I am planning on making my custom joystick for all my consoles from the 2600 to the switch. I notice some Mad Catz sticks had digital actuation of analog controls, by mapping it to LS.
First I’m going to assume unless the game controls in an analog manner, that a fight stick would be better than a pad. Second, I’m trying to have it wired to the d-pad of a real stick. It would cost extra money to wire it to a analog stick, plus the wiring would be more complicated, so therefore, I’m trying to take a survey of games that don’t map to the d-Pad, but should.
An obvious first is all Atari 5200 games that use basic arcade controls, a digital to analog conversion hookup would be desirable, nay, mandatory. (Except for the few games like Kaboom, Missile Command, Star Wars the Arcade Game, Pole Position, and a couple others.) Plus wiring is simple. Because there’s no d-pad/digital stick default, the ONLY wiring would be for the d->a-stick.
Every game up until the N64 would probably play better with a stick compared to a pad. I looked at my N64 collection, no game screamed “digital” except for games that default map to the d-pad, like Killer Instinct Gold and Mortal Kombat Trilogy.
Most PS1 games allowed use of the standard controller if it either doesn’t need the analog-ness or the extra inputs. Most Saturn games use the standard pad unless it uses the analog stick, and even then it’s not required.
Beyond that, I looked at my collection, I thought of only ONE game I know of, that should optimally be controlled with a D-Pad, but is ONLY controllable with an Analog stick, on it’s BEST control option. That’s Metal Slug Anthology for the Wii. The Game Cube controllers requires you to use the analog stick, and all other options are funny versions of motion controls. If that’s the only game that has this wonky feature, I got the solution: the PS2 version of Metal Slug Anthology, which I bought when the analog stick wasn’t quick enough.
Are there ANY games, without knowing my collection, where a digital actuation of an analog stick is vital, yet default analog controls are the norm and suck? It can be download, or retail, for any system from the N64 and up. I’m trying to see whether it’s worth justifying the price of adding a joystick mapped to LS feature. Any game, any genre, any era (and don’t list any fighting games where you can actuate with the D-pad, I’m doing a D-pad hack stick for each console.)