How many thumb buttons on trigger sticks?

[Paul Olson]

Hi, I have a bunch of parts for trigger sticks, and I have a couple of questions. How many 8-way trigger stick games are there, and how many use two thumb buttons? How many of these offer 2 player simultaneous play? I only have 2 volcano buttons, and I am wondering if it would be best to put them both in one stick, or put one each in 2 sticks.

I would also appreciate hearing which of these games you like the best. 

Thanks,
Paul

[Rocky]

Discs of Tron uses 1 thumb button, and it's only one player at a time.

Xenophobe had 2 thumb buttons and was a 3 player simultaneous game.

Xenophobe was a lot of fun back in the day, but it's a quarter eater -- from the era of continues.  I find that the quarter eaters are not as much fun now that I can add as many credits as I want without paying.

I remember when some friends and I decided to play all the way through The Simpsons on my machine-- not much satisfaction.

Anyway, I'm rambling. 

[NoOne=NBA=]

Xenophobe is the only one that I can think of at the moment that actually used two.
M.A.C.H. 3 had two, but only used one, IIRC.
Xenophobe can be played very easily with buttons on the CP though because you don't need the other hand for a spinner.

The games that you need a spinner in the other hand (Tron, DOT, Mad Planets, Zwackery) don't need more than one button.

My suggestion is that you should put one button on each, but put them so that one stick will be a left hand fire, and one a right hand fire.
That will let you play tank games with them, notably Sarge and Vindicators.

[Kremmit]

Xenophobe is the only one that I can think of at the moment that actually used two.
M.A.C.H. 3 had two, but only used one, IIRC.
Xenophobe can be played very easily with buttons on the CP though because you don't need the other hand for a spinner.

The games that you need a spinner in the other hand (Tron, DOT, Mad Planets, Zwackery) don't need more than one button.

My suggestion is that you should put one button on each, but put them so that one stick will be a left hand fire, and one a right hand fire.
That will let you play tank games with them, notably Sarge and Vindicators.

I think Xenophobe actually plays better with CP buttons.
 
Pretty sure Mad Planets had two thumb buttons, but I can't remember if it actually used both of them.  I can't remember if MACH 3 used both buttons, either.

Don't forget Battlezone and Assault on the tank game list!  4-way restriction would be nice for these, but you can't have everything.

DOT and Zwackery likely do need extra buttons; unless pcolson has an up/down spinner he'll need two buttons to perform the actions the up/down portion of the spinner ought to be taking care of.  Those, in addition to the one thumb button already needed, would make for three total thumb buttons.  I don't know if you could fit 3 volcano-type buttons there, but one could probably find something else that would work.  Or just put two buttons on the CP and live with the fact that sometimes you just have to take one hand off a control.

[Paul Olson]

Thanks for the replies. I have actually never played xenophobe or DOT, but I have heard many times that both are good. I think I will put one together with one button and see if it does the job. Then if I like the games, I will make another. Although I haven't been very productive since I hooked up my Tron stick, so it could be a while.