🚀 go-pugleaf

On Wed, 21 Jun 2017 04:38:13 -0700, Justisaur <just...@gmail.com>
wrote:

>On 6/20/2017 6:36 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>> On Mon, 19 Jun 2017 10:46:30 -0700, Justisaur <just...@gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> On 6/19/2017 8:17 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>> 
>>> I seem to be mostly using a controller these days too.  I guess I don't
>>> play a lot of fp games anymore.  Even GTA V, and the Saints row games
>>> I'd switch between controller and keyboard when driving/walking as it's
>>> far easier to drive with the controller and far easier to aim guns with
>>> the mouse.  Of course that takes even more time than switching from WASD
>>> to ESDF
>> 
>> I'm still not anywhere near a comfortable with a controller as I am
>> with a keyboard. I think this has to do with brain wiring; I was a
>> keyboard gamer since the days of my youth; I didn't even TOUCH a
>> gamepad until I was an adult (and even then it was only for
>> occassional and brief experimentation with the Sega Genesis). I didn't
>> own a gamepad until maybe 2010, and really didn't start using one
>> semi-regularly until I bought an XBox360/PS3 in 2014. My brain and
>> thumbs just aren't wired up to optimally use a controller, unlike a
>> kid who grew up playing Nintendo.  So it's always keyboard for me, if
>> it is an option,
>> 
>
>I didn't have a console until I was in my late teens and that was a 
>intellivision, which has a completely different type of controller (and 
>pretty awkward for at least half the games.), and I didn't play it that 
>much.  I never owned a nintendo until we got a used gamecube maybe 10 
>years ago.  I did get a playstation 2 about 15ish years ago, but I was 
>well into my 30's by then.  I did play a lot of video games at the 
>arcade as a young whippersnapper, so maybe that had something to do with it.

At times I think my tolerance for different controllers or control
schemes on a per-game basis stems from the variety of early
controllers I used for various games.

Some of the more bizarre examples:

1. The original Bally/Midway cocktail table version of Space Invaders
didn't move your ship with a joystick, it had this 3 position knob to
move left or right that was more like something you'd find on
commercial kitchen equipment.  Not only that, but it was vertically
positioned (so that your wrist was bent backward, forearm horizontal
but hand vertical).  I struggled to even find a picture of it, but
finally did:

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTcVMvKKDVP-sjWOupdxA017rMmim5WOb94L_no60cDbn0JUzDHXA

2.  The default ColecoVision controllers, which were a travesty of
input design for an otherwise outstanding game system:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/ColecoVision-Controller-FL.jpg
3.  The "Super Action" Colecovision controller, very high quality for
it's day but still an indication of the skill level (or lack thereof)
of the people designing controllers for the home market. 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Super_Action_Controller_Coleco_DSCF0353.JPG

How hard was it to just look at what was working in the arcades and go
with that plus a keypad?  Other systems of the era (like Atari 5200)
seemed to have the same struggles.  It puzzled me how anyone could
come up with successors like this to such a magically simple and
effective device as the Atari 2600 controller.  It's almost like they
designed these controllers to look slick, but forgot to actually try
them out in games before mass producing.  Luckily in the case of
Colecovision, the games were so good that the controller faults were
forgivable.

4.  The Intellivision controllers

I never owned one of these console, and the reason why was probably
the controllers.  I used to regularly play it, though.  A department
store that was in my area had one of these consoles on display, and I
would regularly go in and play it for extended periods of time.  There
was usually no clerk on duty in that part of the store, and as long as
you didn't go on a Saturday there was rarely anyone else waiting in
line to try it.  The controller was a travesty.  Those little plastic
overlays that you inserted over that cheap keypad. And most of all
that fucking little disc for directional movement!  What's worse I
think this thing might have been the inspiration for the ColecoVision
controller designers....

http://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/images/1970s/79_Mattel_Intellivision/Mattel_Intellivision_Controller-tan.jpg


5. Magnavox Odyssey 2

I had one of these.  The controller input was digital, but I think
these controllers were actually analog sticks (with a long throw) that
was really inappropriate for the types of games on the thing.  But,
they were far from the worst I've tried and this console actually had
some great titles that I spent dozens of hours on.

6.  Countless "weird" arcade games.

Some of these had interesting solutions, like the dual joysticks in
Crazy Climber (if you never played this, trust me its weird), the bike
handlebars in Paperboy, the interesting "steering wheel" of Spy
Hunter.  

http://www.8-bitcentral.com/images/reviews/arcade/spyHunterControls.jpg

Just having exposure to lots of control variation probably made me
more flexible about controllers overall.

So fast forward all these years, and with the exception of the
keybinding scheme I mentioned elsewhere in this thread (which I
require for online shooters), I've found that most games are best
played "as designed" with regard to control.  In other words, if it
was designed for a gamepad, forcing it to be a kbd+mouse game is often
not worthwhile, even if the developers say it "supports" such a
scheme.