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What's up with the angling?

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Vigo:
I, for the life of me, could never get myself to use one of those "ergonomic keyboards". You know the kind where it is cut in half, angled on each side, then the middle is nothing but dead space. To me, they feel awkward and unnatural, look stupid, and handicap the rest of the human race that is used to straight keyboards.

There are people out there who function better with, and love those keyboards.

I guess my point is, it is someones personal machine, I am not gonna rail on them for not being authentic, being cocky or even being inexperienced. I may personally not like it, but my brain has only been tuned to using P1/P2 controls only one specific way.

I have been down the angled controls route before for player's 3 and 4, when I was surprised how many times I was seeing them angled. I finally tried it on someone else's cab, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Green eggs and Ham moment for me.

BadMouth:

--- Quote from: kahlid74 on February 16, 2012, 11:02:39 am ---This is a different entity from what the OP's original grip/question was.  If you've never actually angled the buttons you should try it.  You don't really gain a true perspective until you play it on wood with angled buttons.  Angled buttons are super ergonomic and prevent finger fatigue.  Yeah yeah, catch phrase smatch phrase but it really works man.  I noticed a huge difference after two hours of playing.  On my straight line buttons my fingers would cramp but on the angled buttons I can play longer.

--- End quote ---

OP is talking about the joystick being angled.  On original arcade games, up on the joystick was always parallel with the sides of the cab, even if the player were standing to the side and the buttons were angled.  Basically the joystick is aligned with your character on the screen, not your body's angle to the arcade machine.  Even though the buttons were angled so the joystick handle and buttons were square with your body, the joystick was not angled.

I think it might just be a matter of younger people being used to playing with controllers, so they want the controls squared with their body.

Notice where UP is on this gauntlet panel.  Noob's would have UP facing toward the center of the panel.

DaveMMR:
The button angling or curving isn't all that much of a concern (as long as your design is not over-angled, like straight up). Albeit, I believe over-thinking ergonomics is time wasted that could otherwise be spent on other things. Straight across is fine (SFII), slight curve is okay, extreme angles should be tested extensively with two players on many rounds of fighting games (and at that point - just go with one of the standards.)

Just for clarity though, I am referring to Player 1 and 2 joysticks being set up an an angle that's at least 15 degrees off center, but not even 45 degrees.  That is what's baffling me a bit...


--- Quote from: Vigo on February 16, 2012, 11:17:44 am ---I guess my point is, it is someones personal machine, I am not gonna rail on them for not being authentic, being cocky or even being inexperienced. I may personally not like it, but my brain has only been tuned to using P1/P2 controls only one specific way.
--- End quote ---

You know what I agree but I can't imagine this is comfortable in any way except for the person building it, as he/she is rationalize their decision to install the sticks that way.  So I bring this up not to say "hey stop doing things wrongs!"  But I think it's starting to spread and suddenly people are dropping a couple of bills on wood, artwork, lexan - and not to mention time - because they were getting the idea from someone else's project.  It's one of those things that sounds good on paper, but seems terrible in practice.

I believe in "do whatever you want" with the rest of the cab - but bad controls could potentially make the cab a chore  to play and as a result, almost useless.


--- Quote from: Vigo on February 16, 2012, 11:17:44 am ---I have been down the angled controls route before for player's 3 and 4, when I was surprised how many times I was seeing them angled. I finally tried it on someone else's cab, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Green eggs and Ham moment for me.

--- End quote ---

Unauthentic to arcade, yes - but it's not horrible when the front of the cab (like half an octagon shape) is parallel to the angle of the sticks (which is typically 45 degrees).  Just again to clarify, what I am seeing is the main (P1 and P2) sticks, angled not at all parallel to the front edge and not even at 0/360 or 45 degrees (like it's almost random). 

(Sorry I can't provide examples, but there are a couple in Proj. Announce.  I do not want to single anyone out.)

Ond:
I think it's probably down to a stubborn attachment to aesthetics i.e. builders don't care about the practicality of a stick at an odd angle from the plane of the screen they just want the look of their CP to be like that.  You can get used to anything I guess, but practical design is another matter.

drventure:
Interesting. I've noticed the same thing lately. I don't recall cp's that popped up around here from back even just a few years ago with p1-2 sticks angled, but I've seen several of them in the last few months.

Seems like they've always been nods to the angled front edge of the CP's though, which tends to indicate more of a design decision than and functional one. Ond's right , though, you can get used to anything (see laptop keyboards vs desktop, big L shaped enter key vs single row enter key, etc).

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