Posted by Ohso on 8, 2000 at 7:10 PM:
In Reply to: I respectfully disagree.... Long reply posted by saint on 8, 2000 at 6:12 PM:
I'm glad you mentioned the use of controls with software other than emulators. My entire cab project was built around the idea of using the controls for PC games as well as emulators. I have a huge collection of games (actually store bought!) and I have often been irritated by the horrible controls present on a normal PC setup.
Let's face it, keyboards suck and most PC joysticks aren't that great either unless you bolt them to something. :)
Mechwarrior 3 is great with a large layout of colorful arcade buttons and twin Happ supers make a great way to play the Tomb Raider games (1 for moving and 1 for jumping). I'm sure you can think of many more examples. :)
: Well, I guess it will come as no surprise that I
: respectfully disagree. The one important distinction
: that I hope everyone will bear in mind is that BYOAC
: is not about emulation at all. Emulators are one
: of the fun things you can do with customized arcade
: controls, but this stuff works just as well with
: off the shelf software.
: The emulation scene has indeed suffered from mass
: exposure. As well as the hobbyists who love the
: hobby for it's own sake, it's flooded with the
: free-lunch warez crowd, to its detriment. I don't
: want to get into the legality/morality of ROMS thing
: here -- mostly I'm referring to the unfortunate
: lack of respect and "I deserve your hard work without
: thanks" attitude we've all seen surface in the emulation
: scene.
: But the arcade controls hobby is different -- there's
: no such thing as a free lunch here. You either have to
: build, or buy, whatever particular setup you're after.
: Anyone who gets and stays interested has got to be
: willing to put in some effort, not because they should
: to be "good neighbors" but because they have to, simply
: because there's no other way to get anything. I had
: no less than 7 people willing to help me out with the
: scripting help I asked for! (Which, by the way I very
: much appreciate. I apologize if you haven't heard back
: from me with my recent (second!) hard drive crash).
: The only commodity this web site has is knowledge, and
: that is free of course. The only real sore point has
: ever been finding the particular set of knowledge you're
: after. Part of it is the fault of the makeup of the
: web site -- this web site grew by group effort with one
: person coordinating things, and as such wasn't really
: "planned" (btw - many thanks to those folks of course,
: and a big tip of the hat to Tom61). Accordingly, it's
: not always easy to find things, and that's one
: place where the message board has been a big help.
: People can almost always find a friendly answer
: here much quicker than relying on me to email
: them back -- often I don't know and have to go
: look myself first!
: I don't intend to single anyone out here, and I
: especially want to emphasize that this point has
: no direct relationship to recent events or your message
: here. However, the last thing I want to see happen is
: stifling newbie questions here. Clueless people
: talking to other clueless people is what got us to
: the point we are at now, with the majority of us
: benefiting from the incredible generosity of those
: who had some expertise. Both the hobbyists, and
: the vendors with products to sell, have been very
: forthcoming with the tricks and secrets that end
: up with a set of arcade controls. I can't think of
: very many other industries that willingly share the
: very techniques that their income depends on. I'd
: rather see a hundred newbie questions here than
: to see nothing but old-hands sitting around fairly
: stagnant. Don't get me wrong, I love to see the old
: hand chatting it up -- this has developed into a
: community after all -- but IMHO there's always room
: for more. I re-emphasize, by it's very nature, only
: folks who are willing to put some effort into this
: are going to be here for long. The "unwashed masses"
: will quickly get bored and go elsewhere, and I wish
: them good fortune finding that part of the net that
: interests them.
:
: One thing I'm willing to do if people feel the signal-to-noise
: ratio is getting difficult is to implement another
: message board, and rename this one. We can have a
: "Question & Answer board" for newbies and tech
: questions, and an "OldTimer's board" (*please* help
: me think of a better name) for folks who want to
: chat, announce new projects, would-be-vendors wanting
: to know if there's interest in a product, etc...
: Essentially getting the newbie questions on to their
: own board. I would hope that the oldtimer's would
: help out in the new board of course :)
: Any interest in that? I hate to fragment into too
: many message boards and lose value in one, but I'm
: willing if they're getting too noisy... Let me know,
: I'll go with the majority here.
: I'll close with a reference to my interview with
: Kinox.org, mirrored here. Take a look at questions
: 1, 5, 7, and 12 :)
: Thanks!
: --- saint