Can this be played by Arcade/Fight Joystick alone? 1 joystick plus 8-10 buttons?

[Sgt. Nick Fury]

Working on an idea for a Steam arcade cabinet, and wondered if this game could be played with fight stick alone.....or does it require second stick or more buttons? Does it require a mouse? Thanks...

If you can suggest any other games that could also I would appreciate it.

[reverendloc]

Hey!

I think Transistor could be played just fine with a fight stick, plus 8 buttons.

Sounds like an interesting project! Is the idea to embed a small steam machine in a cabinet?

[Sgt. Nick Fury]

Something like that....really it's just to make an extension of Mame gaming. Most MAME cabinets already have a robust PC, just stick a decent GPU in there and load steam on as well. I have been using a Fightstick on PC to do some heavy MAME nostalgia gaming, and it occured to me I missed the basic and tighter control style of the traditional Arcade games.....but would like updated graphics, physics, level design.... The thought is, if Arcades were still in fashion today, what would games be like? It occured to me the best new true Arcade games coming out now are on the STEAM indie scene, (and a few on Ouya) .......the only problem is most either require a mouse, or assume you are using a xbox 360 pad and have either too many buttons or require a second stick for perspective......Really you might say the second stick requirement killed the Arcade since mario 64 and Tomb Raider.

My idea is to bring the Arcade back....but as it is in your home, no need to limit it to Quarter feeder style play, in fact ARPG's are perfect. Also any game you can play Co-op side by side on same screen.....as this social aspect is what made games great with friends on the old Arcade games. Local Co_op by it's very definition means perspective controls are not possible without split screen, and that is GOOD for my requirements.

Right now I am just shopping the games to see what is coming out that I could put in there. I plan on using 360 PCB's I am currently using a fight stick that uses normal original xbox interface, and is converted to usb via mayflash....it works on most titles, and can use joy2key if they accept keyboardf.....but the plan is to switch to xinputs device and use a 360 pcb since that is the most common steam device.

Also I might break down and put in a track ball for mouse for menus etc....but even if I did that it would likely be just one and not something each player would have. I would rather it be games that require nothing more then one arcade stcik and 8-10 buttons. Using the Pelican Real Arcade Universal, Mayflash Fight Stick, and a Dream Stick (360 wireless) as test devices.....

I just haven't decided wether to make it an actual upright cabinet... or a dual station like the X-Arcade Arcade2TV unit for couch potato/chair/stool play... (see their website and you will get what I mean)

In a perfect world I would love to see a Steam Arcade "standard" that differnt people could use to make their own cabinets, and game developers would support.......and in a perfect world.....imagine if these could be used in modern arcades, with electronic payment going to both the onsite buisiness hosting unit and the game developers and steam, based on time played instead of lives.....even better if save games could be on a cloud....so a player could pick right up where they left at home or friends or at the bar...the last part might be wishing a wee bit too much....... But wouldn't it be cool to see viable arcades again?

For now I just want one in my home. This looks like a great possible title if it fits the above requirements...

[reverendloc]

I think this is a great idea!

I agree that using xinput devices will open things up a bit for you. This seems totally viable, and I can see this as an upright cabinet, or a duel station, or selling the cabinets separate, so that people can move the actual computer (and possible input devices) form one cabinet to another.

Having cloud saves is really viable if people are bringing a portable Steam Machine to your arcade, and plugging in next to their friends. Or renting one from the arcade. Any arcade station could become whatever game you wanted to play. It's reminiscent of the old LAN party scene at internet cafes when Quake and CS were king.

Well I definitely wish you luck, and keep us posted on your progress!

[Sgt. Nick Fury]

Well that part is froughtg with issues...like if a buisiness were to buy a copy for a machine of a game, and then charge for someone to play it I don't think that would be exactly legal....if it got to that point you would have to iron out something with Steam and developers I am guessing. Either a one time buisiness copy, or some sort of built in system fwithin steam. For now the idea is just for home arcade, and building a mcahine, if you made it an open standard for requirements multiple hobbyists could build their cabinets or you could have a buisiness that sold them for that purpose knowing what standard for inputs etc.....but basically until you have a line of games that are made to play that way....it's not likely to go far. the dual analogue used in most games is because of the 360 controller pretty much taking over.....and while it's possible to make a cabinet that fully reproduces all those controls it doesn't sound like a fun or comfortable set up...and arcade platform needs simple and easily accessable controls. I'm not sure it would fully bring back the "arcade" but you could deffinately have systems as apart of bars, cafes etc... something between arcade and internet cafe..... They wouldn't need to bring in their machine just log in credentials. all they would be downloading is their saved game info.... However yes I would like to see the old lan social feel back again but on a common pc not everyone lugging their own. The real issue is inputs and the frankly laziness in developers right now. We had a standard for game controlers on PC via direct x and that was the whole point, and now it's all gone to xinputs which screwed over alot of other devices....The sad part is dev's have just gone along because it's easier. so now your forced to use a 360 or something emulating that......half of the time I have a older controler the games do not recogize teh device yet a free open system like MAME does, so then I have to set it up to do keyboard emulation.... I'm glad there is a common input device now, but I am tired of games being basically designed around that single device, and not giving the user much control over it. Also the idea you mentioned about having movement and aiming on the same stick, that is literally how it's been done since the beginning and it works fine....there is little to no advantage of using second analog stick other then over complicating it, they do it just because that's what xbox games do.....if only for disabled gamers it would be nice if they made a single stick option IN GAME.....no reason this needs an outside script. However yes sometimes you can do this via keyboard emulation IF IF IF the software allows you to rebind keys etc.

[Catzy aka Muse Azaria]

I always think that Transistor would make a great game as an arcade.