Centipede Control Panel - what do you think?

[Superully]

as if i didn't have enough restoration projects i'm working on, i've decided to bring up centipede "in da house". i won't be working on it wholeheartedly for now, but in between i might have a look at it . i had a first look yesterday and realized something which i had never realized consciously before: the odd placement of the fire button. i've read that the designer's changed this shortly before rolling the game out into the arcades because it would be more comfortable to rest your whole hand on the panel. if you look at the panel, there is a perfect spot in the left mushroom just below its current position. hell  , there are even "white rays of light" where it should go!



i've been thinking about the following (and all those people who are left-handed like i am might understand me): move the fire button down into the left mushroom, move the trackball left into the middle mushroom and create another hole for a second fire button (for the left-handed people) in the right mushroom. of course, this would mean
(a) filling a lot of holes in the metal control panel - never done that before
(b) drilling three new holes into the metal control panel - never done that before either
(c) editing a vector file of the overlay so that there are also "rays of white light" in the right mushroom. does anyone have the vector file?

it would then look like this:



what do you think? looks original, doesn't it?  

question to the centipede owners: if i took that route, would the game still be playable as well as it is now or would be distance between trackball and fire buttons be too short?

one more thing: this "changing the control panel setup" only came to my mind recently, but i've already ordered the light blue european-style overlay (thx for that info, andré) from mamemarquees.com (imho the only shop carrying that overlay). in fact, i've ordered two, one for myself and one for an arcade friend of mine. both my friend and andré have installed their new cpos and you can see on both of them that there is a placement mistake on the overlay. the lower screw of the trackball should be in the middle of the right mushroom, but in fact it is not. have a look at the pics of the two refurbished panels. i think it looks completely out of place and distracts a lot - am i "too pussy" about it we all pay good money for those repoductions and i think they should at least be accurate.





i've written an email to the seller, let's see what he has to say!

enough for now - your turn!  

[Muerto]

hey ully!
Interisting!, but i think if the fire button is in the left mushroom, it will be in the way if you have to move from right to left quickly...
even worse if the trackball is in the middle mushroom, with a fire button on both sides of it... just my oppinion... 

[Superully]

that's what i would like to find out. perhaps i should build a simple wooden panel with exactly that kind of trackball / button setup and play a few rounds ...

[Etienne MacGyver]

thats always the way to find out

trial & error 

[Sonic 1992]

that's what i would like to find out. perhaps i should build a simple wooden panel with exactly that kind of trackball / button setup and play a few rounds ...

You may  find that you like your own custom control panel, (for lefties)  and keep it that way and put the stock one away, just in case... 

Great Idea

[Zorg]

check http://vectorlib.free.fr there is some centipede CPO vecto files floating over there

[level42]

Hate to shatter your dreams Ully but that design you propose will definitely not work.

The trackball is WAY too close to the buttons that way. Believe me, you need LOTS of room around that trackball when playing Centi.

The reason why they moved the button up is very true and you will experience it when playing. Even worse: they should have moved the trackball up too, but that was physically impossible. When playing I get tired on the right hand because of the lack of support in front of the trackball.
IMHO they should have made the CP much deeper, that way they could have solved the issues.

About you being left-handed, think about this: there's loads of games where I would want the controls reversed. F.I. DK., Galaxian. I've often thought about what were the reasons for the designers to create the controls as they are.

Whichever way you look at it, the majority of people is right-handed. You'd assume that f.i. a joystick control like on DK is more important than the jump button (pressing it is a much simpler action then steering the (clumsy) joystick. So, you'd assume they would have put the joystick right and the jump button left. Maybe they hoped that the player had a bigger challenge (=shorter play time = more coins) that way ?

For a game like Galaxian, you could say that the actual (precisely timed) firing is more important than the simple left-right movement of the ship and so the set-up of joystick left is pretty "logical".

Anyway, it's something you simply have to learn to live with, some controls will be reversed to what you'd prefer. I think there were players even crossing there hands on some games.

By the way, I noticed small color differences in the Mamemarquees.com cpo (which is probably from "the" collection) and mailed them about it. I wonder if he changed it. I never actually noticed the bolt placing. Weird. And thanks, now I'll never forget
Still, I prefer the matching of the blue's of the bezel and CPO above the other things.

[Superully]

Hate to shatter your dreams Ully but that design you propose will definitely not work.
The trackball is WAY too close to the buttons that way. Believe me, you need LOTS of room around that trackball when playing Centi.

thx, mr shatterman, sweet dreams to you, too   
but wait, there's something i could do, i could move the three mushrooms apart

i liked your small write-up about left- and right-handed games and i've never really thought about the "global picture". obviously i got tangled up in complaining about games which are suited better for right-handed people without thinking about the fact that there ARE game where we left-handed guys kick ass  and then there are games like crystal castles where you can play without having to think about that at all - may the best man win (left- or right-handed - who cares?  )

By the way, I noticed small color differences in the Mamemarquees.com cpo (which is probably from "the" collection) and mailed them about it. I wonder if he changed it. I never actually noticed the bolt placing. Weird. And thanks, now I'll never forget

no problem, my friend. every time you'll play centipede from now on you'll see that misaligned screw and think "WHY DID HE HAVE TO TELL ME THIS?" 

regarding the corrections: can you judge from my second control panel pictures if he changed the file? this is from a recent printout!

[level42]

Still looks exactly like mine.

Guess the market for these is just too small to invest the time...

[ckong]

Any news about the rework being done on the mamemarquees CPO file. Would be nice to see what was wrong and hot it will be corrected. I hope Mamemarquees will stock them again soon (the light blue ones).

[gyruss]

Any news about the rework being done on the mamemarquees CPO file. Would be nice to see what was wrong and hot it will be corrected. I hope Mamemarquees will stock them again soon (the light blue ones).

I would like to know that also, Ronald Reagan and I just bought a Centipede from Level42 (pictures will follow soon).

[Superully]

should be finished REAL soon! i'll let you guys know once it's done!!!

[gyruss]

Thanks! 

[Superully]

this is taking longer than expected, but it shouldn't take MUCH longer now (hopefully). he's a quick update:

- the errors in the original file have been corrected
- the file has been sent off to scott from mamemarquees
- scott is printing out a test overlay along with a color pallet sheet on the original vinyl he's using. those items are on their way to germany NOW. here they will be color-checked against an original european overlay (because scott doesn't have one) and IF there are still color errors, they will be corrected. IF NOT ->
- GO!!!

i'll keep you posted. can't wait to apply the new overlay on my centipede myself!

[ckong]

Great, good work.