Posted by Druin on 28, 2000 at 6:11 PM:
I keep trying to figure out how to come up with an acceptable control panel idea and None of the options seem appealing, mostly because there is something Fixed about them.
If I had 3 interchangable panels with different types of controls, they would still be not so optimally tweaked for all games I'd want to use them with, for instance the button layout. The standard 6 button symmetrical thing doesn't work so well for me with Double Dragon or other games that had the unsymmetrical layout. It's hard to do the jump and punch button combos for the elbow move I find.
Also what about games where you really only need the custom panel for just ONE game maybe..like Karate Champ with its 2 joysticks per player, how many games would get use out of a 4 joystick-no button panel? Maybe it could be used for gauntlet if some buttons could be squeezed in, but still...
This leaves me thinking about that whole modular single component swapping concept of removing something like a trackball from the center and dropping in a spinner assembly...except doing this for everything, buttons, joysticks, and all. I don't know how I would make sure this is ruggedly stable for gameplay, but assuming it could be overcome, I'd like to try this type of approach when it's time.
I would have a panel that's wide enough to place at least 5 "blocks", the standard panel width for player1 joystick, player 1 buttons, misc middle 4way stick/spinner/trackball, then player 2 joystick and buttons....5 units across. They would be empty square holes with some type of electrical connector at the bottom. Not an inline plug type thing that requires messing with, just like a pin header that the blocks plug into and automatically fit into the sockets without intervention.
So one square block on the far left would be a joystick block, and the block right beside it would be fitted with a square that has 6 or however many buttons on it, laid out as desired, the middle block might have a trackball or trigger joystick or something...standard setup.
Then it's time to play Double Dragon or Karate Champ. Instead of swapping the panel, just unplug the button block and insert another button block with a different layout, or just insert a second player 1 joystick in the block. This is not a new concept of course, just that the entire panel is like this...so player 1 and player 2's sides can both instantly go from standard joystick and button games to all-joystick games etc.
How would these generic control panel sockets know how to handle instantly swappable boxes, whether they're analog controls or digital buttons/joysticks, and how it should map the buttons...some sort of smart feature. Each control block would have jumpers to set whether or not this control box is supposed to be considered as buttons or joysticks or analog stuff, and also whether its' supposed to be for player 1 or 2 or more. Then technically you could have player 2 on the left and player 1 on the right, or switch it the other way, depending on the config jumpers of the blocks.
It would also make it easy to adapt gameplay for left or right handed players, just swap the joystick and button blocks and their jumpers will tell the control panel that the sockets are swapped.
I think I could figure out the brains of the circuit..but as for the mechanical layout...how to make this sturdy and acceptable....is my problem. It's just something going around in my head for now and I decided to get it out as an idea instead of keeping it in my own head.