Action Buttons

[Javacat]

I know that this will probably have no bearing on the final design, but these things have been brought up numerous times in the past few months since news about the console first came out and I'm interested in what other peoples views are.

I would personally have preferred 6 action buttons (for MAME, N64, Mega Drive) on the face and 4 shoulder buttons if possible. I can see that the 6 action buttons would turn this thing into a monster and could cause design issues for MWeston, but I can't see too much of an issue with 4 shoulder buttons.

So how many shoulder and action buttons would people prefer?

 

[chris_r]

4 is enough, as already said by many people, Most extra buttons that you want can be remapped comfortably to keyboard keys

 

[imec]

I voted for four action buttons because my experiences in the great Sidewinder war make me go into convulsions whenever I see six action buttons. I also voted for four shoulder keys because alt fire and reloading feel much better with four (to me, at least).

 

[Yrx]

The biggest reasons to have 6 buttons are all fighting games, and somehow people have done fine with 4 for quite some time. And there aren't a huge number of reasons to have more than 2 shoulder buttons, although if they could fit I certainly wouldn't complain. At least, if they fit and worked well, lol.

 

[zacaj]

I always forget which shoulder button is 1 and which is 2

 

[zaffercharles]

4 front, 4 back

 

[Zoppe]

First of all, this is my first post here and i would like to say hello, and from what i´ve seen from reading other topics this is a very fiendly community. sweet

now back to the tpoic

......I would personally have preferred 6 action buttons (for MAME, N64, Mega Drive) on the face and 4 shoulder buttons if possible. I can see that the 6 action buttons would turn this thing into a monster and could cause design issues for MWeston, but I can't see too much of an issue with 4 shoulder buttons......

agreed. I would like 6 buttons too, but i found that the cross setup is a lot more comfortable because i can reach all buttons by resting my thumb on the top button. and i think that the design would suffer, IMHO the 4-buttons is more elegant.

and if i need more buttons.

...... as already said by many people, Most extra buttons that you want can be remapped comfortably to keyboard keys.....

that's why i liked the keyboard! lol

The biggest reasons to have 6 buttons are all fighting games...
....And there aren't a huge number of reasons to have more than 2 shoulder buttons, although if they could fit I certainly wouldn't complain. At least, if they fit and worked well, lol.

Agreed. i would like 4 shoulder buttons, with them i could do secondary actions in games that have them, but there always the good ol' keyboard.

well, that finishes my first post(sorry about my poor english, i´m from Brazil)
Best regards from Brazil

 

[Jaw]

6 face buttons, everyone has had a go at me for saying it, but the only gametypes i play are fighters, and they mostly need 6 buttons, shoulder buttons just fuck your hands up when your using them constantly.

 

[fatalerror]

4 shoulder buttons OR 6 action buttons, to play my PSX games. (please dudes, dont let me play with keyboard or USB-Controller )

How are the chances to get one of these things in Pandora?

 

[Clad]

(after re-reading, please note than to refer to the A, B X and Y button of the pandora, I mean in the snes layout. i.e. by "B" I mean the bottom action button, and Y the left one)

Regarding N64, I think the yellow buttons could be mapped to right analog stick. You'd have something like left analog = N64 analog, d-pad = d-pad, yellow buttons = right analog, A = B, Z = A, B = Y, L = L, R = R, X = special emulator feature (quick forward ? Save ? Shift so that X + A = save and X + Y = load ?)

However, I wouldn't mind 2 extra action buttons behind the keyboard (like the Z button on the N64), to use with the middle finger. Two extra easy-to-reach buttons could prove very useful, for fighting games (better than L/R to have buttons 5 & 6), for playstation (could act as R2 and L2), for emulators that already use L and R (easy fast forward & backward on the SNES).

I have a gamepad with 2 back buttons to play emus on my computer, and since they are so much ergonomic I tend to map shoulder buttons on them instead on mapping them on the actual shoulder buttons.

The only problem with 2 apparent buttons on the closed Pandora would be they could easily be damaged (well, GBA 1 & 3, Game boy, GP32/2X and Game Gear, to name only a few, have apparent buttons, but their life expectancy isn't the same as the Pandora, that I'll probably still be using 10 years from now), maybe we could have some kind of protection lead ? (Plus, for a purely aesthetic point of view, apparent buttons when closed aren't so good)

 

[CoMiKe]

4 front, 4 back

Me too.

 

[God Ginrai]

Regarding N64, I think the yellow buttons could be mapped to right analog stick. You'd have something like left analog = N64 analog, d-pad = d-pad, yellow buttons = right analog, A = B, Z = A, B = Y, L = L, R = R, X = special emulator feature (quick forward ? Save ? Shift so that X + A = save and X + Y = load ?)

Unless the game you are playing on the N64 uses the C buttons for moving the camera, then you NEVER map to a control stick. Games like Goldeneye and such would do fine, but it completely ruins the experience in games like Ocarina of Time, Vigilante 8, and Super Smash Bros. (If you are one of the people who uses the buttons to jump) A much better solution for N64 C buttons is just to use ABXY for them, because with those keyboard keys so close, you can just map A and B to the O and P keys.

-God Ginrai

 

[slantyyz]

As a Capcom fighting game fan, I'd love to see a 6 button configuration. I've never been able to go with the 4 plus 2 shoulder button configuration myself.

On a side note, seeing how this is a ultra portable device, I think it would be a lot more usable (and offer more space) if the QWERTY keyboard was a thumb-style board like the Blackberries (which would coincidentally free up space for two more action buttons - wink).

The current full QWERTY looks nice but in reality will be a lot slower to use. I've gotten pretty quick at typing with my thumbs on my phone, I think I'd be a lot slower with the current Pandora key design.

 

[Gaeryc]

As a Capcom fighting game fan, I'd love to see a 6 button configuration. I've never been able to go with the 4 plus 2 shoulder button configuration myself.

On a side note, seeing how this is a ultra portable device, I think it would be a lot more usable (and offer more space) if the QWERTY keyboard was a thumb-style board like the Blackberries (which would coincidentally free up space for two more action buttons - wink).

The current full QWERTY looks nice but in reality will be a lot slower to use. I've gotten pretty quick at typing with my thumbs on my phone, I think I'd be a lot slower with the current Pandora key design.

I'm sure that I can write with my thumbs using the pandoras keyboard. You might not realize how small it is.

 

[Ayla]

About the shoulders buttons, could it be possible to see something like that :
http://oyace.ifrance.com/pandora.bmp
(excuse the quality of my drawing...)

L2 and R2 on the back of the console, with a grip. With a system like that, we could even have analog triggers ; and the grips would prevent the handheld from acting as a sleigh, which can be dangerous for it...

 

[Turnip]

It should have 6 buttons for arcade, saturn, N64 etc. Failing that it must have 4 shoulder buttons, so the 2 extra ones could be used in the place of the missing 2 action buttons.

Edit: Why on earth is everyone voting for it not to have enough buttons?? :blink:

4 action buttons and 2 shoulder buttons would be shite for ps, n64, saturn, mame. Shite for everything apart from snes.

 

[White Demon]

Why not use the DEL and 0 keys in place of the missing face buttons? That way you'll have the 6 face buttons some people think is needed.

 

[Turnip]

Why not use the DEL and 0 keys in place of the missing face buttons? That way you'll have the 6 face buttons some people think is needed.

Cos there in compleatly the wrong place and you'd need to move your thumb away from the other buttons which woulent be good for beat em ups in particular.

 

[Spectralist]

Edit: Why on earth is everyone voting for it not to have enough buttons?? :blink:

4 action buttons and 2 shoulder buttons would be shite for ps, n64, saturn, mame. Shite for everything apart from snes.

Because 4 & 2 is enough, at least for some people. Certainly i play PS and N64 with that many. N64's controller is a monstrosity, and more often then not half the buttons weren't used. PS simply rarely used l2 & r2, at least not in the games i've played for it, and if it ever comes up i could easily use some keyboard keys.
As far as 6 action buttons go... i could see it being useful in the odd n64 game that actually used many of it's buttons. Other then that the only console i ever played on that had 6 action buttons was genesis and it only did if you bought the extra controller, and nothing i ever played used it.

 

[Turnip]

Edit: Why on earth is everyone voting for it not to have enough buttons?? :blink:

4 action buttons and 2 shoulder buttons would be shite for ps, n64, saturn, mame. Shite for everything apart from snes.

Because 4 & 2 is enough, at least for some people. Certainly i play PS and N64 with that many. N64's controller is a monstrosity, and more often then not half the buttons weren't used. PS simply rarely used l2 & r2, at least not in the games i've played for it, and if it ever comes up i could easily use some keyboard keys.
As far as 6 action buttons go... i could see it being useful in the odd n64 game that actually used many of it's buttons. Other then that the only console i ever played on that had 6 action buttons was genesis and it only did if you bought the extra controller, and nothing i ever played used it.


Street fighter 2 used 6 unless you pressed start to swich between punching and kicking which sucked. Most arcade cabinets have 6 action buttons. You could use the shoulder butons for the missing two but that never feels quite right to me. If the only reason for not having 6 is that it would look too crowded that seems silly when were having a keyboard, 2 anologs and a d-pad already making it look very crowded. Since it not looking crowded is out of the question it may aswel have the most versatile control system possible.

If I remember correctly mario 64 used all 4 c buttons for the camera. Zelda used all 4 too, although you didnt need to press them particularly quickly in that I admit.

Perhaps a good compromise would be to have the shoulder buttons like the vol control on the gp2x so that they could both be used as 2 buttons if need be and maybe having 2 smaller buttons nearer the 4 action buttons than the keyboard ones?