a wheel, some require a spinner... and Marble Madness requires a huge sphere! Not to mention that I like playing also home retrogames (not just arcade) so sometimes I need the mouse or the whole keyboard! I also think that some retro computers/consoles are best played with their original controllers, or at least something similar. What is a good controller for Commodore computers is often not a good controller for Nintendo consoles and viceversa.

 

But all in all I think for all games that are just joystick + buttons, X-Arcade is probably the best non-custom solution.

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I have always been a fan of the seven button layout. However I mostly stick to arcade on my cab and a set top box with all the consoles.

 

I am curious... what games do you know that require 7 buttons? Maybe some fighting games?

 

Or do you mean also convenience buttons such as insert coin + start 1p + start 2p + exit...

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On 9/22/2015 at 0:30 AM, shroud said:

I think you will want more buttons if you are emulating DOS/Windows games or Console games.  For instance, the Sega Saturn Controller has 8 buttons and ps3/xbox have 10 if you include the analog controller buttons.

I am curious... what games do you know that require 7 buttons? Maybe some fighting games?

 

Or do you mean also convenience buttons such as insert coin + start 1p + start 2p + exit...

 

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On 9/22/2015 at 2:30 AM, shroud said:

 

I am curious... what games do you know that require 7 buttons? Maybe some fighting games?

 

Or do you mean also convenience buttons such as insert coin + start 1p + start 2p + exit...

I believe the seven button layout is to mimic the six button layout of Street Fighter cabinets in a 3X2 grid and the four button layout of Neo Geo cabinets in a 4x1 layout with a slight curve

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My cousin got a cab with lit buttons and so far they have lasted over 6 years.  They are also rgb LEDs so the color can be set using a software utility.  Below is a link to the website for the company who built it.  I have played on his cab a number of times and he had 4 players with 6 buttons each.  That seemed to suffice for most games we played.  I have the X-arcade 2 player deck now and agree that on a four player deck the pinball buttons are harder to reach.

 

https://www.mameroom.com/webstore_home.asp

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On 16/03/2016 at 2:06 PM, helmgar said:

I believe the seven button layout is to mimic the six button layout of Street Fighter cabinets in a 3X2 grid and the four button layout of Neo Geo cabinets in a 4x1 layout with a slight curve

This is the layout I adopted and find it most comfortable/practical.

If you think about it most people who play 6 button fighting games etc use there first 3 fingers which when spread apart form a slight curve going up and then down again.

When I laid out my cabinet I literally drew accross the top of my spread fingers to give me the "curve" most comfy for me (Anyone else has to live with it LOL)

The other advantage of this layout IMO is you can set it more or less to most original controls for instance Genesis 3 buttons in a row (Or 2 rows of 3 if you had a fancy pad) 4 buttons 2 rows of 2 for SNES/Neo geo etc etc etc.

 

 

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I've decided to go for a 2 player with 8 buttons per player.

No trackball or spinner, since cabs in Greece didnt have them and i am not accustomed to them.

 

However i ve decided to put 2 side buttons (2 on each side) for pinball games.

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yea button layout is something that has bothered me for a bit. I want the most compatibility but not look ridiculous. I think if I ever build a cab, i'll go with the 2-player,  2 rows of 4 buttons with a trackball and spinner in between the two players

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I have been struggling with the same decision.  After looking at all the different options out there, I think 7 seems to cover all my bases in both functionality and asthetics.  I would go with 3 on top, 4 on the bottom, angled as a lot of the eastern markets use.  The 7th button will function as Run in the fighters that use it [Mortal Kombat] while also giving a native row for Neo Geo [4 buttons].  Add in emulators for NES -> N64 and it covers most buttons you would use. 

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