I'm NOT asking HOW things work. How =/= why.
I'm just asking If there was a logical/historic reason for a choice that seems to be counter-intuitive today.
The seemingly random
QWERTY keyboard layout was originally adopted to reduce typebar jams like this on old manual typewriters.
Knowing that, the QWERTY layout makes more sense.
I remember reading somewhere that MAME used Control, Alt, and Shift keys to work around the limitations of some keyboard encoders that would only register a certain number of keypresses since those three weren't included in the limitation.
By knowing that limitation/work around and looking at a keyboard, the MAME defaults make sense.
I'm just asking about the
logical/historic reasons, if any, behind I, K, J, and L being chosen as the P2B5-8 defaults for encoders.
If the answer is, "Andy pulled them out of thin air without considering 4-player panels and inertia has kept the settings that way," then that's the answer.
No need to treat me like I have some kind of irrational obsession for simply asking if there is a logical/historic reason for what
appear to be counter-intuitive default settings.
In the old story, it was a young lad that pointed out that the Emperor had no clothes -- I figured there might be some unknown Lady Godiva-style reason for it in this case and figured I'd respectfully extend the benefit of the doubt to two highly respected members of the community.
Scott