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Question about difference of 4-way and 8-way sticks
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BoLt:
So I searched the forum for a bit on why you need a joystick that can be switched to 4-way and came up short on an answer.  I saw that some people said 4 way is really only needed for certain games, but why is that?  That really is my question, why do you need a 4-way stick?
dfmaverick:
For instance, in a game such as Pac-Man, being able to hit two switches at once in the corners with an 8-way joystick can make you go the wrong direction than intended while on a 4-way, you can only hit one switch at a time.
ABACABB:
Yes, I couldn't really understand this either when I started my build, but it becomes quite clear when trying to play a 4-way game with an 8-way joystick.  I thought I could make it work with my Tankstick on 8-way mode but the 4-way games don't like diagonal movements. This is all fine and good when you nail the perfectly vertical and horizontal movements, but in the heat of the game when things get fast/intense, you'll inevitably bump one of these diagonal movements and your guy on the screen while either go the opposite direction or sometimes not respond to the movement and do nothing at all. It gets frustrating quickly. 

Vigo:
Yeah, some 4-way games sometimes respond funny when you hit a diagonal, but it is livable. IMO, you don't need 4-way, but for 4-way classics is it a great improvement in feel. The physical restriction on the joystick feels more natural to the real arcade game. The real arcade machine only allowed you to go up/down/left/right; it feels closer to the real thing with a stick that has those same restrictions.
Cynicaster:
The important thing to remember is that these old arcade games were designed and built as unique, integrated products--in other words, the game code was written with a specific input device in mind, not a generic universal joystick like many of us use on our cabinets today.  So when, say, Nibbler was being coded, the programmer did not even have to give consideration to how to handle an input of LEFT+DOWN, because the joystick on the machine would never allow those switches to be pressed simultaneously.  Fast forward to the glorious world of MAME, and joysticks are now sending diagonals to those games, and the code simply does not know what to do with it, leading to unpredictable and erratic results. 

 
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