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The whole 8 way as a 4way joystick issue
Frostillicus:
--- Quote from: Druin on May 06, 2003, 09:30:11 pm ---ie if you could use an 8way and just treat it like a 4way and casually try to change directions, and have it do so without diagonal registration fuss, would that be playable to you?
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Honestly, not really - if you get past the hardware and software problems..there is a 'feel' to a four-way (i own the mspacman reunion stick, BTW) than say, a super or competition. Much different throw range and weight feels.
Besides, I can see your solution for moving from south-->southeast--->east, but what about if the person goes from east---->northwest? how do you know if he 'meant' to go east--->north or east--->west? I use comps and supers and I'm all over the place with those things...no way I could be accurate enough without focusing on it, which would take away from the game playing focus... ;)
Druin:
--- Quote from: Frostillicus on May 06, 2003, 09:36:53 pm ---
--- Quote from: Druin on May 06, 2003, 09:30:11 pm ---ie if you could use an 8way and just treat it like a 4way and casually try to change directions, and have it do so without diagonal registration fuss, would that be playable to you?
--- End quote ---
Besides, I can see your solution for moving from south-->southeast--->east, but what about if the person goes from east---->northwest? how do you know if he 'meant' to go east--->north or east--->west? I use comps and supers and I'm all over the place with those things...no way I could be accurate enough without focusing on it, which would take away from the game playing focus... ;)
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For heading straight to a new diagonal from the middle of nowhere like that, that's where I was going to analyze some trials and see if there's a repeatable pattern that if you really meant to go one or the other out of a given diagonal, and you were approaching primarily that direction (North or West), then you'd actually have a switch closure in that direction before the other completes the diagonal...and then it could be filtered out...
Example, If you are at center and try to go North, but strike North and West, if you are primarily throwing the joystick north, but slip and hit diagonal, MAYBE the north switch is closed slightly before West...and if you try to go west but hit diagonal, maybe west is closed slightly before northwest....
It's a reasonable assumption based on experience generally, but would have to be looked at on a digital oscilloscope at work, to verify that it will happen this way "every" time.
After playing around with the stick (Mechanical Happ rotary) I do feel the diagonal positions, and can see what the feel would be like....but I'm still going to give it a shot for amusement.
I've noticed that if I'm sitting North, and try to go East, I do end up northeast pretty much every time, so that must be the problem people are having with 8ways as a 4way mostly. Going dead on is hard.
paigeoliver:
--- Quote from: Druin on May 06, 2003, 08:59:39 pm ---That's the problem, space isn't permitting this time! I'm jammed up with 8ways and have no room for 4 ways
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How much room do you need?
Here is a picture of the left side of my panel. I even included a tape measure to show scale. What you have there is the two best joysitcks around, an 8-Way leaf Wico and a Ms. Pac-Reunion joystick.
I noticed you said you are jammed up with 8-ways. How many are you using? You do realize that 4-way games outnumber 4-PLAYER games by a huge margin. You will probably want to play a 4-way game ten times more often than those player 3 and 4 slots will be used.
slug54:
I think its a great idea.
I have a Ms. Pacman re-union 4 way and I love it.
But if I could have flipped a switch and played
frogger and Pacman with my existing 8 -way I probably would have went that way. If designing a circuit like this
is something you think you could do, I say go for it.
You can't beat the feel of a dedicated 4-way, but this could turn out to be a good option for a lot of people.
Slug54
paigeoliver:
--- Quote from: slug54 on May 06, 2003, 11:32:19 pm ---I think its a great idea.
I have a Ms. Pacman re-union 4 way and I love it.
But if I could have flipped a switch and played
frogger and Pacman with my existing 8 -way I probably would have went that way. If designing a circuit like this
is something you think you could do, I say go for it.
You can't beat the feel of a dedicated 4-way, but this could turn out to be a good option for a lot of people.
Slug54
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I don't like the idea of flipping a switch. How the heck are guest players supposed to know which games are 8-way, and which games are 4-way? The Mame info/developer people don't even seem to know half the time. Even if they knew, they would have to open up the panel, find the switch without disturbing the wiring. etc. FORGET THAT.
I just have them both right there. For popular games I have it preset for only the "correct" joystick to control the game (they are wired separately).