Layout V1

Right now I'm pretty comfortable with this setup.  My only hesitations right now are the angled player 3 and 4 joysticks, and the trackball location.  I don't feel like I will require a spinner or dedicated 4-way.

I've heard many theories about angling joysticks, but unfortunately cannot test thing out for myself just yet.  It seems to make sense in my mind to do it, but I've read that this is very disorienting to player not having the joys aligned parallel to the screen.

The buttons will be illuminated by single dedicated colored led's with the exception of the trackball which I plan on having a RGB Led setup.

I'll be working on a 3d model of the cabinet and CP next, and see if the angled 3 & 4 player controls are ok and their visibility to the display won't be blocked.  I plan on having the TV fairly close to the front for the cab... but we will see.

Controller Layout

Lets talk controller layouts,

As of right now, I am trying to work out a decent 4-player layout.  I'm pulling from some nice custom cabinet designs I've seen as well as stock 4 player cabs.  I'll be extrapolating the major features from these designs and combining all the elements together into a compact and efficient layout... I hope!

First up, the 4-Player Konami cabinets:

TMNT, TMNT:Turtles In Time, The Simpsons, Sunset Riders, G.I. Joe, X-men, NBA Jam

My faves from this style cab were TMNT, Simpsons and X-Men, but rather then this turning into a review, I'll focus on the panel.  Two action buttons per player and a joystick.  Pretty simple controls, but what I'd like to make note of here is the off angles for each player.  I am not a fan of the giant span of players all along the same edge of a control panel that tend to be the norm for Mame cabs from what I've seen.  Having player 3 and 4 off to the sides keeps the panels width down.