Arcade Button Layouts

Pirate1019 · Post by **Pirate1019** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 4:03 am

Ok, so me and a couple friends are stripping an old, decrepit, not working Mortal Kombat II cabinet and turning it into a MAME Cabinet. We are at the part where we are making another control panel since we all think the 5 button layout the cab originally had sucks. We have already begun making some panels, working out the kinks, but I was wondering, what are some of your favorite button layouts? Anything to make sure to have or look out for when making a control panel? It's gonna be just a plain 2 player 6-9 button panel with a 1P start, a 2P start , and an Insert Credit button

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 6:05 am

I'm a big fan of the Japanese button layout. Great for games that require you to use the A & C button (any shooter where you go between rapid and holding down). I played VF4 a while back in London. Worst button layout ever. 3 buttons in a row, all spread apart. Useless... the game was unplayable.

theevilfunkster · Post by **theevilfunkster** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 7:30 am

Here's a pic of what I did to my Killer Instinct cab, Which is probably the same cab as your MKII,

I couldn't stand the original button layout so I went with the Japanese style layout. It's currently set-up for MVS but when I want to play 6 button stuff, I just swap out the 4 button plugs for more buttons.

Pirate1019 · Post by **Pirate1019** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 3:00 pm

@theevilfunkster: That's pretty much how ours looks except we have another row of two beneath the 6 buttons. Kinda like this:

When I was making it (I designed it by hand, no models or anything) I was trying to decide between the layout I described above, and having 2 rows of 4. My friend who is doing all of the wiring of the buttons to the XBox Controller we're using says that we need to have exactly 8 buttons for the player, no more, no less. I don't know why. I wanted to make sure that the player's palm wasn't resting on the third row of buttons too, so I moved them over to the left. So few arcade games (ones we'll play anyway) use that many buttons that I figured we could just use them as buttons to scroll through the menus of MAME oX.

D · Post by D » Wed Feb 14, 2007 3:17 pm

what joystick operated game, arcade or console needs more than 6 buttons?

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 10:54 pm

D wrote:what joystick operated game, arcade or console needs more than 6 buttons?

The kind that require you to push something other than the 6 buttons to start player 1 & player 2. That, and they may just be for preference -- IE, share a mapping w/ another button.

Personally, I would think the two buttons beneath would get in the way.

Pirate1019 · Post by **Pirate1019** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 11:36 pm

Well, it's not an accurate picture. That's just kind of where they are. I moved them to the left in order to get them out of the way of The lower palm and wrist. I could still change it. Making the panels aren't hard and we're still waiting for the buttons to come. As for having them there, I would personally not want to, but like I said, my friend said we needed them, so they're there.

P.S. They aren't the credit/player start buttons. We have those up at the top.

Our cabinet is also much thinner then the one in theevilfunksters picture. It's (I think, going off memory) a little more then 1' 11" across. Another reason for the buttons on th bottom was if we did the 2 rows of 4 it would be kind of a tight fit getting them onto the panel with enough free space for comfort.

antron · Post by **antron** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 11:46 pm

D wrote:what joystick operated game, arcade or console needs more than 6 buttons?

Saturn RSG if you don't like the combos.

oxtsu · Post by **oxtsu** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 2:43 am

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=6483

it290 · Post by **it290** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 2:43 am

Kinda OT, but I played some OutZone on an Ultracade cab at the laundromat the other day. I had never used one before, and at first I was thrilled (even if it's emulated, OutZone at the laundromat is still a pretty good way to kill time), but then I noticed that the buttons on the P1 side were to the LEFT of the joystick and that you couldn't use the P2 side without inserting two credits. I ended up playing for a while with my hands crossed, but it was too painful. WTF.

Pirate1019 · Post by **Pirate1019** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 5:55 am

it290 wrote:stuff

Don't worry, I think I've got that much down.

Pirate1019 · Post by **Pirate1019** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 3:15 am

Here's what, as far as we can tell, is the final layout for the cab. The board still needs to get sanded down around the edges and rounded off at the bottom corners, but it looks pretty much like that. The three holes on the top are for the two start buttons and the insert credit button.

Fun Fact: This board is completely fitted to my hands. I was in charge of making sure it wasn't a bitch on the wrists/fingers.

Any suggestions are still welcome since we have a lot of spare plywood and the ability to make as many spare panels as we can.

Doing this has actually been fun enough that we plan to also strip/fix another cabinet. It's a cabinet for the Sega game Hang-On. We think we'll either just refurbish it and sell it, or we'll do something crazy with it like turn it into a cabinet that plays Katamari Damacy.