8 way joystics for 4 way games

[EightBySix]

No - I'm not asking if it's a good idea - concensus seems to be that Pacman, etc, etc is best played on a 4 way joystick.

My question is "Why?"

I've not tried it myself, but I imagine that the game wont recognise the diagonals, so that when you 'roll' the joystick to go up the ladder in Donkey Kong, it doesn't recognise the diagonal as having an 'up' component. Am I right?

Is it also true, that if you continue to roll the joystic around to an up position, that the game continues to register the sideways motion and not the up - i.e. you have to return to central position before pushing up....

[leapinlew]

No - I'm not asking if it's a good idea - concensus seems to be that Pacman, etc, etc is best played on a 4 way joystick.

My question is "Why?"

I've not tried it myself, but I imagine that the game wont recognise the diagonals, so that when you 'roll' the joystick to go up the ladder in Donkey Kong, it doesn't recognise the diagonal as having an 'up' component. Am I right?

Is it also true, that if you continue to roll the joystic around to an up position, that the game continues to register the sideways motion and not the up - i.e. you have to return to central position before pushing up....

Deadzones. Each 4 way game handles inputs differently. Take Ms. Pacman for example. My experience with Ms Pacman on a 8 way joystick was very frustrating. If you roll the joystick from the up to right position and along the way send a diagonal input, she would freeze and not accept any direction until the joystick was centered.

I also used an 8 way to play defender. Defender seemed to do fine with different directions being registered. So, each game handles it different.

Someone else may be able to explain why the developers chose to do things this way as I can only speak about my experiences with an 8 way. 

[HanoiBoi]

I know you didn't ask, but with a joystick that is switchable from 8way to 4way is a decent option.

I use Mag Stik Plus and have been happy with the results.

[EightBySix]

I was thinking more of a software solution. Surely the behaviour comes from the encoder, which is replicating what a keyboard would do if more than one key is pressed. If we made an encoder to register keypresses on diagonals differently (i.e two "keys" are being pressed), it might help the situation?

[Xiaou2]

The biggest reason Why, is not software or switch related.  Those can be adjusted and dealt with.

 The biggest reason is the Diagonal shaped path of the stick.

 A lot of joysticks have a square outer edge.  If you go from Down to Left, your joystick will slam into the diagonal corner first, then you press up to change its course and direction towards the left side of the box.

 A true 4way will guide your stick directly from Down to Left in a shorter Diagonal line to that direction.  The shorter travel, and not slamming into the unused corners, equates to faster reactions and a smoother feel to the game.

[EightBySix]

Hmm yes. I guess I should have stated that I appreciate an 8 way wouldnt feel as good. I was just wondering if a software adjustment to an encoder would help at all.

[GreatLamer]

There's an annoying "effect" if you play 4 way games with 8 way or analogue joysticks. A keyboard is better than these.

[Blanka]

I include a smaller, shorter ball top 4 way for the Pac-Man's. Its just 15 bucks extra.
The only 4-way that isn't covered is Q*Bert, but surprisingly that one is handled very well by MAME on a 8-way stick. If you make a good mapping (up-left, not up, not left) etc, then it works perfect for Q*Bert.

[robertsig]

Or you can buy the Ultimarc 360.

[Erik]

or buy 4 pushbuttons 

[bkenobi]

Or a Pacman cab.   

[Blanka]

Or you can buy the Ultimarc 360.

For that price you have an 8-way, a 4-way and a Q*bert way, and they work in all emulators. 360 is nice for Mame, but on other software, it is often useless.

[robertsig]

For that price you have an 8-way, a 4-way and a Q*bert way, and they work in all emulators. 360 is nice for Mame, but on other software, it is often useless.

There are other emulators besides MAME? 

[D_Harris]

The biggest reason Why, is not software or switch related.  Those can be adjusted and dealt with.

 The biggest reason is the Diagonal shaped path of the stick.

 A lot of joysticks have a square outer edge.  If you go from Down to Left, your joystick will slam into the diagonal corner first, then you press up to change its course and direction towards the left side of the box.

 A true 4way will guide your stick directly from Down to Left in a shorter Diagonal line to that direction.  The shorter travel, and not slamming into the unused corners, equates to faster reactions and a smoother feel to the game.

That's basically it.

An 8-way joystick on Ms.Pac-man won't effect a player like me as much as other gamers, considering the number of hours I've put into that it. But it still comes down to left, up, right, and down, without having to deal with an extra change in direction or hiccup when you go from one of the switches to another. A 4-way restrictor allows you to hit each direction more cleanly and consistently.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[CrazyKongFan]

I also used an 8 way to play defender. Defender seemed to do fine with different directions being registered. So, each game handles it different.

Defender is a bad example though, since it's only 2-way...there's no diagonals to hit, since it doesn't even look for left/right. Hitting up/left or up/right would just register as up.