4 way stick games. How many buttons?

[Apollo]

Just putting the finishing touches to my new CP. I have 2X8 ways with 6 buttons each. How many buttons should I have for the 4 way? I was thinking 3. Does anyone have any advice on this?

[hooded_paladin]

4-way and 3 buttons:
dairesya
farwest
ironhors
karianx
logicpr2
logicpro
punchout
reikaids
tutankhm
tutankst
zerozone

4-way and 4 buttons:
chinhero
40love
mtrap
mtrap3
mtrap4
spnchotj
spnchout

compared to the whole ton of 0, 1 or 2 button 4-way games.
Since you can opt to use the other player buttons if you really need them, you could get by with two or even one button(s) for your 4-way.

[Apollo]

Awesome, thanks for that. I don't really play any of those games so 2 buttons it is.
By the way how did you do that? Do you have some kind of data base for that?

[hooded_paladin]

I got some controls file ... don't ask me where.  It's somewhat outdated and inaccurate.  There's somethin going on with Howard Casto and a few other people that are doing something better, but that's not the same file.

I converted it into a .ini to use in MAME32.  Here's a text file, change it into .ini and put it into the subdirectory 'folders' if you use MAME32.

[Apollo]

Cheers  

[paigeoliver]

Wow, we have a bot of misinformation here.

I did two buttons on my dedicated 4-way cabinet. There isn't really anything worth playing that has more than that.

Every controls list I have ever seen floating around is riddled with errors.

First lets look at the "3 button games" listed above.

Iron Horse (dairesya, Far West) is an 8-way game, just played it, and it definitely has diagonal movements (and it sucks too).

Karian Cross is a puzzle game, and like almost all puzzle games, it plays equally well with 4-way or 8-way. You would want to use 8-way anyway, just so you can play 2 player.

The Logic Pro games are in Japanese, and it is a Mahjong Puzzle/Quiz type deal. Unplayable unless you can read japanese, and it probably works fine with an 8-way, not like those Mahjong games are based on precise movements.

Punchout is worthless in Mame due to the stupid twin display thing.

Reikaids is a SF2 style fighter (and probably dated wrong too, as those graphics look a bit above what some no name company could have done in 1988), and have you EVER seen a 4-way fighter?

Tutankham is not a 4-way game, it uses an 8-way top fire along with a 2-way.

Zero Zone is a porno Columns clone, and like all puzzle games it plays just fine with an 8-way.

Now lets look at the "4 Button games"

Chinese Hero has 4 inputs listed in Mame, but try playing it, the 4th button does not do anything that I can see. I am guessing the 4th button is left over in the driver from some other game that uses the same hardware. It is however a true 4-way game, but it is kind of like Legend of Zelda or Bomberman in the movement area, and it plays just fine with an 8-way.

40 Love also appears to just be a 3 button game (another Taito one, like Chinese Hero). It is also a true 4-way game, but it is also a total mess, and there are much better Tennis games in Mame. Tennis is simply not a 4-way type game, and I have no idea what Taito was thinking with this one.

Mouse Trap is the ONLY reason to have more than 2 buttons with a 4-way stick. It has 4 buttons, but it also isn't THAT great of a game. Unless you really like it, then it can be skipped, there are a lot of other similar games with less buttons.

Super Punchout, like Punchout is a mess because of the dual display issue.

[hooded_paladin]

wow.  that's bad.  sorry for referring to such a shoddy list.

[paigeoliver]

Well, half of them were technically right, but were still wrong.  

Anyway, it wasn't your list, I just wanted to clear up the matter, to keep people from adding extra buttons that they don't need.

So basically, it all boils down to this.

Do you have to play Mouse Trap? If so, then it is 4 buttons.

Otherwise it is 2 buttons.

[paigeoliver]

Oh, and a couple of other clarifications.

If you really DO want to Play Punch Out!!, even with the twin display thing making it look stupid, then you might want to play it the way you did on the NES, with the Start button doubling as the uppercut button.

[Apollo]

Oh bugger, I just drilled my CP for my 4 way stick buttons. How hard do you think it would be to get 2 holes lined up perfectly? Well screw me I now have 2 buttons for my 4 way stick and they are damn well crooked, I'm so pissed. Every single button on my CP is perfectly lined up except for the last 2 that I had to drill! Friggin typical! Oh well at least it's finished, pics to follow soon.