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| Cynicaster:
--- Quote from: Gray_Area on February 19, 2013, 01:51:44 pm ---I have a 35" wide panel, and I don't notice any difference in my playing on that versus a real machine....um, except that I've done better on my panel. Like, millions better. --- End quote --- Really? Like I said, on my setup, I can play twin-stick games and still have fun. It's not that the wide spacing is physically "uncomfortable". It's just that I have a hard time being mentally "in tune" with both sticks simultaneously when they're so far apart, and my precision suffers tremendously as a result. I actually play both left-handed and right-handed, depending on the game. For shmups, beat em ups, and games that use multiple buttons, I like to use my right hand for button duty and left hand for joystick. For maze games and early 80's 4-way games like Burgertime and Zoo Keeper, it's vice versa. Not sure why that is--probably because I grew up playing the older-style games on Atari 2600 (which uses a right-handed controller) and the late 80's and 90's style games on NES and Genesis (which both use left-handed controllers). Anyway, I mention this because it would be nice to have the left- and right-hand joysticks in a dual-stick setup to be in the same position relative to me as they would be if I were using either one individually--or, at least, as close to that ideal as practical. I don't know about you, but if I take my "natural" standing position for a frantic game like Zoo Keeper, and force myself to stand several inches to the left, it's going to affect my scores because it's a bit awkward. It's all the more important in a game that requires the pixel-precision movement of Robotron. |
| 1500points:
--- Quote from: Cynicaster on February 20, 2013, 01:28:41 pm --- I actually play both left-handed and right-handed, depending on the game. For shmups, beat em ups, and games that use multiple buttons, I like to use my right hand for button duty and left hand for joystick. For maze games and early 80's 4-way games like Burgertime and Zoo Keeper, it's vice versa. Not sure why that is--probably because I grew up playing the older-style games on Atari 2600 (which uses a right-handed controller) and the late 80's and 90's style games on NES and Genesis (which both use left-handed controllers). --- End quote --- hmmm, I never really thought about that phenomena. Now that I think about it I play Donkey Kong with the normal control panel setup, but it feels extremely uncomfortable to play with the same joystick hand on pacman. and trackball for centipede feels really odd using left hand. weird. |
| secret80sman:
--- Quote from: 1500points on February 19, 2013, 07:16:31 pm ---Here is a tidbit for you. Mame 148 has a complete re-write of the blitter emulation coming in near future. I just did a field test and think it is PERFECT. I'll be curious to know what you guys think when it is released. http://www.seanriddle.com/blitter.html --- End quote --- Wow, thank you for that! Should make a huge difference in game play once I dust off my skills. Very cool read too. |
| Cynicaster:
--- Quote from: 1500points on February 19, 2013, 07:16:31 pm ---Here is a tidbit for you. Mame 148 has a complete re-write of the blitter emulation coming in near future. I just did a field test and think it is PERFECT. I'll be curious to know what you guys think when it is released. http://www.seanriddle.com/blitter.html --- End quote --- I've never heard of this "blitter" stuff before. I tried to read the technical write-up, and I think I got the gist of it, but I'm still kind of unclear on what the real-world implications are to the gameplay, other than the vague statement that "MAME has less slow-down and therefore is harder". How much harder? Based on some of the commentary in that video, it sounds like the tanks and enforcers spawn much more quickly in MAME than on original hardware... am I getting that right? It would make sense... sometimes when I play that tank level it's totally holy chit ridiculous, even for a classic arcade game. |
| 1500points:
Basically, and I'm no developer mind you....in games like Defender the processing of video objects is done on the CPU. BUT a game like robotron is so intense that the CPU couldn't manage it alone. SO they developed an off-board "special" set of chips to manage the video (blits....blitter concept). those special blitter chips are wicked fast at what they do. therefore you get an awesomely intense gameplay experience in 1982 such as Robotron. well along comes emulation of the real hardware and it is all guesswork making software that acts like that real hardware. things like how much time should the emulation take to do things like access RAM and ROM. and how fast should all those blitter objects be processed. it is all guesswork. especially since the Special chips were a unique design. you'd have to crack them open and view with a microscope to really understand the hardware theory... (ie not likely to happen anytime soon) soooo on the early attempts mame didn't have proper time for the cpu OR the special chips. and the guesses were way off of accurate. what you'd see would be enemy projectiles processing way too fast, shots would blister across the screen, or hulks moving really fast, or grunts overtaking you way too fast.. the real hardware would only do a few of those enemy behaviors at a time, but new computers and emulation were trying to process all the objects at one time which is untolerably hard to deal with for the player in a game like robotron. so it has been an ongoing process of trial and error development and gameplay feedback to try to "dial in" the gameplay of williams games with blitter (robotron/joust/bubbles/etc, not defender/stargate) so they were fun. And finally it is in the very final stages of someone getting it just right. If you want to see what I mean first hand. go buy midway arcade origins for xbox. the emulation is terrible and the game is brutally hard. try a 19-1 board and your scores will be terrible. then try mame 148 when the updates are released, or if you are lucky to play a real machine. and you'll find you are a lot better at robotron than you realized! :) PS- I got immersed in this accidentally...i had a 19-1 board and the xbla version of robotron. i was never a robo player in the golden era. so i practice and practiced and still couldn't crack half a million. it was soooo frustrating. then one day i visited a friend with a real robotron and BAM I'm rocking 1 million. holy crap. wave 42 was easier on real machine than wave 12 on the 19-1 board! which led me to a lot of internet research and whining...sean riddle listened and came to the rescue....yada yada yada. here we are! |
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