Epicenter
Well-Known Member
Petition URL: http://www.petitiononline.com/gp2xstck/petition.html
There are few people who would be able to tell you with a straight face they had experienced issues with the GP2X's control stick. Some would say they found it to be an annoyance, while others would call it a major issue, and others, nearly unusable. The device is truly not designed for use in a gaming environment, as it exhibits precision that is poor at best, making many types of games very difficult to play, emulated or not. The most affected by this are likely fighting games where combos must be entered as very specific and perfect sequences of button pushes. The stick takes a very noticable amount of time to swing from one side to the other moving in any given direction; while a replacement cap like the MK2's or DaveC's cap greatly reduces the amount your thumb must move to produce these sudden movements, it is really not enough to allow proper quick, twitchy movements like those necessitated by difficult shooters (arcade titles spring most readily to mind) or twitch-reaction movements required in gameplay situations like Sonic 3's 3D special stages.
While it has become clear GPH did not fully recognize the amount of gaming that would be done on this machine, and seemed to be more convinced it would be used as a multimedia playback unit, this fault has made itself known very well, and hurts the reputation of the GP2X. It discourages new purchases for fear that the system won't be playable-- I know, I agonized over the purchase decision for a while! It stunts development-- I personally worry that when I release games for play on the GP2X that they will be too difficult to play with a stick and that only people who have done a tricky and labor/time-intensive modification to their unit (e.g. adding a D-Pad) will be able to enjoy them fully-- I will be installing a D-Pad as soon as a decent kit is available (e.g. Radek's) but I will have to make things much easier for everyone not using one due to the difficulties they might face. This greatly complicates the development process. A superior control mechanism would be nothing but beneficial for the development for and growth of the GP2X software community.
The three types of solution that spring most readily to mind are a directional pad (which could be of a non-patented design, dissimilar to Nintendo's-- note Sega, Sony, Nokia, and other companies' directional pads that do not step on Nintendo's toes). This is the most obvious solution.
The second is a microswitched stick similar to the mechanical design used in arcade systems, where small movements in multiple directions (even 16!) are precise, rapid, and require no large swing of the stick to accomplish for a great degree of control in free-roaming games like shooters or precise button-pushing exercises like entering complex combos into a fighting game.
The third would be a stick similar to that used in the GP32, a 'click-stick' as it is often called, resembling that of the Neo Geo Pocket Color, a rather famous method of control that worked quite well.
I have created this petition since after speaking to Craigix briefly about the probability of a more reasonable stick design in future revisions, he seemed to feel that the MK2 stick (which is just the MK1 stick rotated 45 degrees to relieve diagnol bias, which I never felt was the worst problem to begin with) was enough to make it 'fine'. I do not believe the true gravity of the situation is apparent to GBAX or GPH. The GP2X is an excellent handheld capable of incredible things, as we have all seen. It is made only more frustrating to see such a shortcoming as a control stick to ruin the experience for so many people. If you feel the way I do, and would like to see this change occur to benefit the users of the machine, the community, and future development for the growing GP2X platform, please sign this petition with your preferred method of control.
Thank you for your time.
There are few people who would be able to tell you with a straight face they had experienced issues with the GP2X's control stick. Some would say they found it to be an annoyance, while others would call it a major issue, and others, nearly unusable. The device is truly not designed for use in a gaming environment, as it exhibits precision that is poor at best, making many types of games very difficult to play, emulated or not. The most affected by this are likely fighting games where combos must be entered as very specific and perfect sequences of button pushes. The stick takes a very noticable amount of time to swing from one side to the other moving in any given direction; while a replacement cap like the MK2's or DaveC's cap greatly reduces the amount your thumb must move to produce these sudden movements, it is really not enough to allow proper quick, twitchy movements like those necessitated by difficult shooters (arcade titles spring most readily to mind) or twitch-reaction movements required in gameplay situations like Sonic 3's 3D special stages.
While it has become clear GPH did not fully recognize the amount of gaming that would be done on this machine, and seemed to be more convinced it would be used as a multimedia playback unit, this fault has made itself known very well, and hurts the reputation of the GP2X. It discourages new purchases for fear that the system won't be playable-- I know, I agonized over the purchase decision for a while! It stunts development-- I personally worry that when I release games for play on the GP2X that they will be too difficult to play with a stick and that only people who have done a tricky and labor/time-intensive modification to their unit (e.g. adding a D-Pad) will be able to enjoy them fully-- I will be installing a D-Pad as soon as a decent kit is available (e.g. Radek's) but I will have to make things much easier for everyone not using one due to the difficulties they might face. This greatly complicates the development process. A superior control mechanism would be nothing but beneficial for the development for and growth of the GP2X software community.
The three types of solution that spring most readily to mind are a directional pad (which could be of a non-patented design, dissimilar to Nintendo's-- note Sega, Sony, Nokia, and other companies' directional pads that do not step on Nintendo's toes). This is the most obvious solution.
The second is a microswitched stick similar to the mechanical design used in arcade systems, where small movements in multiple directions (even 16!) are precise, rapid, and require no large swing of the stick to accomplish for a great degree of control in free-roaming games like shooters or precise button-pushing exercises like entering complex combos into a fighting game.
The third would be a stick similar to that used in the GP32, a 'click-stick' as it is often called, resembling that of the Neo Geo Pocket Color, a rather famous method of control that worked quite well.
I have created this petition since after speaking to Craigix briefly about the probability of a more reasonable stick design in future revisions, he seemed to feel that the MK2 stick (which is just the MK1 stick rotated 45 degrees to relieve diagnol bias, which I never felt was the worst problem to begin with) was enough to make it 'fine'. I do not believe the true gravity of the situation is apparent to GBAX or GPH. The GP2X is an excellent handheld capable of incredible things, as we have all seen. It is made only more frustrating to see such a shortcoming as a control stick to ruin the experience for so many people. If you feel the way I do, and would like to see this change occur to benefit the users of the machine, the community, and future development for the growing GP2X platform, please sign this petition with your preferred method of control.
Thank you for your time.
