soohoo@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Ken Soohoo) (12/07/88)
In article <401926c9.1285f@maize.engin.umich.edu> billkatt@caen.engin.umich.edu (Steve Bollinger) writes: > >No video game that only supports one-button joysticks is worth $100. >You need at least two to play reasonably complex games. > >-Steve The Atari 7800 system has two buttons. The XE system has one button, which seems to work just fine, and has never bothered me -- does anyone else care to comment on the merits of more buttons? How about the merits of different control mechanisms... --Kenneth Soohoo (soohoo@cory.Berkeley.Edu) Atari 400/800/600xl/800xl/1200/130xe/65xe, 1040ST hacker Sometime Berkeley Student, othertimes... My opinions are my OWN, not necessarily Atari's
wilmott@topaz.rutgers.edu (Ray Wilmott) (12/08/88)
----------- Sure, I'll make a comment. I definitely prefer the feel of the old "standard" one-button stick that's been around for years. I find it much more useable than the control pads of most game systems. As for the one-button argument, it's true that some games need more than one button for good game play.....but that's no problem (or shouldn't be) ....the XEGS comes with a keyboard. It's been the standard with Atari 8-bit software for years and years to use the stick for direction and firing, and including the tap of the space bar for smart bombs or whatever. -Ray wilmott@topaz.rutgers.edu
njd@ihlpm.ATT.COM (DiMasi) (12/08/88)
> --Kenneth Soohoo (soohoo@cory.Berkeley.Edu) writes: > > In article <401926c9.1285f@maize.engin.umich.edu> billkatt@caen.engin.umich.edu (Steve Bollinger) writes: >> >>No video game that only supports one-button joysticks is worth $100. >>You need at least two to play reasonably complex games. >> >>-Steve > > The Atari 7800 system has two buttons. The XE system has one button, which > seems to work just fine, and has never bothered me -- does anyone else > care to comment on the merits of more buttons? How about the merits of > different control mechanisms... > Yes, I care to comment. Although I don't have much experience with multi-button joysticks to compare it to, I have found (in the 8 years [I can't believe it!] or so that I have been playing with Atari 8- bits, and briefly tried 2600 and Intellivision) that one button on a joystick is quite enough. I feel that in the "heat of battle" (assuming a fast-paced video game, which most seem to be) that I would tend to become somewhat confused with > 1 button. (3 buttons on a mouse seem to be too many for me, although I'm again not a vastly experienced "mouser". This would especially be true if there were no commonality among video games in the way that they used the joystick buttons. "Which one is the fire button in Zorgblaster, again? I forgot." About other control devices: I am seriously thinking about spending $10 or whatever for a reconditioned Atari (or after-market) Trakball. What would I do with it? Well, maybe use GOE or Diamond in "mouse mode!" It should work, since (I have been told by Matt Ratcliff, an 8-bit "expert") Missile Command in Trakball mode works with an ST mouse! (Some people think, and they may be right, that the Trakball needs a small [?] modification to work like an ST mouse... talk/net to/with the Michigan Atari Magazine folks... I don't know for sure who's right.) I have a Koala pad (which I bought used from a local "defector"-to- Macintosh) with one button in really bad shape - so I just use the other. It works a bit more clumsily for me, and I will fix it one of these days (sure, eh?) but overall, I like it. One can build (I read in ANALOG about 2 years ago) a Koala-pad-emulation joystick (a proportional joystick) for the 8-bits, out of a R-Snack joystick pot. and a very few parts (resistors and ?) I have not tried it, but one of these days.... (If it would only work with Flight Simulator - I refuse to pay whatever-it-costs for a custom proport. joystick for FS2, when I can barely fly the thing [splash! or, at DuPage airport, crash! I can't land it].) On my Christmas wish list is a light gun (probably a Sega gun modified to work with the 8-bits, better, I hear, than the Atari l-gun) and a game to use it. (So far, that == Barnyard Blaster, if only Crossbow would be out sooner!) I've said more than enough for now (and maybe for quite a while :-). See you at your Atari dealer (:-). Nick DiMasi njd@ihlpm.ATT.COM ...att!ihlpm!njd DELPHI: TURBONICK Uni'q Digital Technologies (Fox Valley Software subsidiary; ^ working as a contractor at AT&T Bell Labs in Naperville, IL) ( | this is an accent mark, supposed to replace the dot over the 'i')
daryl@ihlpe.ATT.COM (Daryl Monge) (12/12/88)
In article <8060@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> soohoo@cory.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Ken Soohoo) writes: >In article <401926c9.1285f@maize.engin.umich.edu> billkatt@caen.engin.umich.edu (Steve Bollinger) writes: >>No video game that only supports one-button joysticks is worth $100. >>You need at least two to play reasonably complex games. >The XE system has one button, which >seems to work just fine, and has never bothered me -- does anyone else >care to comment on the merits of more buttons? How about the merits of >different control mechanisms... One button joy sticks work just fine for any joystick controlled game. In reference to "reasonably complex", I contend that a keyboard is necessary for truly complex games, hence the XE is the clear winner. In addition, you can put a disk on an XE, giving more storage (I am playing Alternate Reality right now - six SSSD disks) and the ability to do game SAVE, an important option for long, complex games. Daryl Monge UUCP: ...!att!ihcae!daryl AT&T CIS: 72717,65 Bell Labs, Naperville, Ill AT&T 312-979-3603