Dukes of Hazzard SCE ... How could it work?

[Pixelboy]

I'm currently snapping screenshots of legacy games under emulation for my ColecoVision trading card collection, and just now I tried taking pics of Dukes of Hazzard. Unlike other games that require special controllers, such as Turbo, Slither or Victory, there's no "standard controller edition" of Dukes of Hazzard that I can use to snap screenshots easily, so spoilers: Expect the screenshot on the back of the trading card of Dukes of Hazzard to be pretty underwhelming. 

 

But that got me thinking: If someone was willing to go through the trouble of hacking this game into an "SCE" version, how could the controls work? The steering wheel would be mapped to left and right on the joystick, either side buttons could be mapped to the accelerator pedal, but what about shifting gears?

 

I see three possible scenarios:

 

1) Just map the four gears to the [1], [2], [3] and [4] keys on the keypad. This would be the simplest way, but it could also cause some issues because the control mechanics in this game are built around moving the gearstick in a "realistic" manner, and having the gearstick icon just "teleport" to its intended position would alter the flow of the game in a meaningful way. It could even confuse or disrupt the software, although I don't really know how it's coded under the hood. (See what I did there?  )

 

2) Create a sort of virtual joystick with the [2], [4], [6] and [8] keys, to move the gearstick on the screen in the same way as it's done in the original version (which required the Expansion Module #2). That could work, but I honestly think it would be a pain to use effectively, as you would need to look down at the keypad constantly to make sure you're pressing the correct key.

 

3) I think this is the better solution, although I don't know if there's room in the 32K cart to implement it: Program some basic "intelligence" into the gear shifting interface. Here's how it would work: If you want to move the stick to first gear, just press [1] on the keypad repeatedly until the stick reaches the desired position. So for example, if the gearstick icon is located in the center of the gear box, press the [1] key twice (once to move the icon to the left, and once again to move it up to first gear). If you want to go from second to third gear, press the [3] key four times (to make the icon go up, right, right, up to reach third gear). If you want to go from third gear back to first, press [1] four times (to make the icon go down, left, left and up to reach first gear). In essence, the software itself would move the gear stick according to the player's wishes, so with a little practice, the player would only need to monitor the gear box on the screen to switch gears. With this system, I think the most natural configuration would be [1] tied to first gear, [4] to second gear, [3] to third gear, and [6] to fourth gear.

 

In all cases, the [#] key could be used as the handbrake button, and the game would be playable with a single stock controller.

 

What do y'all think? 

 

Edited October 14, 2021 by Pixelboy

[TPR]

I think you hit it right with #1.  If that is a hack someone is willing to do just to "test" to see if it works, I think it could be the best and most intuitive way to do it.

[youki]

why not like that :

 

Steering :  left / right

Accelerator : said left button

shift gear down :  right button + down   

shift gear up : right button + up

Hand break : left + right button together.

 

You don't have to use the keypad, i think it is better.  

[Pixelboy]

I suppose that could work... But looking at the contents of the ROM file, there's data all the way to the end of the 32K space, so I don't think a SCE version could be made without seriously reworking the software.