Path: chuka.playstation.co.uk!news
From: "Rikki Prince" <rprince@dircon.co.uk>
Newsgroups: scee.yaroze.freetalk.english
Subject: Controllers/Pads and Players (PSX2!!)
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 1999 12:20:17 -0000
Organization: PlayStation Net Yaroze (SCEE)
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Now I'm not trying to start a large number of these PSX2, or Super
PlayStation, or Emotion Engine, or whatever the machine will eventually be
called, but I think it will make interesting discussion speculating about
these issues.

This post is about how input into games will be performed. We can more then
likely close the betting on that the primary device will be a controller
pad. However, will it be a new innovative design by Sony R&D, or will the
new machine support the old pads, such as the Dual Shock? Well the first
point is the backwards compatibility of the games, so a new pad would have
to be similar to the current one to allow old games to be played on the
machine.

Personally, I love the Dual Shock pads, and hope, if Sony do alter the
standard pad, that the new pad is similar to the current pad. I like the way
all the buttons, and controls are accessible by holding the pad in one way,
with two hands, rather than the design of the N64 controller, which forces
you to hold the controller in a number of different ways, and combinations
for different games, and sometimes at different points in the game!!
Possibly, a button could be added under each of the shoulders, like the N64
Z-trigger (honest, I'm not trying to suck up to the N64 owners who I may
have offended by expressing my dislike for the N64 controller, and who I'm
now begging for forgiveness from...!). However, though I haven't found this
problem with the N64, the button may be accidentally activated while resting
your fingers behind the shoulders.

Now, after displaying my views about the actual controller, I would like to
discuss the number of controllers which will be supported by the new
machine. Hopefully, It won't be just the two again, allowing Sony to exploit
those of us with many friends (huh!!), by forcing us to by a multitap which
cost a good £30! Four would be nice, but then we would be forever being told
by N64-only owners that they had four controller ports first, as is their
sometimes babyish attitude (possibly the reason for some of the games aimed
at the, lets say, younger age range, or the better games being unfairly
censored!). Of course, the ultimate would be 16, which would fit the halving
of each screen segment, but would mean users would have to have screens as
big as a house to see what colour/character you were!!! Eight is possible,
where you choose with the person you share the quarter with whether you have
a vertical or horizontal split of that quarter. Finally, the machine could
support 6, which would have three across the top, and three across the
bottom. What are other peoples comments on this?

Finally, as this post is getting a bit long, and I'm babbling, I'm going to
mention another thing that I should have posted in the 'Next Generation
Games?' thread. This is the fact that I'd like to see more multiplayer
games, other than sports games, and Micro Machines (and its various
clones)!!!! At the moment, there are plenty of split screen two player
games, but only a few have reached the stage of four player split screen.
The only game I have which allows this is SCARS (has anyone else got that,
no-one seems to have it, I think its great!), which is a shame as there are
many games which could benefit from 4-player games.

CONGRATULATIONS!! if you have got this far through my massive post, it was
meant to be a short discussion stimulator, and turned out to be almost an
essay!!

If anyone has any thoughts on anything I've said, please post it in the
newsgroup, as I believe it should cause an interesting talking point.

Rikki