MAME Control Panel - Sharing with all.

[Michael Kessler]

So I wanted to share my control panel layout in case anyone is interested in doing the same. I know ninety nein and others work on the VHS mame cabinet, and I'm pretty sure there's other cabinets out there.

This is a 2 player design with an 8-button japanese layout. I've intentionally left off the mount holes for the joysticks, but those can be easily added. I figure the control group is the most useful part for someone trying to build a cabinet.

My control panel includes 6 system buttons, 2 player start buttons, 2 players each with 8 game buttons, and a trackball.

(If you cut this on the laser, I ended up having to scale it down to get it into proper units (1/2.54). The control panel geometry is an exact match of the original control panel.

Not sure if this attachment will go through. If it doesn't and someone wants it, I'll put it up somewhere.

[Ninety Nein]

Nice design!  Make sure you leave enough room underneath for the switches, as I fail to do pretty much every time.  Is the big square in the centre for a trackball?  I really struggled with the layout for the new control panel for the machine at the space.  It was tight to squeeze three more buttons in per player.  I think I have it, but we'll have to see if it affect playability. 

Do you bother to route out a space for the mounting plate for the joysticks?  I'm using 3/4 plywood, so I think I'm going to have to route out 1/4" or so to get the proper joystick height...

What do you do with the keyboard mouse?  I've also cut a new front piece for below the control panel (the one that was in there was pretty rough).  I'm thinking about installing some sort of sliding drawer if I can find some rails that are low profile enough.

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[Michael Kessler]

The joysticks are bottom mounted so the small hole is for the stick.   The height is reasonable so I might be able to get away with it as is, or possibly buy the longer stick.

The room is meticulously measured.  The panel is sitting in the machine now.

Yeah,  the trackball is the square.  It acts as a mouse with an optipac so the player start buttons will be dual purposed to mouse clicks.  The keyboard will be hidden and almost never needed, but I plan to put USB mounts inside the coin box.

I'll send pics.

[Michael Kessler]

[Ninety Nein]

That looks GREAT!  Do you have the buttons that mount the switch tabs facing towards the ground?  Or do you point the tabs down on the bottom row, and up on the top row?

[Miststlkr]

that is pretty slick, man.   very cool.  I always wanted to get a car seat and build a racing arcade setup like that, but never had a place to put it if I did.   That looks great.

[Michael Kessler]

Thanks, yes the switches point away from the center at a diagonal so that they fit inside the bottom mount area.

I haven't taken the outer protective acrylic layer off so it'll look better after that.  I used 2 layers of wood and one acrylic so that I could hide all the bolts.

In really proud of this but now it feels like I should custom build the rest of the cab.  My wallet wouldn't like me much though.  Another beauty shot for good measure.