User blog:CDE1/Arcade Machines: Buttons vs Controls

Warning: Boring!

So, lets talk about Arcade machines. Basically - we're going to check if the amount of buttons that can be seen on every Arcade machine matches the amount of controls that are needed in-game.

Lets start with the first Arcade game:

Astro Barrier
So as we can see, the arcade machine has one joystick, and two buttons. The joystick is obviously used to control the movement of the ship, but what about the other buttons? Well, one of them has to be the shooting button, but what does the other button do? Well, what other controls do we have? When you just start the game, or when you're shown a "loading" screen in game, you can press Enter to move to the next stage. There's also the option to skip to levels 10, 20 or 30 by pressing '1' '2' or '3' right after clocking start.

But, that's already four new controls, but we only have one button! Well, there's a solution: In its in-game design, there appears to be two small extra buttons near the coin-hole. The same buttons can be seen on the Thin Ice Arcade machine.

But, we're still left with 4 different controls, and only 3 buttons! Well, its possible that one button can be used for two different controls. For example, one button can be used to shoot a bullet from the ship, and also to skip the "Loading" screen. That way, there are still 3 buttons left for all the other controls in-game.

Lets hop to the next Arcade game:

Thin Ice
So, what controls do we have in Thin Ice? We can move the puffle in all four directions, which are obsiosly controlled by the four arrow buttons - ClubPenguin was even kind enough to show us in-game that when you're moving your puffle, the arrow buttons get pressed! We also have the reset button, that let's your reset the level. And that seems to be all the main controls. But - we actually have a few more! When you open the game, you have a "Start" button. After clicking it, the game will show you how to play the game, and you'll have 3 buttons: "Next", to see the next page in the tutorial, "Back" to see the previous page, and "Play" to start the game. Now, we know that the arrow buttons aren't used for these controls because we can see that they're not pressed when we click "Next "Back" "Start" "Reset" or "Play". So, what other buttons do we have? As I said before, the Thin Ice Arcade machine has two extra buttons near the coin-hole. So we are left with 5 different controls, and only two buttons for them! Now, "Start" and "Reset" can both be activated by the same button, as well as, for example, "Play". That leaves us with two controls, and only one button left! That's a question I can't answer... There are not enough buttons for all the controls that Thin Ice has!

Bits & Bolts
Bits & bolts's Arcade machine has a joystick and one button. So, what controls do we have in Bits & Bolts? In Bits & Bolts we can control an arrow that can move and click on different blocks. The arrow is obviously controlled by the joystick, and the button can be used for clicking. However, when starting the game, we have two more controls - "Play" and "Tutorial", But the way I see it, its possible that you just use the joystick as a mouse, and click on them with the button. So it seems all the controls in Bits & Bolts can be used with just a joystick and a button!

That's all. I don't know why I decided to write this post, but I hope you found it interesting!