Directional Movement Changes

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matmico399
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Joined: November 25th, 2015, 6:11 pm

Directional Movement Changes

Postby matmico399 » October 6th, 2024, 10:38 pm

I was just reading a few days ago about the critic's review of the Neo Geo console and I finally noticed something I had not seen before and it hit me. Back in the days of the 2600, 5200 and 7800 the joysticks were pretty much made for right handers. But when I was looking at the Neo Geo all the directional buttons were on the left side. Did it start with the NES and the SMS? I know there is a difference between joysticks and directional pads but why did they go from right to left? I can't imagine playing a 2600 game using my left hand to fly and using a right button to use weapons in a game like Defender. Would people have been better with the pad on the right and the buttons on the left? Why the change so suddenly?

DaHeckIzDat
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Re: Directional Movement Changes

Postby DaHeckIzDat » October 6th, 2024, 10:49 pm

I feel like it has to do with accuracy. Most people are right handed, which means they'll be able to move their right hand more dexterously and with better accuracy than their left. Holding a direction on a thumbstick or directional button is important, but it's usually not the kind of thing you need to be able to do rapidly or with a high degree of accuracy. Whereas your right thumb has to switch between multiple tasks in quick succession, like pressing the jump, dodge, and attack buttons, as well as controlling the camera. Maybe it's just because that's how it's always been for me, but I couldn't imagine reversing what my left and right hands do when I game.

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Stalvern
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Re: Directional Movement Changes

Postby Stalvern » October 7th, 2024, 10:03 am

The Vectrex had a thumbstick on the left and four buttons on the right in 1982.

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ActRaiser
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Re: Directional Movement Changes

Postby ActRaiser » October 7th, 2024, 11:51 am

It may have started with the Game and Watch.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_G ... atch_games

Looking at the pictures you can see Donkey Kong came out in June 1982 with the directional pad on the left and action button on the right.

The Vectrix came out in October 1982.

Quick_Man
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Re: Directional Movement Changes

Postby Quick_Man » October 7th, 2024, 4:01 pm

From what I know, the change actually started with arcade machines moving the joystick on the left as a way of handicapping the majority of players who would inevitably be right handed, thus reducing the amount of time a credit would last before they'd make their three mistakes and lose the game. Fast forward to now though and most people who use arcade sticks are playing fighting games where having your dominant hand on the buttons is preferable considering you usually have anywhere from 4 to 8 buttons to deal with on top of combinations (i.e; the fairly common "press two buttons at once for a throw") of them or sequences of them in order to land combos.

Also, in a world where it seems like EVERYONE makes their own custom stick, I see almost nobody making theirs with the stick on the right and buttons on the left - even if they're left handed.

matmico399
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Joined: November 25th, 2015, 6:11 pm

Re: Directional Movement Changes

Postby matmico399 » October 7th, 2024, 9:48 pm

Quick_Man wrote:From what I know, the change actually started with arcade machines moving the joystick on the left as a way of handicapping the majority of players who would inevitably be right handed, thus reducing the amount of time a credit would last before they'd make their three mistakes and lose the game. Fast forward to now though and most people who use arcade sticks are playing fighting games where having your dominant hand on the buttons is preferable considering you usually have anywhere from 4 to 8 buttons to deal with on top of combinations (i.e; the fairly common "press two buttons at once for a throw") of them or sequences of them in order to land combos.

Also, in a world where it seems like EVERYONE makes their own custom stick, I see almost nobody making theirs with the stick on the right and buttons on the left - even if they're left handed.
Interesting.


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