Difficulty switch vs in-game menu?

[gauauu]

Quick poll here. I'm making a new cheesy little game with 2 difficulty levels (Easy/Hard). Do you prefer the old-school way of selecting difficulty (using the hardware difficulty switches) or would you rather have a menu option in the title screen?

[up2knowgood]

I prefer the good old difficulty switch on the console, nice and smile, less steps to get game.

[Video]

An in game menu would open up the possibility to use switches for in game content. If your not using them, there find for difficulty switches. Plus you can change difficulty real time for each player independently.

 

Menus are a cool novelty for 2600, but not necessary imo.

[Opry99er]

Switches fo sho

[Keatah]

I don't think I have a preference. Whatever works.

[MrBeefy]

I will say menu because I wouldnt need a manual right in front of me.

[gauauu]

I will say menu because I wouldnt need a manual right in front of me.

That's the main advantage of the menu, I think. I'm guessing few people would discover hard mode without reading the manual.

[Torr]

Seriously... we live in the age of "The Net".... it's not some nerd thing that only geeks can figure out...

If your an Atari Fan, you can find a friggin' manual and customize the game yourself..

What is the issue here with difficulty switches????????????????

WHAT?????????????????????????

Play your 360/XBone/PS4/Switch/Etc... if you don't wanna do 30 seconds of googling to find out that the in Diff A Q-Bert drops Red Balls like in the Arcade version

Goddamn laziness... fuck...

You're seriously worried that people will be lost on your game if your incorporate difficulty via switches rather than a menu???

You do do know who your audience is right?

I'm thinking not...

Jesus... this is three edits now... this is pissing me off more than it should

Edited May 25, 2018 by Torr

[Thomas Jentzsch]

IMO it depends on the type of game. A 4K game usually cannot afford a complex menu. So you only have predefined game variations. And then the switches can be used to define extra variations. On the other edge, for a complex 32K game in most cases a menu makes sense.

 

And for a 2 player game, the switches are the best choice to adjust different player skills.

[Bill Loguidice]

An in-game menu I think would be superior. Depending upon how/where you play the game, difficulty switch access might not be convenient.

[BassGuitari]

Depends on what kind of game it is and whether the switches would be better implemented as game controls.

 

All the same, given my 'druthers, I'd go with switches. People who can't figure out the difficulty switches probably aren't the market for a new Atari 2600 game anyway.

[+Karl G]

I voted "both". Having options be visible on the title screen or via a menu is nice, but being able to launch the game without having to set the difficulty level each time would be handy. In Space Game, the difficulty is picked via the switches, but the results are visible on the title screen: if one of the switches is set to "A", then it displays "HARD". If both are set to "A", then it displays "VERY HARD".

 

Having said that, though, for a 4K game, is is certainly perfectly acceptable to just do it via the switches without a visual cue. Saving space is important, and your players will already know that "B" should be normal, and "A" should be difficult. They can look at the manual if they are curious about specifics.

[gauauu]

 

If your an Atari Fan, you can find a friggin' manual and customize the game yourself..

 

You're seriously worried that people will be lost on your game if your incorporate difficulty via switches rather than a menu???

You do do know who your audience is right?

 

 

I've watched people pick up my other game, Anguna, and try to play it, and be horribly confused because they didn't read the manual. It seems a large percentage of people DON'T read the manual.

 

Do I know who my audience is? That's what this poll is about. And the answer seems to be that it's split 50/50. So I'm not sure why the anger.

 

 

I voted "both". Having options be visible on the title screen or via a menu is nice, but being able to launch the game without having to set the difficulty level each time would be handy. In Space Game, the difficulty is picked via the switches, but the results are visible on the title screen: if one of the switches is set to "A", then it displays "HARD". If both are set to "A", then it displays "VERY HARD".

 

Having said that, though, for a 4K game, is is certainly perfectly acceptable to just do it via the switches without a visual cue. Saving space is important, and your players will already know that "B" should be normal, and "A" should be difficult. They can look at the manual if they are curious about specifics.

 

I like this method a lot. It gives you a visual clue that there is a harder mode available, but still keeps it controlled by the difficulty switch.

 

 

For those asking about rom size -- it's a small simple game, would be 4k if I didn't include title screen, level transition screens, menus, etc. But I don't feel a need to constrain it to 4k, if the menus make it better, I'm happy to spend 4k more just on menus.

 

 

Thanks for the opinions everyone!

[+Nathan Strum]

I like the menu since it potentially allows for other selectable options: NTSC/PAL, etc. But either is fine.