Is Rapid Fire Technically Cheating?

[ransom1122]

Rapid fire. Wether its used in emulation or on a real joystick when activated does this technically make you a cheat? For example Apidya , Xenon 2, etc etc

Your thoughts and explanations welcomed.

[Retro-Nerd]

Not for me. You can focus better on the level design/enemy waves instead of hammering the buttons. A lot of the later console games had auto-fire/rapid fire options by default.

[s2325]

Is it possible to shoot anything in After Burner 2 without rapid fire?

[liviux76]

I don't think it is cheating... sometimes it is even worse than playing with regular fire...

If you have it on your joystick and if you want use it for me it's absolutely fair. However, if that particular EAB/Lemon competition says you can't use it you have to follow the rule, of course, but in Apidya it was allowed to use it.

[ransom1122]

If you have a game where a special power up during the game is rapid fire. How does having rapid fire on from a third party joystick continuously on not make you take advantage? What's the point of a devs decision to give you rapid fire compared to a switch on a joystick?

[lordofchaos]

Turrican with rapid fire is a little naughty.

[Retro-Nerd]

Turrican 3 though has a rapid fire option in the game menu.

[Thorham]

Anything that's not in the game and gives you an advantage is cheating

[rare_j]

Having to pummel the fire button to play a game is a nasty hangover from the arcades, like limited lives and credits.
Notice when Irem re-released R-Type on the Playstation rapid fire was right there on the controller, not an option. So was level select.
Even recent shooters in the arcade feature rapid fire by default.
Video games are a test of skill and reflexes, not basic finger endurance. Retrospectively fixing broken games by using rapid fire is not cheating.
Neither is using savestates to overcome sections of bad design I'd argue.

[michaelz]

Originally Posted by rare_j

Having to pummel the fire button to play a game is a nasty hangover from the arcades, like limited lives and credits.

Notice when Irem re-released R-Type on the Playstation rapid fire was right there on the controller, not an option. So was level select.

Even recent shooters in the arcade feature rapid fire by default.

Video games are a test of skill and reflexes, not basic finger endurance. Retrospectively fixing broken games by using rapid fire is not cheating.

Neither is using savestates to overcome sections of bad design I'd argue.

I agree, why would I have to press the fire button at all. I just want to start the game, and have it play itself. I'll have more time reading books, watching movies and etcetera. I think I'll make such a game and call it Tesla, the auto pilot game.

[Pat the Cat]

I think for some types of games you'd have to see any sort of automatic control cheating. Sporting sims like Decathlon and similar.

On the other hand, autofire is pretty much necessary for some shoot em ups because they were coded by people who thought it was standard, because they had it.

Playing games for competition, the rules set should be clear on the issue. If there are no restrictions, OK.

[s2325]

cheating: B.C. Kid - while falling, Dogs of War - if poor gun was chosen

[rare_j]

Originally Posted by michaelz

I agree, why would I have to press the fire button at all. I just want to start the game, and have it play itself. I'll have more time reading books, watching movies and etcetera. I think I'll make such a game and call it Tesla, the auto pilot game.

Interesting. I take it you've never used rapid fire where it was clearly unfeasible to pummel the fire button like a lunatic for forty minutes. You've never used a savestate to get past a poorly implemented section of an otherwise playable game. How exhausting and tedious for you.

[michaelz]

Originally Posted by rare_j

Interesting. I take it you've never used rapid fire where it was clearly unfeasible to pummel the fire button like a lunatic for forty minutes. You've never used a savestate to get past a poorly implemented section of an otherwise playable game. How exhausting and tedious for you.

Hehe, well I never used rapid fire indeed. I'm more in the "I want to fire when I want to fire, and not when a button thinks it should fire because interval x has passed"-camp. Besides, games that demand that I'm pressing continuously on a button are probably the wrong game anyway. I probably stopped playing those games after 10 minutes, because my brain wanted to think again.

[Codetapper]

I added an option for automatic 50fps waggling in the WHDLoad slave of Daley Thompson's Olympic Challenge. Next you'll say that's cheating!

[ransom1122]

Originally Posted by Codetapper

I added an option for automatic 50fps waggling in the WHDLoad slave of Daley Thompson's Olympic Challenge. Next you'll say that's cheating!

No it is not, thats just repacking the game with added features, just like trainers in some way. I am leaning towards stock vanilla games in stock amiga's. Then using Rapid fire as an added option form a joystick

[Minuous]

It's an ergonomic issue. Not using autofire is a good way to develop RSI. (Especially with mice and gamepads, somewhat less so with joysticks.) If a game is going to cause me pain why would I play it?

It's not cheating, because it is no test of skill to rapidly hit a button for a long time. Anyone can do that, it is merely a pain threshold test.

[amiga_Forever]

Originally Posted by ransom1122

Rapid fire. Wether its used in emulation or on a real joystick when activated does this technically make you a cheat? For example Apidya , Xenon 2, etc etc

Your thoughts and explanations welcomed.

lol.. of course not... its just saving your fingers from hitting a button super fast.. Auto-fire..

It would be more of a 'challenge' without it and see how far people get. some of us have quick trigger finger, and some of us don't

I feel the same way about "trainers" yes, it is cheating in a way because in normal game can not walk right through objects.

[ransom1122]

Games such as Quik & Silva's difference between autofire and non autofire is astronomical. Using rapid fire in that game spits out bullets so fast that it is inhumanly possible to fire like that, thus making it super easy & a form of cheating in my opinion.

[Leffmann]

I picked the third option. In games like Quik & Silva or Track'n'Field for NES it's definitely cheating, in other games auto-fire make little or no difference, or may even be required if you don't want your hands to cramp up.

I'm curious what people think of things like "buff-bots" in MMORPGs, or f.ex. UI add-ons for World of Warcraft that are not technically cheating, but definitely give the player an advantage over others who don't use them.