Unplayable games with simple control panel

[jcroach]

Hello,

I'm in the process of designing an arcade control panel that I hope to eventually connect to a full sized cabinet.

[paigeoliver]

There are HUNDREDS of games that are essentially unplayable with the controls you listed.

Also, if you are going for game totals then ditch the trackball and put a 4-way there instead, a good 15 percent of the games in Mame are 4-way, while a pitiful 2 percent are trackball (as in actually trackball, not listed as trackball by mame32 because the game has an analog control or because the hardware platform supports trackballs).

You are never going to be able to support everything, there are way too many idiot games like DOT and those assorted mid 80s baseball titles and Karate Champ that pretty much require a totally custom layout to play.

[jcroach]

Also, if you are going for game totals then ditch the trackball and put a 4-way there instead

Thanks for the advice.

[GGKoul]

This threads for you... http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,17208.0.html

[NoOne=NBA=]

How about these 49-way joysticks and "perfect 360s" that I've been reading about?  What's the benifit of these?

They can do 2/4/8/49-way with GroovyGameGear's interface, in addition to doing a low resolution analog.

Can you use an analog or 8-way joystick for Atari games that used a "Hall Effect" joystick?

Analog sticks work for these games, but 8-ways lose alot of the resolution that the original sticks had.
The 49-way should be a decent substitute for games like Road Runner.
The 49-way will give you 3 speeds in each direction.
An 8-way will just give you top speed, which makes the games difficult to play--as you found out.

Here are the analog joysticks I found listed in KLOV.  Can 8-way joysticks be used for these games at all?

It may allow you to play SOME of them, but you will only have top speed.
That is why Road Runner is so difficult with an 8-way.
You can't move slowly to avoid missing bird seed on it.

For games like Star Wars, an analog stick will work--making it just like the Trilogy machines.
It's not as good as playing with a yoke, but is playable.
The 49-ways don't have high enough resolution though, so your crosshairs tend to jump alot, and make it unplayable.
8-ways are even worse because the crosshairs will jump completely to the outside of their travel in any direction you press.

[Kremmit]

Is Karate Champ, or other dual 4-waygames, impossible to play with 8-way joysticks?

They will not be IMPOSSIBLE, but they will not play WELL.

Are there many games that require digital joysticks?

Standard joysticks ARE digital joysticks.

Are games that require rotary joysticks, like Ikari Warriers, impossible to play with an 8-way joystick and a spinner?

You will not like trying to play these games with a spinner.

How about these 49-way joysticks and "perfect 360s" that I've been reading about?  What's the benifit of these?

No_One already covered the 49-ways.. they'd make a good replacement for your 8-ways, since they do 8-way, 4-way, 2-way, etc.  You will need GroovyGameGear's new 49-way interface, one per stick to get this functionality.

Perfect 360s are super-fancy digital sticks.  They will not enable any games that you cannot play with regular sticks.  You may prefer them for other reasons:  They're quiet, reliable, and have a good feel during gameplay. (heavy spring recommended)

You might also consider the T-Stick+, or the Prodigy, as replacements for your 8-ways.  They switch between 8-way and 4-way operation, without opening up the control panel and messing about.  They don't cover 49-way, or low resolution analog like the 49-ways, but they don't require a special interface, either.

Can you use an analog or 8-way joystick for Atari games that used a "Hall Effect" joystick?

No_One already covered why you don't want to use an 8-way on these.  An analog will work well on games that used an analog, hall, or 49-way joy.  A 49-way will work well on games that used 49-ways, pretty well on games that used a hall, pretty well on some that used an analog, and lousy on other analog games.

Games I know will be next to impossible to play include:
720

[paigeoliver]

And to make things worse, most flicker joy games require 2 of them usually facing in different directions. One game REQUIRES dual trackballs and a flicker joy (Baseball title, I can't recall the name at the moment).

Snake pit needs an interesting layout as well. I seem to recall 4-way topfire with trackball.
Some dualjoy games need one two be a topfire.
Assault needs a pair of topfire 4-ways.

Sprint 8 needs 8 spinners/wheels, 16 pedals and 8 4 position shifters!

Lucky and Wild needs some craziness too. (Steering wheel, pedals and GUN, might have had a shifter too).

Wizard of Wor needs a pair of 9-ways for two player (4-way joys with 2 levels of sensitivity in each direction).

Hmmm, I wonder if Groovygamegear can add Wizard of Wor support to their 49-way encoder?