Well there is not a lot to be said about the controls. It is pretty straight forward. I will list the various controls that I am using for my control panel.
The B-Box is designed to be a 2 player arcade cabinet. I decided to have a 8 way joystick as the primary
controller for each player, so I decided on the Super Joystick from Happ Controls. Make sure you check your order when it comes in. I had a mixed joystick for one of my controllers. Turned out to be part of an Ultimate joystick which doesn't have quite as nice a feel as the Super.
I also figured out after playing Ms Pac-Man, that an 8-way joystick sucked when it came to some of the old classics that used a 4-way. The problem is that an 8-way joystick is designed to allow you to click to switches at once. So on a game that was designed to use a 4-way joystick, you ended up going in a different direction than you intended some times. The Tool talked me into getting the old classic Galaga/Ms Pac-Man style joystick, which I picked up from Happ's. After putting this into my second prototype control panel, it was obvious that this thing isn't deigned for a wood control panel. Especially one that is made out of 3/4" MDF. The joystick is a short joystick and once you take off 3/4" for the wood, all you have left is the ball sticking out. So I found a metal plate designed specifically for this joystick at Arcade Shop
Amusements.
Of course I had to have a trackball for my arcade. I just couldn't imagine an arcade without the
ability to play Missile Command or Centipede on it. This is the most expensive control on the control panel. I am going with a
Bluish theme for my cabinet, so I decided on the 3"
Translucent Blue trackball from Happ Controls.
The last big item I bought for my control panel was the spinner. Originally I wasn't going to use a spinner, but I decided I would later kick myself if I didn't include one. I bought my spinner from Oscar Controls I decided to go with the rubber
knobbed version which is like the old Tempest style spinners. My spinner was damaged in shipment, but Kelsey was a pleasure to work with and got me a replacement in short order.
The last control I guess I should mention is the type of buttons I used. I decided on the
micro switch type because they seem to be easier to find. I like them, but have heard really good thing about the leaf style switches. Each player has 6 buttons associated with an 8-way joystick. There will only be 4 buttons associated with the 4-way. I have also decided on a row of buttons along the top to map to buttons like esc, pause, etc.... Also I had to have the player 1 & 2 buttons.
| |
