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8 way joystics for 4 way games
EightBySix:
No - I'm not asking if it's a good idea - concensus seems to be that Pacman, etc, etc is best played on a 4 way joystick.
My question is "Why?"
I've not tried it myself, but I imagine that the game wont recognise the diagonals, so that when you 'roll' the joystick to go up the ladder in Donkey Kong, it doesn't recognise the diagonal as having an 'up' component. Am I right?
Is it also true, that if you continue to roll the joystic around to an up position, that the game continues to register the sideways motion and not the up - i.e. you have to return to central position before pushing up....
leapinlew:
--- Quote from: EightBySix on February 09, 2011, 09:08:17 am ---No - I'm not asking if it's a good idea - concensus seems to be that Pacman, etc, etc is best played on a 4 way joystick.
My question is "Why?"
I've not tried it myself, but I imagine that the game wont recognise the diagonals, so that when you 'roll' the joystick to go up the ladder in Donkey Kong, it doesn't recognise the diagonal as having an 'up' component. Am I right?
Is it also true, that if you continue to roll the joystic around to an up position, that the game continues to register the sideways motion and not the up - i.e. you have to return to central position before pushing up....
--- End quote ---
Deadzones. Each 4 way game handles inputs differently. Take Ms. Pacman for example. My experience with Ms Pacman on a 8 way joystick was very frustrating. If you roll the joystick from the up to right position and along the way send a diagonal input, she would freeze and not accept any direction until the joystick was centered.
I also used an 8 way to play defender. Defender seemed to do fine with different directions being registered. So, each game handles it different.
Someone else may be able to explain why the developers chose to do things this way as I can only speak about my experiences with an 8 way.
HanoiBoi:
I know you didn't ask, but with a joystick that is switchable from 8way to 4way is a decent option.
I use Mag Stik Plus and have been happy with the results.
EightBySix:
I was thinking more of a software solution. Surely the behaviour comes from the encoder, which is replicating what a keyboard would do if more than one key is pressed. If we made an encoder to register keypresses on diagonals differently (i.e two "keys" are being pressed), it might help the situation?
Xiaou2:
The biggest reason Why, is not software or switch related. Those can be adjusted and dealt with.
The biggest reason is the Diagonal shaped path of the stick.
A lot of joysticks have a square outer edge. If you go from Down to Left, your joystick will slam into the diagonal corner first, then you press up to change its course and direction towards the left side of the box.
A true 4way will guide your stick directly from Down to Left in a shorter Diagonal line to that direction. The shorter travel, and not slamming into the unused corners, equates to faster reactions and a smoother feel to the game.
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