The superiority of Greek joysticks

[alkis21]

Seriously boys, a Tomahawk is a strong, masculine, phallic symbol if I ever saw one. Whenever I use it to play a man's game like Chaos Engine, or Fireforce, or Rodland, the next morning a virgin in my neighborhood wakes up 6 months pregnant. Surely you never get that with a joypad!

[Hewitson]

Originally Posted by T_hairy_bootson

do you use your left hand with the wico boss?

Well no, but the Boss isn't an arcade style controller like some of these are.

Originally Posted by alkis21

I hate joypads with a passion so I couldn't care less where the little gay cross is placed. I think that whoever thought first of using a THUMB to control a sprite should be executed.

Brilliant comment

You could make a funny looking joystick with one of these!

[humble worm]

Originally Posted by alkis21

a man's game like... Rodland

I dont think "rod" in the title is enough to make it man's game

[Smiley]

FTW

[cosmicfrog]

back when joypads first made an appearance we had a theory that it was because the Japanese had smaller fingers, well it makes sense to me but have no idea how true it is ....

[slk486]

It all comes down to which set of fingers you can tap the quickest. For most people that's with their right hand, if they're right handed.

And using a stick with your "on" hand, just feels weird

[Predseda]

Eternal classic!

[T_hairy_bootson]

wow that sucks

[TCD]

[humble worm]

^the one above for me. Don't like buttons on the stick, especially the upper one (for thumb) is idiotic. Still I prefer the Quickjoy II to any joypad.

[seuden]

If I have to hold the joystick the I prefer the button on the left. If the joystick can be placed down then I prefer the button on the right. There's not one joystick or controller that I prefer, it all depends on the system and game I'm playing.

[alkis21]

Originally Posted by seuden

If I have to hold the joystick the I prefer the button on the left. If the joystick can be placed down then I prefer the button on the right.

Interesting, can you elaborate on why that is?

[seuden]

I use my thumbs while holding the joystick and my middle finger when the joystick is down.

I'm not sure the exact reasons to be honest it just feels more comfortable that way, maybe my left thumb is quicker at tapping than my right thumb but my right middle finger is quicker than my left. Maybe I'll test them one day, lol.

I constantly change my knife and fork from left to right and vise versa when I'm eating depending on the action I'm doing. Eg. When I'm cutting my food I'll hold the fork in my left hand which grips the food and the knife in my right which cuts the food but then once cut I'll swap them around so I have the fork in my right hand to stab the piece of food I've just cut to put in my mouth. Weird aye? Lol. I'd say I was right handed but also when I play pool (snooker) I play left handed.

I hope that explains why I'm a freak? Lol.

[Hewitson]

You guys posting Quickshot's are taking the piss.. I've probably said this on here before but when I was younger I used to say they were called Quickshot because the joystick would be stuffed before your shot was over

[Retroplay]

I've got 4 of those "Quackshots" stuffed away in the closet.

These babies are the ones I use and they're built to last.

[Hewitson]

I've never used a Command Control, would like to try one out one day.

[alkis21]

Originally Posted by seuden

I hope that explains why I'm a freak?

More or less!

[jabsy]

I'm with THB on this one, probably because of my atari 2600 upbringing.

[StarEye]

Joysticks felt more right if you held it in your...er... right hand. I began with preferring the firebutton on the stick, but eventually came to prefer the firebutton above and to the left of the stick. The Competition Pro was great in that it was symmetrical in it's design, so if you preferred to hold the stick with your right and the base of it with your left, you could do that, and vice versa.

On bigger arcade sticks, which have a wider surface and buttons further from the joystick than a normal joystick, I prefer using left to control the stick and right to use the buttons. But on normal joysticks, they easily moved and they were often very stiff, thus using the left to hold the base and right to push the stick gave me more control, seeing as my right hand/arm is stronger than my left (for natural male reasons?). Using my left to control the stick would result in inaccuracy and not feeling in control, while with my right I can be much more precise. A small joystick like the Competition Pro, is pretty unstable unless you hold it down, or hold it with your hand, while an arcade stick is incredibly stable because of it's size and weight, wether you put it in your lap, floor or table. I think that explains why left hand for arcade sticks and right hand for joysticks feels more natural.

[other_reality]

The Pacman/Tomahawk joysticks, are the absolute best amiga joysticks ever. Every other joystick i had either broke, its cable got chopped off, its button(s) smashed or whatever. Really, these joysticks are the absolute epitomy of joystick making for the home computers ! I cannot even think of playing SWOS or Kick off with another stick.

As for the left/right handed matter, in Greece when the first arcade games arrived, for reasons unexplained, the custom arcade cabs (because due to taxing, only the PCB's could be imported) were designed with the buttons left to the stick. People got used to it I guess, some were crossing hands, anyways it seems like it affected out gaming DNA, at least most of us back then. Imagine we have to design or custom order our arcade sticks (like the one Alkis showed for the PC) in order to have them the "Greek" way (stick right, buttons left)...Well, dont get us wrong, some of us think you English people are driving on the wrong side of the road ! Its just a matter of getting used to it. Some younger greeks cannot understand why the buttons are left either !