well, I finally started my cab...

[SomewhatLost666]

I took some pics, but they came out crappy (I appear to be photographically disabled) , and its still under construction anyway... its basically arcadecab.com (http://www.arcadecab.com/Intro.htm) plans with some minor tweaks... nothing special really...
but now I am starting to think about my CP, and I am facing a bit of a dilemma, as this will be a Hyperspin cabinet, the amount of games is endless, and the amount of different controller options is also endless... but I don't like crowded/busy/frankenpanels/whatever you want to call them CP's... I like it simple, just a couple of sticks & buttons... but that greatly limits the games you can play...

so, I had an idea....
just put a 'hot swap/blind mate' style connector on the CP, and have a couple different CP's set up with different controls... seems to be the best of both worlds?
and have some sort of hook/pin setup to grab/hold the CP while its in use...

only problem is I am up to 144 pins so far...
http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc281/Somewhatlost_2007/arcadeCPPinlist.jpg
any expert see if I am missing anything?
do players 3 & 4 really need 8 buttons? for that matter do players 1 & 2 really need 8 buttons (or 2 joy's each + 4 buttons?)

also I would like anyone's professional opinion, am I insane? is this a horrible idea? or is this a reasonable plan? or I guess there is always the possibility that I am insane, but its still a reasonably good plan...

[SophT]

From a strictly arcade POV:

8 buttons for players 1 & 2 is okay - there are some games that use that many (more modern fighters) but many many that use 6.

2 joys each for players 1 & 2 may be a bit much - when you can do 8-way with restrictors.

Players 3 and 4 definately DO NOT need more than 4 buttons. I can't think of a single 4 player game that uses more than 4 buttons (I'm sure there is but the chances of it being your favorite game and having 4 people over to play it at the same time...)

tmnt: 2 button
ssriders: 2 button
xmen: 3 buttons

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HOWEVER

If you're going to be emulating consoles - it may be prudent to have extra buttons since more console games supported 4 players (even back to NES) and always had more buttons.

for example:
SNES you need a joy and 6 buttons for players 3 & 4
n64 you need a joy and 9 buttons! (and an analogue stick...)

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and just looking at your spread:

seeing as you want to make the contols swappable there's not much you can do about it to cut back - if you were to build just a standard control panel you could eliminate some of those grounds. I don't know what 'optical' devices you're planning on putting in - maybe 2 trackballs and 2 spinners, but that may be something you could give the axe to. 2 simultaneous - player spinner / trackball games are pretty rare, and there are just as good versions where you take turns.

[SomewhatLost666]

yea, I decided to stick to just arcade, no consoles...
the 2 joys per player was just a trying to justify 8 button's, they are just contact closures, so 4 contacts=1 joy... I donno, maybe battlezone or something like that? but then that was only 1 player, so you could just reacquisition the player 2 stick to do something...

good point on the optical, I was just basing that on the ultramarc opti-pac... but it looks like I could cut that down to one 'block' (ie 1 ball or 2 spinners...)

are there any games that need 2 or more spinners?
what did sinistar use? didn't it use a spinner & a joy? or was it one of those spinner joys? can you get spinner joys for mame/PC?

[SomewhatLost666]

wow, 62 views and not one post questioning my sanity:) that's a good sign...
took a couple pic's, still under construction....
http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc281/Somewhatlost_2007/cabclose.jpg
http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc281/Somewhatlost_2007/cabopen.jpg

it doesn't look that brown in real life... actually its closer to a black/brown...

[Section_25]

Looks like it has potential. Still alot of work to do! Have fun installing and configuring the arcade hardware.... I know I did!

[SomewhatLost666]

just a quick update, I decided against my Hot Swap multi-CP set up. and just went with a standard boring CP using my existing x-arcade controls...
http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc281/Somewhatlost_2007/IMG_0116.jpg

also have my PC/electrical/back panel thing all worked out...
http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc281/Somewhatlost_2007/IMG_0117.jpg

[SomewhatLost666]

well at least with the hardware...
have HS setup too...
http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc281/Somewhatlost_2007/IMG_0120.jpg
just need to go through and make sure all the games/themes work...
so, why do people make themes for games that don't work? seems kind of pointless?

here is the back of my cab...very simple, very plain...
http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc281/Somewhatlost_2007/rear.jpg

[Dazz]

Looks good! Your controls seem to be pretty spread out. It could just be the angle of the picture, but it looks like enough room for a couple BIG linebackers to sit and play. Your 1/2 player controls appear to be out just as much as my 3/4 player controls.

I wish I could say that my cabinet is "finished" after 4 years... Or you just need to stop lying to yourself because we all know that they are NEVER FINISHED. There is always some tinkering around that you'll find yourself doing.

I'm currently re-doing several aspects of my cabinet. I've pulled the artwork, working on a new control panel, new controls, re-doing all T-molding, sanding down, re-painting and going to do new artwork. Hopefully all before August 11th rolls around...

[SomewhatLost666]

my controls are pretty well spread out, its like 23 inches (584mm for those silly metric people:))... I am no linebacker, but I am getting bigger every day it seems :(, the kegorator may be to blame for that...
its just nice to have that extra room... but if I had a 4 player setup, I am sure it would be more compressed...

[SomewhatLost666]

just a little update... I still haven't done anything with the marque thingy... or lighted it... or added lights to the coin door...

actually... I really haven't done anything with it...

it does get used every now and then... so it does seem it was worth doing...