What is random is selecting a game, only to have it appear 90 degrees rotated from the seat you are in. Which brings yet another problem, which way does it turn, left or right? That seems random.
Not at all.
What is comes down to is this: We think the user can decide to change their seat if they want to, but they shouldn't be forced to by a computer program.
Like I said, it needs to be an option.
Ok, think about it like this. Most cocktails have controls on both vertical sides and a set on one horizontal side. Usually the cabinet maker designates on of the vertical sides as always player 1. So that person will use ror or rol, but never both. However, for horizontal games he/she will want to use the horizontal side. Most cocktail users already use autoror or autorol in mame.ini to automatically rotate the game if it is vertical.
He/She doesn't EVER want a horizontal game to show up orientated on the vertical side. So they are already letting mame decide what seat they sit in. They aren't being forced, it's how they want their cocktail to runsince they decided to put both horizontal and vertical control setups ont he cabinet. You shouldn't force them to play horizontal games on the vertical side because that's how your FE is orientated at the time they selected the game.
Most current cocktail users have already set ror or autoror in their mame.ini file based on how their cabinet is laid out.
What I am saying is it should be an option in your FE. *IF* the cocktail user has controls ont he vertical and horizontal side autoror or autorol should be used. If that person only has a vertical cocktail then ror or rol should always be used.
Like I said, the owner of the cabinet might be smart enough to know when to change seats before launching the game. But if a friend stops by and starts play not knowing how the frontend works they will just select a game. So he/she is sitting ont he vert side, starts double dragon, wait I said this example already. It happens all too often. Friends don't want to remember the specidfics of how to use your cabinet, they just want to play.
What's going to be annoying is starting up that horizontal game then realizing you needed rotate the FE first. That's stupid as mame supports auto rotating if needed. The person will have to exit the game, rotate the FE, then play the game.
Don't think this suggestion is coming from just some sideline person. I've been working on a cocktail setup and have yet to find the perfect FE. When I select a game let mame deal with the orientation. I will put autoror or ror in the ini file based on my cabinet. If would be col if the FE realizes that if I was playing a vertical game to set the FE in vertical oientation so it is there when I quit the game, same with horizontal. If I play a horizontal game I don't ever want it to show up in vertical orientation. That's why I put autoror in the mame.ini in the first place. If I had only a vertical cocktail cabinet I would put ror in the ini because I would only have contros on the vertical side.
You ask which way to use, ror or rol. That's up to the user on which side he/she thinks should always be player 1.
Start a poll. Ask cocktail users if they would rather
1) Switch seats and rotate the FE before selecting a game if needed.
2) The game will use the best orientation and the user will switch seats according to what's best for the game.
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Topic: New Frontend (Read 2371 times)
