Pandora A,b,x,y Button Placement Not Emu Friendly?

[Gilrad]

Either way, I would like to throw my support into the Greek lettering idea. NSEW is good because you automatically know where each button is, but letters seem more intuitive in context of a video game system. And Greek lettering is so much more stylish and original! Alpha and beta should definitely be the equivalent of an SNES-style A and B... but as for the other two buttons, any ideas that are intuitive?

 

[Tom`]

We could shut down the whole debate by choosing capital alpha, beta, upsilon, and chi, and arranging them in a SNES-like layout...

...No?

Ah, well.

 

[Prophet]

We could shut down the whole debate by choosing capital alpha, beta, upsilon, and chi, and arranging them in a SNES-like layout...

...No?

Ah, well.

This thread will never die!

How about emoticons on the buttons?

"Press to Start"
"Press to Exit"
"Press :lol: for options"
"Press :blink: for everything else"

:rolleyes:

 

[quartercast]

The first design drawing I sent to Craig had the SNES layout. He was concerned about legal problems based on that button layout and I couldn't prove without a doubt that it's not a trademarked, licensed, or patented pattern. It does seem a bit odd that you could and it's possible companies like Gizmondo and Sony went with different designs, not for protection, but just to be different.

I too dislike the GP2X button layout and I would like something different but I do like the ABXY buttons, of course that will only suit emulators from the particular company they match. I also like the idea of something unique, but I dislike some funky difficult symbols because when I'm playing a game and have to hit the right buttons, I don't want to have to remember "squiggle, squiggle, slash, yellow moon, green clover".

The NSEW setup is interesting but I wonder if it is too specific? (ie. directions instead of actions)

P&|A is funny, but more of an inside joke than a good button choice!

My question to you is, do you expect the user to utilize the gamepad buttons for navigation and manipulation within the Pandora OS? If so, I would hope the button labelling/layout somehow represents their function within the system itself. This will encourage software developers to implement similar functionality and consistency within their programs (if applicable).

I think a simple and meaningful symbolic sequence would suffice, as I mentioned before.

If you expect users to navigate purely by touchscreen, of course this would be a completely different story. But I somehow doubt that you would discard the d-pad and "gaming" buttons as navigation/command tools in general.

EDIT: fixed url

 

[White Demon]

I like the 1,2,3,4 idea.
Or how about I , II , III, IV ?

 

[Javacat]

After what MWeston has said about possible implications of using ABXY, I really like the idea of 1234. Could go the whole hog and do 5 & 6 for shoulder buttons and then 7 & 8 for clickys on the analogs.
It's somewhat different, whilst being common to everyone. Press 1 to continue, 2 to cancel.

 

[gruso]

Ok, my last stab at this topic. Riiight.

Alpha, Beta, Chi, Upsilon.

PROS:
- They're unique to the system.
- They suit the mythological subtext of Pandora.
- They're different enough not to infringe on any obscure patents, yet cheekily recognisable enough as ABXY.
- They're sexxxy.

CONS:
- They weren't my idea.

 

[Tobriand]

Well, I'm sold on the Greek letters. They look much more natural than I'd have expected (and a lot more professional than 1234/dots/etc did in the previous poll)

The only disadvantage to using them is you'd presumably have to represent them graphically (rather than in text) if telling the user which button to press. And in the image, Upsilon isn't clearly a Y-like, even if it is in reality.

 

[gaterooze]

Love it, Gruso. Is this perhaps a way for craigix to avoid possible infringement yet keep the vaunted SNES layout?

 

[sindbad]

The only disadvantage to using them is you'd presumably have to represent them graphically (rather than in text) if telling the user which button to press.
UTF-8 has greek letters galore.

And it's a pretty cool idea.

 

[quartercast]

Ok, my last stab at this topic. Riiight.

Alpha, Beta, Chi, Upsilon.

PROS:
- They're unique to the system.
- They suit the mythological subtext of Pandora.
- They're different enough not to infringe on any obscure patents, yet cheekily recognisable enough as ABXY.
- They're sexxxy.

CONS:
- They weren't my idea.

You drew the letters in the wrong order. Take a look here.

 

[aatu]

Yeah, I could live with the Greek symbols. But shouldn't it be αβχψ (I hope they will show OK, but they're supposed to be small alpha, beta, chi, psi). Chi and psi are consecutive in Greek alphabet, just like X and Y are in normal Latin alphabet... And with a slightly warped mind psi (ψ) resembles Y. And all this in Nintendo layout?

 

[gruso]

quartercast: oops, fixed. :unsure:

aatu: Good call. It's a better looking character too.

 

[Alex.]

If it's not a letter on my keyboard, it shouldn't be a button label. Who wants to remember special characters when writing readme's, instructions, or helping someone out on the forums?

 

[gruso]

I think the beauty of this is that you can just refer to them as ABXY if you wish to.

It could also be handy that they don't correspond directly to letters on the keyboard. "Press A... no, not that A, the gamepad A..." Or, "Press Alpha".

 

[sindbad]

"Press A... no, not that A, the gamepad A..." Or, "Press Alpha".
That's the best point yet.

 

[fishybawb]

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showt...=40970&st=0

 

[aliking]

While I think I'm generally in the "characters that are not on the keyboard" crowd, the "something original" crowd or the "don't really give a crap" crowd, has anyone suggested this yet?:

--------P--------
--&----------|---
--------A----------



No, I'm not going to read all of this and the 3 other button label threads to find out...

 

[Firefox]

I really like that, that's very good. B)

 

[Chip]

"Press A... no, not that A, the gamepad A..." Or, "Press Alpha".
That's the best point yet.

"Press Psi to quit."
"Which one is Psi?"
"The pitchfork looking thing."
"Where is it again?"
"Just press the button on the left!"

Or

"Press W to quit"
-User presses the left button-

That is the best point yet.