BattleZone Single Stick play

OneSwitch

Using Adv-MAME with BattleZone seems to be the nicest looking method on RetroPie that I've found (despite some sound lag).

I found this recently for getting BattleZone playable with a single stick:

"For those of you that have only a single 8-way stick, or no sticks
with trigger buttons, I've managed to set the inputs up for Battlezone
(and other games with two 2-way up/down sticks) so that the game can
still played.

It's a little tricky, but here's what I did. Go into the screen to set
the inputs for the game, and use the "not" function by hitting the
same key twice in a row. Here's the key sequence I used:

left-up: enter, up, left, left, <pause>, enter, right, down,
down, up, up
left-down: enter, down, left, left, <pause>, enter, right, down,
down, up, up
right-up: enter, up, right, right, <pause>, enter, left, down, down,
up, up
right-down: enter, down, right, right, <pause>, enter, left, down,
down, up, up

For Battlezone, because of the first person perspective, when going in
reverse the left/right felt backwards to me. I ended up changing
the left/right down sequences like so:

left-down: enter, down, right, right, <pause>, enter, right, down,
down, up, up
right-down: enter, down, left, left, <pause>, enter, left, down,
down, up, up

Via: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.games.mame/LG0QlutcC60

I didn't know about the NOT feature in MAME remapping. This doesn't allow you to rotate left or right on the spot though. Has anyone found a way to get tank type controls working better with a single stick. I'm thinking....

FORWARD = UP = emulated both sticks forward
REVERSE TANK = DOWN = emulated both sticks back
TURN TANK LEFT = LEFT = emulated right stick back + left stick forward
TURN TANK RIGHT = RIGHT = emulated left stick forward + right stick back

DIAGONALS FOR MOVING FORWARDS/BACK + TURNING at the same time.

Clyde

@OneSwitch Nice find! I'm looking for a way to play Battlezone, Vindicators, and Assault on my twin-stick cabinet for some time now. I'll test this as soon as I have the time to spare.

Clyde

@OneSwitch said in BattleZone Single Stick play:

I didn't know about the NOT feature in MAME remapping. This doesn't allow you to rotate left or right on the spot though. Has anyone found a way to get tank type controls working better with a single stick. I'm thinking....

I didn't know it either. I tested the method from Google Groups by now, and it works fine including rotating on the spot. You say that it doesn't do the latter for you?

I noticed some little glitches when switching from forward to backward + turn in hectic situations, but they only cause the vehicle (here: the tank in Assault) to "stutter" for a fraction of a second before moving in the desired direction.

If you prefer the reversed down controls like the guy on Google Groups, I found another solution without any NOT bindings. I also tested it successfully, its only flaw is that you can't have the normal down controls with it.

(If the timestamp doesn't work for you, just skip to 1:12 minutes.)

Hm … that said … maybe I could combine the second solution with the down bindings of the first one? That calls for more testing. :)

VictimRLSH

I love Assault, but have yet to see a PS style controller do it justice, because I just got too used to playing the arcade version. It is possible to flick both sticks outward at the same time you hit the fire button to drop a mortar shell right in front of you and your tank won't even rear up, it's that quick. There are also some other stick tricks that just don't work right with a controller.