Paddle racing game question: use one for acceleration?

[ComputerSpaceFan]

Hi there, I’m a big fan of the paddle controllers, especially for driving games but it saddens me how few titles use them for driving. I realize part of the problem is there’s only one action button so anything requiring changing gears or hitting brakes needs to be a joystick controller instead (Enduro, Pole Position, Fatal Run, etc.).

But I wonder if a game could be written using one paddle for steering and the other paddle for the accelerator? I’m aware that might be a troublesome control scheme but if it was done with Marble Craze then it’s not too crazy of a suggestion? Was the Dual Control Module ever made for paddles? That might fix that issue. Or I could always jury-rig something myself.

However, to get back to the coding side of things, are there just not enough cycles available for this idea to really work? Reading up on the Turbo prototype I was intrigued to find out they dropped it due to not enough computational power remaining in the 2600.

[ZackAttack]

I think it's a cool idea. You should build a prototype of just the controls. Just move a ball around the screen or something else super simple. Then you'll have an accurate measure of required resources. Plus you could post the source and get help optimizing.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Paddle reading reduces the cycles available for the display kernel. Reading one paddle requires a minimum of 8-9 cycles. So there are still enough cycles left to display various objects.

[gliptitude]

For a driving game i think a better combination would be Paddle and Foot Pedals.

 

If the Driving Controller suits you as well as the Paddle, I know that this has been combined with the Foot Pedals before, wink wink cough nudge.

 

.. I do think some kind of game where one person uses two paddles or spinners could be really neat though.

Edited April 12, 2016 by gliptitude