Button/Joystick Advice

[domodan]

So, I've got 2 ControlBlock's on the way, with the hope of building a 4 player gaming cabinet. I'm excited for them to get here, and have my power button already here. My plan is to build up the joysticks and buttons in a modular, stand alone unit with the HDMI out to a display and prove out the ability for me to get the 4 joysticks, player buttons, other buttons, etc... all working and then design/build the cabinet.

Can anyone make any recommendations as to which buttons and joysticks I should use, and help provide clarity as to exactly how many I can hook up to the ControlBlock's?

I want to have all the buttons I need to play games up to SNES (NES, Atari, MAME, etc...) and joysticks for each.

How are the Joysticks and buttons from X-Arcade? I'm guessing these should work fine and will be able to easily be wired up to the ControlBlock?

I'm thinking I'll want 8 buttons per player. A/B/X/Y/L/R/Select/Start + the joysticks. If I understand it correctly the joystick is 4, plus each button makes 12 per player for a total of 48 buttons. Is that correct?

Also curious if I could utilize Trackballs (via USB) for Players 1 & 2...or would I be better off saving the Trackballs for another project?

I'm still trying to figure out how the player buttons work, the coin button, select, start, etc... Any insight you can provide as to products and how they connect to the ControlBlock would be very much appreciated.

[lilbud]

On my last cabinet, I used this Joystick and these buttons. You don't have to use red, but these have worked really well for me so far.

[Darksavior]

X-arcade uses cheap Happ knockoffs. Stick with sanwa.

[domodan]

Thanks guys. I went ahead and ordered the Suzo Happ longstem buttons and the Sanwa joysticks. I am excited for them to come in and I can experiment with getting everything wired up.

Any thoughts or insight as to whether or not I'll be able to utilize USB controllers if desired?