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

[Alex.]

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".


That could indeed be a small problem. One solution would be to surround buttons by round brackets, and keys by square brackets:

(A) the button, [A] the key

 

[chad78]

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".


That could indeed be a small problem. One solution would be to surround buttons by round brackets, and keys by square brackets:

(A) the button, [A] the key

But why would you ever be telling someone to press the A key? And why not just make the distinction by saying "type A" or "press the A key" as opposed to "Hit A" or "press the A button"?

The keyboard should not be used for navigation, other than the number keys. And to everyone suggesting the use of numbers for button labels, remember the number row is on top - like above the game controls - so that would be more confusing than the (a) / [A] problem.

That would be another way to naturally map the difference between key and button - put the keys in ALL CAPS - and put the buttons in lower case. So it's "type A"/"press the A key" vs. "Hit a" / "press the a button"

 

[Gilrad]

I think that, instead of Psi, we should use lowercase Upsilon (ϒ), that way each letter truly does have an english equivalent.

Though if we're not going for a look-alike layout, I actually like the idea of an uppercase OMEGA (Ω) on the top button, just because it looks cool.

 

[Exophase]

Though if we're not going for a look-alike layout, I actually like the idea of an uppercase OMEGA (Ω) on the top button, just because it looks cool.

I like this idea, then maybe there wouldn't be any fear in using SNES layout too.

 

[fusion_power]

Because there is still no clear word of Craigix & Co., which labeling will be used onto the Pandora, there is a chance to influence them I think.
This greek letters are a good Idea, machtes to the mythological Pandora...but they are hard to write onto non-greek Keyboards. ^^"
I'm still for the funny NSEW solution but the simple lettering with rome numbers is a good Idea to. I, II, III, IV is seperated from the Pandora Keyboard, easy to write and easy to understand.

I'm not a big fan of SNES layout because I have trouble that A and B are read from right to left and not from left to right. Japanese thing maybe but I prefer the normal left-right order.

 

[Eolair]

Why not turn the buttons into cursor keys and make them more part of the keyboard?

 

[chad78]

Why not turn the buttons into cursor keys and make them more part of the keyboard?

Because that's what the D-Pad is for?

 

[Prophet]

quartercast: oops, fixed. :unsure:

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

That looks very pretty.

And like you said earlier, the Greek letters could also be visually interpreted as ABXY if needed.

 

[aatu]

I think that, instead of Psi, we should use lowercase Upsilon (ϒ), that way each letter truly does have an english equivalent.

Though if we're not going for a look-alike layout, I actually like the idea of an uppercase OMEGA (Ω) on the top button, just because it looks cool.

Except lower case upsilon looks like "u" or "v" : υ

And about copyrights/trademarks/etc:
I would find it unlikely that Nintendo would come after us because of ABXY layout. But before really using that as final layout, somebody would have to make sure.

But if we use greek alphabet, I think they would have VERY thin grounds to sue us. Because if using greek letters in the same order as Snes layout would give them enough inspiration to come after us, I think they would have said something about GP2X layout because we were "using the same letters", despite being in totally different order.
Usually, to be eligible to gain patent/protection for something, the "patentee" has to be something substantially vital to the success of the original product. These types of patent protections are for protecting intellectual property and innovations... And I think the ORDER of button labels is far from that. And as somebody said before about physical "diamond" layout, THAT could have been an issue. But it seems that it wasn't (or maybe Sony, GPH, etc. bought rights to use it?).

 

[StriderNo9]

I'm just saying. It would be nice for me personally if they mimiced the SNES. Since it's the console I had the least amount of time with ( I was a Sega boy ) But NSEW is a good idea. Whatever, I'm still excited for it.

 

[Megagun]

Or, more familliar (to users) letters from the greek alphabet could be used..
(I'm sure not everyone can draw a lowercase Chi when asked...)

Most people would be able to recognize Alpha, Beta and Pi (lowercase) easilly..
Some might recognize Epsilon (lowercase) and Delta (uppercase)..

But really, I prefer NESW layout myself, as it's easier to remember where they're placed, compared to, say, XBAY layout (especially if you have multiple consoles/handhelds!)..

EDIT: Has anyone suggested using colors for buttons yet? No labelling, just plain colors... Make 'em detachable/switchable and add a firmware override ability, and you can easilly swap layouts to, say, XBox-style or SNES-style (they both use colors AND A/B/X/Y, right?)...

 

[Sphinxter]

Fuck nintendo and sony both. They deserve nothing from open gaming, especially a declaration they are some sort of defacto standard.

If it were not for Nintendo - video games would have died completely in the 1980s. The Arcade was already dying, if not dead, by 1985, home computers were just starting to be a reality - and gaming sucked on them. If the NES had not come along, the home console business would have died with Atari (the *real* Atari - not whatever company bought the name from whatever company bought the name from whatever company bought the name....). If there were no home consoles during the NES / Sega era - video game development would have *CEASED*. Software companies for home computers would have seen video games as a dead fad, and we'd all be stuck with our EGA 32 color (not 32 bit - 32 actual colors) 9 inch monitors to type our reports on. If it were not for Nintendo - there'd be no "open gaming" (whatever that is - you mean SuperTux? Yeah, SuperTux owes nothing to Mario. And TuxKart has nothing to thank Mario Kart for. :rolleyes: )


Try reading wikipedia, no idea where you would come up with that version of history. The real contribution of nintendo and sony was to choke out all access to their platform and relegate indie developers to inadequate pc's. I can only guess by that reply you were under 12 in '83 or you've just never developed a game and tried to join in their fun. I read up on psp homebrew and I must say I was shocked and appalled at the crap sony pulls, sold you a piece of hardware you are only able to access when one of the blessed vendors games crash or you feed it a tiff with a big nop slide in it, and yet you all just lick their hand and beg for another stroke and blog your love of them and call it homebrew, fans of that crap must be sick. Sad part is you have no exposure to the gp2x and what a wonderful gift gamepark bequest the world with, real homebrew and open access with no buy in, damn shame, really a great platform.

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...



Got to say that's pretty hot.

 

[chad78]

Try reading wikipedia, no idea where you would come up with that version of history. The real contribution of nintendo and sony was to choke out all access to their platform and relegate indie developers to inadequate pc's. I can only guess by that reply you were under 12 in '83 or you've just never developed a game and tried to join in their fun. I read up on psp homebrew and I must say I was shocked and appalled at the crap sony pulls, sold you a piece of hardware you are only able to access when one of the blessed vendors games crash or you feed it a tiff with a big nop slide in it, and yet you all just lick their hand and beg for another stroke and blog your love of them and call it homebrew, fans of that crap must be sick. Sad part is you have no exposure to the gp2x and what a wonderful gift gamepark bequest the world with, real homebrew and open access with no buy in, damn shame, really a great platform.

Yeah, I've read Wikipedia - turns out the elephants are making a comeback - 300 times the number of just five years ago. There's going to be a overpopulation problem soon.

The real version of history - In 1983, when the Famicom was released in Japan - Atari was already bleeding money - to the tune of $2 Million a day in loses. source Nintendo even approached Atari for help with the North American launch - which Atari promptly denied. source.

There was no chance of a come back for Atari. Atari was doomed. Atari had basically killed all the competitors - but since they were stupid with their money - they were going to die - no matter what. The only thing that kept them on life support for as long as it did was Time Warner's stake in the company. But that wasn't enough to save it long term. If it wasn't for Nintendo - the video game market would have been as dead as disco and much of an 1980s joke as pastel leg warmers.

Did Nintendo try to close the market? A little, with their "Official Nintendo Seal of Quality" program - but that didn't stop Tengen and others from making Nintendo games anyway.

Yes, I was 5 in 1983. No, I never wrote a video game (other than a couple text based adventures in Qbasic on my Tandy). By the time the NES came out, however, I had already owned an Intellivision, an Atari 2600, an Atari 5200, and an Atari 7800. Yep - 5 game systems by the age of 8 (I didn't get my NES until Christmas 1986). I don't think I am all that unfamiliar with the history of gaming.

 

[x68000]

I have to disagree that Nintendo were the saviours of the Home Videogame Industry, as popular Japanese systems such as the Sega SG-1000 and PC Engine would have become more popular than they ever were in the West if our choices were more limited.

The heart of Videogame design was firmly routed in Japan throughout the mid to late 80's and whatever the Japanese released would always have the potential to be a success in the West if Nintendo didnt exist.

People were and still are in love with videogaming, NOT a single manufacturer.

 

[GaidinTS]

Try reading wikipedia, no idea where you would come up with that version of history. The real contribution of nintendo and sony was to choke out all access to their platform and relegate indie developers to inadequate pc's. I can only guess by that reply you were under 12 in '83 or you've just never developed a game and tried to join in their fun. I read up on psp homebrew and I must say I was shocked and appalled at the crap sony pulls, sold you a piece of hardware you are only able to access when one of the blessed vendors games crash or you feed it a tiff with a big nop slide in it, and yet you all just lick their hand and beg for another stroke and blog your love of them and call it homebrew, fans of that crap must be sick. Sad part is you have no exposure to the gp2x and what a wonderful gift gamepark bequest the world with, real homebrew and open access with no buy in, damn shame, really a great platform.

Yeah, I've read Wikipedia - turns out the elephants are making a comeback - 300 times the number of just five years ago. There's going to be a overpopulation problem soon.

The real version of history - In 1983, when the Famicom was released in Japan - Atari was already bleeding money - to the tune of $2 Million a day in loses. source Nintendo even approached Atari for help with the North American launch - which Atari promptly denied. source.

There was no chance of a come back for Atari. Atari was doomed. Atari had basically killed all the competitors - but since they were stupid with their money - they were going to die - no matter what. The only thing that kept them on life support for as long as it did was Time Warner's stake in the company. But that wasn't enough to save it long term. If it wasn't for Nintendo - the video game market would have been as dead as disco and much of an 1980s joke as pastel leg warmers.

Did Nintendo try to close the market? A little, with their "Official Nintendo Seal of Quality" program - but that didn't stop Tengen and others from making Nintendo games anyway.

Yes, I was 5 in 1983. No, I never wrote a video game (other than a couple text based adventures in Qbasic on my Tandy). By the time the NES came out, however, I had already owned an Intellivision, an Atari 2600, an Atari 5200, and an Atari 7800. Yep - 5 game systems by the age of 8 (I didn't get my NES until Christmas 1986). I don't think I am all that unfamiliar with the history of gaming.


So is the the reason you're a jerk to so many people on the forums because you were spoiled as a child?

 

[gruso]

:lol:

 

[gaterooze]

I don't think I am all that unfamiliar with the history of gaming.

I would dispute that.

QUOTE
by 1985, home computers were just starting to be a reality - and gaming sucked on them


QUOTE
Software companies for home computers would have seen video games as a dead fad, and we'd all be stuck with our EGA 32 color (not 32 bit - 32 actual colors) 9 inch monitors to type our reports on.


QUOTE
If it were not for Nintendo - there'd be no "open gaming"


From these comments, I suppose you never heard of the C64, MSX, Spectrum, Amstrad, etc... there was a lot more going on than just Atari and Nintendo and gaming would have been just fine without Nintendo (as much as I love them).

 

[gruso]

 

[sm1988]

All right guys let's not turn this into a maxconsole like forum we are here to discuss and trade thoughts. don't spoil the board i like it here

 

[chad78]

From these comments, I suppose you never heard of the C64, MSX, Spectrum, Amstrad, etc...

Yes, I've heard of them. Where exactly were they in 1985?

From Wikipedia (emphasis mine):
QUOTE

Aggressive pricing of the C64 is considered to be a major catalyst in the video game crash of 1983. In 1983, Commodore offered a $100 rebate in the United States on the purchase of a C64 upon receipt of any video game console or computer. To take advantage of the $100 rebate, some mail-order dealers and retailers offered a Timex Sinclair 1000 for as little as $10 with purchase of a C64 so the consumer could send the computer to Commodore, collect the rebate, and pocket the difference.[18] Timex Corporation departed the marketplace within a year. The success of the VIC-20 and C64 also contributed significantly to the exit of Texas Instruments and other competitors from the field. In parts of the US in the late 1980s, new C64's could be purchased in retail chains for a little more than $100.




The MSX, C64, ZX Spectrum, and Amstrad all had one thing in common - They were all "Home Computers" - *not* video game consoles. And, another thing they have in common, even with the revival of the video game console market - NONE of them still make computers (or video game consoles for that matter).

You might as well have listed the Apple ][ - since it was the same era of home computers. And we all know how much of an influence Apple has had on the video game industry. But, hey, at least they are still a company.