… which a hand do you grab the joystick with?
You see a Galaga Machine with a mirroerd button on both sides, do you instincts have you use the same joystick hand as you do Ms Pac Man, and use the other for a button, or do you go opposite your Ms Pac Man instincts?
How about R-Type with mirrored buttons, where you have to rapidly press a button to fire and it could get tiring, as only certain home versions have auto-fire? (There’s no auto-fire because there’s a charge fire.)
Finally a “Mexican” Street Fighter 2 “Righty vs Lefty” setup. No one is at the machine. Which side do you take?
If you’re a machine operator, and your job is to maximize credits played by shortening credits, do you go stick right or stick left? Or do you think long term by having a mirrored layout and having a busier machine for a longer time? At what point does mirrored buttons (or mirrored joysticks if the cost of one joystick in money and space is less than the cost of 6 extra buttons.) not become an option due to limited cabinet space?
As a consumer, wouldn’t you like the option to have a right- or left-handed stick? Do you maybe want both.
If you’re a producer of sticks, if there is demand for both a left stick and a right stick, what’s the better way to fulfill it Sell separate right- and left-hand models, knowing if you’re not predicting the market right, you may have a surplus of one, and a shortage of the other, but saving money, or ambidextrous sticks, costing a little more, you don’t have to predict how people will use it, plus it’s like getting 2 sticks in 1 (one right handed, one left handed) for significantly less than the cost of 2 separate sticks.
Finally, did you formerly play right handed before the NES came out, but had growing pains getting used to the left handed layouts, because the arcade operators kind of forced that option? If you did, are you used to it, or would you like to revert?
This is a think piece. I’m trying to be as even handed as possible. I’m tying to cover situaitions where sometmes you’ll go left and others you’ll go right.
