Question about Atari controllers support in my next Coleco game

[newcoleco]

I'm working on a plateform game for the ColecoVision where you have to walk, jump and shoot. On a regular Coleco controller, I can use the primary fire to shoot and the secondary fire to jump, but this will not works with Genesis and Atari controllers (I know some people like using these controllers). So, I think I will offer two different control settings, and one of them will use up to jump instead of the secondary fire. I know that it may be odd jumping with up, but I can't see another solution. What do you think?

Edited June 7, 2009 by newcoleco

[+Psionic]

Well, it certainly couldn't hurt to give the user the additional choice.

[Pixelboy]

This is an old dilemma.

 

I haven't seen your game yet, but whatever the platforming physics used, I've always found that pressing up on the joystick to jump is very cumbersome. If you want to jump straight up, then it's not much of a problem, but if you want to jump forward or backward, you have to press the joystick diagonally upward, and we all know how imprecise and tedious diagonals can be on a joystick, especially on the stock ColecoVision controllers.

 

Offering two different control settings is a good idea, I think. For non-CV controllers, if possible, I would recommend pressing down on the joystick while pressing the fire button to jump. It's a maneuver that becomes second-nature relatively quickly, and it can also add to the challenge factor of the game since you cannot shoot while initiating a jump (you could shoot in mid-jump, however). Note that to jump forward with this kind of setup, you'd need to gain a certain amount of momentum before jumping, or else you will jump straight up.

Edited June 7, 2009 by Pixelboy

[newcoleco]

This will gives you an idea of the game projects I'm doing. And soon or later I will add teleporter spaces that will need to be activated. For the teleporters spaces, I think of using down or just not stand still a second to activate it. Too early to have a good idea of the project.

 

Edited June 7, 2009 by newcoleco