Mame 3 or 4 buttons or more?

Talk about mame, post your mame project and/or virtual pins
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hyann
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Mame 3 or 4 buttons or more?

Post by hyann »

I'm planning a Mame. I don't really like fighting games so I don't think I need 6 buttons. I' m thinking a 3 buttons configuration will play most game I like. Accept fighting games, will I miss great classics who need 4-5-6 buttons to play?

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Re: Mame 3 or 4 buttons or more?

Post by tomdotcom »

I have 6 for each player on my cab, it's nice to have extra buttons to use to scroll through games, switch views in pinmame, stuff like that. I also have 4 flipper buttons on each side for playing Future Pinball/Visual Pinball.

It also depends on the size of your control panel..2 or 3 buttons looks cleaner for sure..

I had less buttons on my first couple mame cabs though and it worked fine, you just assign shift functions for pause, volume, whatever you want...for instance, hold player 1 button and push up = pause...
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Re: Mame 3 or 4 buttons or more?

Post by Sparky »

Get 6 buttons. Makes it easier to upgrade later if you want to.

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Re: Mame 3 or 4 buttons or more?

Post by QN »

I don't care for the fighting games that much, however most of the people I have over like them. If you want to get the most 'use' out of it, then you should make it appeal to the widest audience you can.

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Re: Mame 3 or 4 buttons or more?

Post by Cobra99 »

I created a 4 player where the first two are 6 button and the others are 4 button. I wanted to make sure I didn't limit my mame machine.
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Theater of Magic.....RFM(NUCORE).....Twilight Zone.....TRON LE #74
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Re: Mame 3 or 4 buttons or more?

Post by OTTOgd »

Here are a bunch of neat mame cabs: http://www.maaca.org/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=2386

If you're looking for more inspiration, check out BYOAC: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.p ... ,10.0.html

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Re: Mame 3 or 4 buttons or more?

Post by tomdotcom »

Don't think I've ever posted mine before here. I use it for a jukebox more than anything lately. I'm much more of a pinball fan than videogame fan. I got it hooked up to a couple big tower speakers to blast the tunes while we play pin. These are older pictures, it's in a different room now...
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Re: Mame 3 or 4 buttons or more?

Post by Chris Bardon »

Don't underestimate the value of dedicated system buttons on a control panel. Yes, it may not be as authentic, but I've found them to be insanely useful, especially the pause button. If you've got room for the buttons, go for 6 each. Buttons are cheap, and as long as you have room on the panel and inputs on the encoder, you might as well use them.

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Re: Mame 3 or 4 buttons or more?

Post by redketchup »

Mine have 6 button for player 1-2 and 6 admin button (coin 1, coin 2, pause, exit, enter, menu) very usefull to navigated, or change the configuration. I also have the mouse button to work with my trackball and I don't need anything else when I have to make some change in the configuration or had or deleted game etc..
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Re: Mame 3 or 4 buttons or more?

Post by OTTOgd »

What's neat about the Ultimarc's Ultrastik is that it comes with a built-in 8-button interface. The cool thing about this is, I'm pretty sure that one of the buttons can be used as a 'shift' button doubling the programmable buttons to 14 functions. This would allow you to hide admin buttons such as pause, credit, esc, etc.

http://www.ultimarc.com/ultrastik_info.html

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Re: Mame 3 or 4 buttons or more?

Post by Chris Bardon »

The cool thing about this is, I'm pretty sure that one of the buttons can be used as a 'shift' button doubling the programmable buttons to 14 functions
Yes, they can be set up like this. I didn't bother with it, but I did use the built in gamepad interface to free up some ipac inputs for use as system buttons. I actually have 8 buttons per player (6 game buttons, plus coin and start for each person), plus esc, tab, enter, and pause as system buttons (using the extra p1 inputs that the ultrastik saved me). I also have the ultrastik programmed as a mouse in windows, which is OK, but not as good as a real trackball.

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Re: Mame 3 or 4 buttons or more?

Post by Toeckeder »

Defender/Stargate: 5 buttons
Asteroids: 5 Buttons


Think about it, mine has 6 buttons per player.
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Re: Mame 3 or 4 buttons or more?

Post by Cobra99 »

This is mine for reference. 6 button for player one and two and 4 buttons for player three and four. Each player has a dedicated coin button and start button. Also have pause, tab and escape buttons. I use the ball for the mouse and have a right click and left click buttons and I have a shift button so I can assign secondary commands to buttons
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Terminator 2.....Hyperball.....Iron Man.....Transformers Autobot LE #48 of 125
Theater of Magic.....RFM(NUCORE).....Twilight Zone.....TRON LE #74
Lord Of the Rings.....Terminator 3.....Family Guy.....The Simpsons Pinball Party
Stern-Spider Man.....MMRLE(On Order).....Predator #43.....SWE1(Playfield)


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STTNG
Taxi
JD
JM

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See my Games room section

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Hyperball
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MM
Flintstones

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Re: Mame 3 or 4 buttons or more?

Post by Toeckeder »

Mine is compact to standard width.

It's my opinion but I really don't like those huge CP with too much stuff on it, too much space and I don't like the look and feel.

My joysticks are adjustable from 4 to 8 ways by a quarter turn of the actuator under the CP (accessible any time). This is a must IMO.
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Pins: HIGH SPEED, GUNS N ROSES, FIREPOWER, SORCERER, LASER WAR, FATHOM, NOW, BLACKOUT, ALIEN POKER, LASER BALL, TOMMY, FIREPOWER II, BALLY PLAYBOY, RUSH LE, RIVERBOAT GAMBLER
WTB: NO Vacancy
Vid: MAME #1, TEMPEST, NUCLEUS CANNON, MAME #2, NAMCO Reunion Class of '81
Gone: Punch-Out!!, TARGET ALPHA, STARGATE, SPIRIT OF 76, ROLLERGAMES, TAXI, TOMMY, EARTHSHAKER, BACK TO THE FUTURE, TWILIGHT ZONE, TX SECTOR, CENTAUR, AC/DC PRO, ROLLERGAMES, WHIRLWIND, TIME MACHINE, GALAGA, GRAND LIZARD, TORPEDO ALLEY, F-14 TOMCAT, BLACKOUT, ALGAR, FIREPOWER II, ABRACADABRA, EIGHT BALL DELUXE LE

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Re: Mame 3 or 4 buttons or more?

Post by Marsupial »

if you're to put 3 or 4, you might as well put only 2 IMHO. Particularly if you have a 4-way stick (as opposed to an 8-way)

I made my daughter's cabaret with 4-buttons, but honestly I almost never use the 3rd and 4th - except for admin tasks.

Best way for YOU to know if you want it, look at your configuratiosn on MAWS and see what games you'd be mising.
http://maws.mameworld.info/maws/

there's not many 4-way 4-buttons games. 5 buttons (for defender) would be better...
-Mars

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