re: thoughts on video game controllers, long and rambly, 2/3(?)
each system also did their own unique thing
the ps1 controller was a straight copy of the snes controller at first, except with two L and two R buttons. when analog controls became a thing, they just added two analog sticks on their own little nubs sticking out of the controller, which puts the left stick in a somewhat awkward position for use as the primary control method instead of the dpad
nintendo introduced analog controls along with a completely new console and new controller design so you ended up with the weird three-pronged thing that took the SNES controller's buttons and stripped out X, Y, and start, added an analog stick, and added a Z button and four C buttons, but you basically have to use either the analog stick and Z button OR the dpad and L button because of the way the controller is laid out. I guess you could use both if you sacrifice the A, B, Cx4, and R buttons though, wonder if any games did that
they fixed all that with the gamecube though, great controller that
microsoft had analog control in mind from the start, so they made basically the same overall layout that's used for most things today, with the left stick and face buttons in the places your thumbs most naturally rest and the dpad and right stick between those
Nintendo also used the microsoft layout on the gamecube and switch, though the wii pro controller used the sony-style layout and the wii u gamepad and pro controller used the... inverse-sony layout? with the sticks above and outside the dpad and face buttons, which was an interesting choice
nintendo was the first to have analog l/r buttons on the gamecube, though microsoft's xbox was in development at the same time and also had them
sony's playstation 2 only had the same digital l and r buttons as the ps1, though it had two of each in contrast to nintendo's analog l/r + digital z buttons and microsoft's analog l/r buttons
the x360 and ps3 both went the route of having one analog and one digital on each side, which I understand the xbone and ps4 have continued
thoughts on video game controllers, long and rambly, 1/2(?)
Buttons, clockwise from top
Nintendo: XABY
Microsoft: YBAX
Sony: △◯╳⬜
why does no one agree on what buttons go where
also playstation games can't even agree on what button does what. the original intent was for ◯ to be accept and ╳ to be cancel but half the games don't use that because while x = bad is pretty international, circle = good is pretty japan-specific, and x = 'here, this one' is also a thing outside of japan
also ⬜ was originally intended to be menu but few games acutally use it that way, △ is more commonly a menu button when one of the face buttons (and not start/select) is menu (possibly inherited from a few SNES games that used X for menu?)
also, the non-primary buttons are another matter
nintendo did (left to right) select/start until the N64 and gamecube, which just had start and no select, and then after that it's been +/- instead
sony copied nintendo and has used select/start the entire time
Microsoft went off and did their own thing with back/start
the wii/ps3/360 generation also introduced the system button, located between the start and select-slash-back buttons, though nintendo moved their system button around a bunch on their various handhelds and consoles
also: what the hell activision, why are you putting an EULA in console games now, is this just how things are now???
there should be playstation button emoji on here
actually why not button emoji for every major console, that sounds like a good idea
so we ended up getting the switch release of spyro reignited
it's good. though we're utterly useless at the flying levels in spyro 1
the dialog really reminds me that it was written for a 90s kids game though, lots of 4th wall bumping, if not breaking, talking about buttons and stuff
it's really weird to play spyro and see something other than △□⚪╳ for the button names
even if we can manage to figure out what the context is it still leaves us feeling all ?????????? and disoriented
concept: instead of just pushing framerates as high as possible, what if graphics card developers and monitor developers got together and made something that could have different framerates in different parts of the screen? Because you don't _need_ 144Hz refresh rate in places where nothing is changing quickly, and you could save power (both energy-wise and computing-effort-wise) by only refreshing the parts of the screen with fast-moving objects at high refresh rates
thoughts on mainstream atheism (not prompted by anything, just shower thoughts)
I feel like a lot of atheists out there think that all religion is bad because the only religion they've been exposed to is mainstream christianity (and maybe some sort of islamophobic caricature of islam), and after realizing how bad mainstream christianity is (and presumably not looking too deep into what islam is) they extrapolate that to all religions and forms of spirituality
there's also an element of black-and-white thinking there too, of course
I quite like how revo remixed the normal battle music from Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ0yX5_WsVs) for Bravely Default's battle music when fighting the optional Nemesis bosses (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3utwG0Xxyo)
Plural system of three, Felthry, Alaric and Rosemary. We'll sign posts with a -F, -A, or -R.
Autistic, 20-something, anxious mess
Please introduce yourself before sending a follow request.
#FelthrysVGMSelection for my music picks.
Current avatar by @hi_cial