I'm currently part of the development team for a new STE game project.  I'm not allowed to give away too much info, but the control system is a bit of an issue as it requires three fire buttons (all of which need to be accessible *very* quickly).

We're designing the game to (currently) be Jag Pad or Keyboard only (after much debate we cannot come up of a way to integrate the controls in a single button joystick without massively sacrificing playibility).  This poll is to identify roughly how many STE owners out there have jag pads/who are happy to play via keys/or if people really want a sucky joystick & keys method implemented...

I went for option 3...

Why?

1) 99.999% of your target audience will be playing on Steem. You can map windows joystick buttons to keys.

2) Why not have all 3. If one sucks more than the other, well at least you gave the option.

These are valid points there CJ, but STEem already gives you jagpad mapping :). Implementing a different control method is always a major PITA, so I chose the Jagpad option (plus I have a Jagpad, so I'm sorted!)

Right, as I have a mega ste and not ste and a falcon, I'd go with implementing all 3 but probably keymap al
all fire buttons on the keyboard so as not to have to move your one hand from joystick to kbd all the time.

If you have an airplane type of joystick it's ok but many prefer arcade type joysticks.

CJ, I do agree with you that the nicest thing to do would be to provide all control options (even if the joy+keys combo is unplayable).  However, I doubt Tomchi will want to waste his valuable time coding this when it's unlikely to be used (I imagine that most people will play it via steem with the jagpad mapping under the joystick options).

For those who lack a jagpad, and don't want to spend £15 to buy one on fleabay, I'm hoping to get a cheap adapter for the STE Enhanced Joystick Port manufactured via Alison so that a three button genesis/megadrive pad can be used, and possibly ship these (and a controller) with a 'deluxe' boxed version of the game (at cost price - this is a non-profit project), or just have them available for sale at the time of release. These adapters will also be compatible with reservoir gods releases (and the small number of other games out there that support the STE EJP).

Christos wrote on 11.02.10 at 11:15:17:

Right, as I have a mega ste and not ste and a falcon, I'd go with implementing all 3 but probably keymap al all fire buttons on the keyboard so as not to have to move your one hand from joystick to kbd all the time. If you have an airplane type of joystick it's ok but many prefer arcade type joysticks.

Does the mega STE not have EJP's?

CJ suggested a Coin-Up mode; Joystick for movement and zxc for fire buttons.  However, this would only be usable if your joystick has suckers (like you say), so Tomchi was interested.  After all, any sensible Atari owner has either a JeST or Konix Speedking or a Cheetah Bug ;)

^ Sorry, that was supposed to say "Tomchi wasn't interested".

(@GGN, my 'modify' button seems to have vanished from my posts.)

Heavy Stylus wrote on 11.02.10 at 11:36:23:

(@GGN, my 'modify' button seems to have vanished from my posts.)

Just checked - no time limits to modify posts. Did you hit "update session"?

No, the mste doesn't have EJP's. Anyway, keyboard and jagpad should be enough for all needs, though IIRC the IKBD has some problems when multiple keys are pressed.

ggn wrote on 11.02.10 at 12:12:17:

Heavy Stylus wrote on 11.02.10 at 11:36:23: (@GGN, my 'modify' button seems to have vanished from my posts.) Just checked - no time limits to modify posts. Did you hit "update session"?

Yes - done that and all is well now.  Sorry - my fault for logging in on different pcs...

Christos wrote on 11.02.10 at 12:12:36:

No, the mste doesn't have EJP's. Anyway, keyboard and jagpad should be enough for all needs, though IIRC the IKBD has some problems when multiple keys are pressed.

I'll have to look into the IKBD issue.  The most keys held down at any one time will be 3.

I voted for the first one, as i have two (grey) JagPads for my Falcon, and 4 for my Jaguar (2 normal black ones and 2 Pro Controller). So it should be no problem for me to play your upcoming game :) . And i am one of the few that really likes to play with that controller!

I have a few JagPads and even the Grey Falcon Pad with blue buttons. But I don't have an STE. So hopefully it will be Falcon compatible too  [smiley=rolleyes.gif]