Four button joystick, what are the most important buttons to bind?

General
#1

My first post here, feel free to direct me to more appropriate category and so on :slight_smile:

I’m configuring Lakka 2.0 on eeePC. So far I have successfully configured a Speedlink Competition Pro USB joystick (similar or exactly the same as http://www.speedlink.com/?p=2&cat=414&pid=25585&paus=1 , can’t check the model number right now).

I’d like to contribute the autoconfig file for it, but I’m wondering what would be the most appropriate buttons to bind for it by default?

In case the link above goes dead or other issues prevent you to check the picture of it: the joystick is symmetric, has a 4 direction stick (duh) and four buttons: Two big round buttons on corners and two smaller triangular buttons near the stick.

My experience with emulators are very limited. But back in the days I used C64 and I was happy with its single fire button arrangement. NES and its A, B, select and start was high tech :wink:

So, what to bind in these four buttons considering it will become the default for all users?

I assume the majority uses the stick with right hand and buttons with left, so:

  • left big round button -> A
  • left smaller button -> B
  • right big round button -> X
  • right smaller button -> Y

Or should I bind something like Start and Select to the right hand buttons? E.g. to be able to control NES games without using keyboard?

This kind of joystick probably is the choice for games from the C64 era, so no need for many in-game buttons. Are there other keys needed e.g. in Lakka / RetroArch menu and binding those keys to the right hand buttons would be convenient?

#2

Hey, that’s a good question, and I think it probably comes down to preference more than anything.

I think A/B/Start/Select is a pretty good choice because we have the start+select menu combo. There’s also a good argument for A/B/X/Y, of course, but I can’t think of many games in SNES or later where a 4-button joystick of that style would be used, so it’s probably pretty safe to assume it’ll be NES and pre-.

#3

Thanks for your comment, I was not aware of the menu combo (and didn’t yet figure out what it is supposed to do).

I’ve submitted a pull request with A/B/start/select setup, keeping fingers crossed it’s OK.