defender control panel configuration

pacman71

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What other games use the same control panel layout as defender.

I am sure you know what is going to happen to my defender cocktail.

It is going the way of mame. I am tired of the bad boards, and I have the old PC. I have a buddy willing to put the time into converting it.

So I want to know what other games use a layout that would work well on that control panel.

What other games would you put on here ..... Got any ideas that might work?

Stargate
Defender
?
?
?
?
 
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-Any shooter would work. Like Galaga, Phoenix, Space Invaders, etc.

-Moon Patrol

-I suppose games like Asteroids would work as well.
 
-Any shooter would work. Like Galaga, Phoenix, Space Invaders, etc.

-Moon Patrol

-I suppose games like Asteroids would work as well.

Eh? Defender's stick is up/down not left/right... so how is that supposed to work with a shooter?
Pooyan is up/down with a fire button. It's a vertical game, but you could have MAME rotate if for you of course.
 
Eh? Defender's stick is up/down not left/right... so how is that supposed to work with a shooter?
Pooyan is up/down with a fire button. It's a vertical game, but you could have MAME rotate if for you of course.


Moon patrol, and pooyan. Moon patrol would work. The buggy only goes forward right? So up and down could be fast or slow.

I have never played pooyan. It was never at the west burlington Aladins castle.
 
I am sure that putting an 8-way stick in is part of the MAME plan. If it isn't it should be. An 8 way stick on the left, and the 3 button group on the right give that CP the ability to play tons of great JAMMA era games. Black Tiger, Life Force, Golden Axe, Ghosts n Goblins, Pre-Historic Isle, Moon Patrol, Gauntlet AND the right CP for Defender and Stargate? That's a great MAME box.

And the plus of it all, is if you leave the artwork stock, it won't stick out in your gameroom. It will look like the great old classic that it is. Er, was. In any case, leave the art stock. I am sure you are leave the rest restorable back to original, so no real harm done.
 
I would think the majority of the games that work well would be those that use all buttons like space invaders and the end.
 
To be honest, the Defender control panel is pretty unique.

Even Stargate requires an extra button.
If you wanted to use thrust and fire as left/right movement buttons and the reverse as a fire button, there are several games that fit that scheme... except for the horizontal monitor..
 
I had just posted this in the bartop cabinet thread, and I don't want to feel like I'm beating people over the head with it, but I built something along the lines of your project.

There isn't much you can do with a vertical 2 way and the Defender layout other than the bootlegs like Defense Command.

I used a Stargate CPO and cab style because I wanted the Inviso button and proper look even though I play Defender way more. I used a Sanwa balltop shimmed down to the proper Defender height. This is a 4/8 way switchable stick, so it will also play pretty much any 3 button game in MAME with no problems. I tend to stick to 1 or 2 button games and just use the Thrust and Fire buttons.

I wanted to play Defender on my regular MAME cab, but just couldn't get a layout I was happy with. I don't even like it as much on the Multi-Williams cabs, because the placement of the Reverse button is too far from the stick... I actually trimmed the stick base on the Sanwa to get it correct.

I lit the buttons and stuff to give it a little flash, but its pretty traditional other than that. MAME has Defender running perfectly, right down to its odd speed tricks and flaws... Slowdown when you Smartbomb a busy screen, warping enemies away to preserve CPU and having the Landers carry a humanoid up through the top of the screen and start over if there is too much going on is all there.

A dedicated Defender is still on my buy list, but this has been holding me over pretty well.
defenderonworkbench.jpg
 
I am sure that putting an 8-way stick in is part of the MAME plan. If it isn't it should be. An 8 way stick on the left, and the 3 button group on the right give that CP the ability to play tons of great JAMMA era games. Black Tiger, Life Force, Golden Axe, Ghosts n Goblins, Pre-Historic Isle, Moon Patrol, Gauntlet AND the right CP for Defender and Stargate? That's a great MAME box.

And the plus of it all, is if you leave the artwork stock, it won't stick out in your gameroom. It will look like the great old classic that it is. Er, was. In any case, leave the art stock. I am sure you are leave the rest restorable back to original, so no real harm done.

No a 8-way stick will not be used, the control panel is to be remained all original and any other joystick wont fit thus modifying the whole control panel which is what we are avoiding. This project is not to be some flashy mame machine, its meant to be a cheap alternative and any extra games that can be played on that set up is a plus. Im using a cheap pentium 1 to run it because like i said its not meant to be the greatest mame machine out there. No extra buttons will be added, no flashy modern front end will be used either, just a starfield background and select the marquee of the game you wanna play and thats it. Also keep in mind which every games may work with this layout should come in cocktail form also because the screen will need to flip to the second play side when its their turn. I am hoping to start working on this in about two weeks when i get home from work. I will make a short build thread about it. I should be able to do this in about 1 night
 
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