More sticks, more sticks, more rotary and dual games, please

[Ed Oscuro]

I must confess that I am somewhat surprised that so few arcade games feature dual (Smash TV) or rotary joystick (Ikari Warriors games, Midnight Resistance, SAR - Search and Rescue) setups. I have a theory (actually, make that theories on possible factors that would discourage the use of such a device), but let's first consider that this can seriously compromise how a game plays in the arcades - shooter games especially.

- There's a bootleg version of Jackal that allows the machine gun to be fired seperately of the car. Maybe this was programmed in but never implemented.

- Nitro Ball. Ever heard of it? It's a gameshow shooter ala Smash TV, though it looks far better than that or Total Carnage (TC was released the year before NB), albeit with less personality. Think Wizard Fire with lots of color. The game would've been perfectly suited to a dual joystick setup (though the second joystick might've necessitated some changes to the way the pinball mode worked), but none was implemented to the best of my knowledge. (Admittedly I haven't seen an actual cabinet).

- Midnight Resistance: Okay, the rotary controller is good, but wouldn't a second one have been better? Sheesh.

Actually, that goes for Contra and Commando style games in General. For a modern counterpart, once I discovered strafing in concert with mouse looking (and turning) in first person shooter games, I never once had a desire to do it the old-fashioned way, with the alt button.

Results are pretty dire with these other games, as well. Your reaction time is burdened with the fact that often you must run away from enemies without being able to land shots in, while in reality it's entirely possible to walk backwards and keep an eye on a target (especially considering the short ranges represented on an arcade game monitor).

So then, why wouldn't dual joystick setups be more common in such games?

- A player in an arcade will notice relatively slight differences in looseness between two joysticks as a matter of course and this will impact their impression of the arcade, the machine they're playing on, and this may be seen as reflecting on the quality of the game itself. Good players will notice difference between p1 and p2 controls, or even across different machines, but it's hard to miss when all you need do is compare your right hand to the left. This may have been a fear on the part of manufacturers. Uneven wear might have been unavoidable, as well, if a game uses one joystick more than another (I'd imagine a hectic Contra style game with enemies appearing from both sides of the screen would wear out the joystick used to aim faster than the one used to walk and possibly crouch).

- Cost. Perhaps the rotary setup was far cheaper than a second joystick (which wouldn't surprise me). For a game like the original arcade Contra, there's really no reason for the extra joystick when you think about it - you clear a level from left to right, so enemies coming from the left are pretty rare. A second joystick would mean that the up direction on the movement joystick would probably be unused. And that's terrible. Even Hard Corps demonstrated that good control can be attained by having one button switch between shooting modes - i.e. fixed or running (which alleviates one of the classic paradoxes of a one-stick setup, that of the "I can't aim without shooting, but I can't shoot while moving or I'll run into something bad.") Commando style games still would undoubtedly benefit from a second joystick, however.

- Control panel clutter. Not to mention the extra elbow throwing

(As an aside, Operation Logic Bomb on the SNES frustrates because you have a far better control style available with the L&R buttons to allow turning, but it's not offered even as a secondary control type. The L&R buttons on the SNES are brilliant because they can basically replace a second d-pad in a wide variety of cases, i.e. running and shooting upwards in Super Metroid, but they weren't designed to be held down constantly. OLB should've offered L&R turning akin to the controls for Contra III's top-down stages.)

At the end of the day, one-stick setups aren't TOO terrible. They certainly confuse me less on a keyboard than Smash TV's setup, after all They also translated pretty well to the simple single d-pad controllers of the day.

[Neo Rasa]

For Operation Logic Bomb I prefer holding down a button to strafe. Otherwise you'd have to take the extra second to turn all the way around instead of just tapping in the direction you want to shoot+holding down the button.

I found this to be a decent enough solution for stuff like Shock Troopers and the home ports of those SNK rotary stick games.

Shame SAR never got ported. If SNK wised up and did a compilation I'd hope that one's on it.


On the other hand, the twin sticks for the Sega Ages Alien Syndrome is awesome.

[Ed Oscuro]

For Operation Logic Bomb I prefer holding down a button to strafe.

Well, unfortunately that's the only option.

Hold-strafe works GREAT on a modern clicky keyboard...but absolutely fails miserably on a real SNES, in my experience. Every single SNES pad I own (well over a half dozen of em, originals and even a few third party pads) would only get intermittent contact, and the design is such that you've got to know where to press, it seemed.

Even a toggle option would've been better, now that I think about it, and that would've pleased fans of the button strafe.

You still must get to a safe spot or in an enemy's blind zone (i.e. at a diagonal from those damned yellow armor suits) so you can reorient your character without gettin' ganked.

Definitely happy to see there's some OLB love here, though. For all its flaws, it's a great game design. :)

[diskoboy]

*insert Crazy Climber and Robotron fanboyness here*

I personally love dual-joystick games, and honestly, you gotta give credit to microsoft for releasing so many of them over XBLA.

I say, let's see more of em!

[Ed Oscuro]

I personally love dual-joystick games, and honestly, you gotta give credit to microsoft for releasing so many of them over XBLA.

Aye. Aside from SNK's Munch Mobile (aka Joyful Road), I can't think of many not held in high regard (and actually Munch Mobile isn't too bad if you can figure out what you're doing)!