Default controller configurations.

They're always terrible (PS 1-3, especially.)

For example, the current game I'm playing, FF 9, X is confirm, O cancel, T menu, and Sq. card game. I've switch them to Sq. is confirm, X is cancel, O is card game, and Triangle is menu. I use this for every game that I'm able to change.

Default configurations are normally terrible, especially when O is to confirm and X is to cancel.

PS was always a bitch to remember the configurations.
And then you get muscle memory for one game, but another game has different defaults....

edited 27th Dec '10 6:52:51 AM by Bellacide

bye

I went from IX to VIII to VII. IX and VIII were fine, but VII's defaults were ASS BACKWARDS.

Hell, I remember making an IJBM about it a while back. =d

More annoying, is when a game has a PC version, but the PC version doesn't intuitively use the keyboard and mouse for input. Dead Space uses E for "yes" and F for "no" in the confirmation dialogues, rather than the more intuitive Y and N.

Accidental mistakes are forgivable, intentional ones are not.

This is how it's supposed to be, but SCEA decided to change things up for some reason.

Helpful Scripts and Stylesheets here.

O is in the same position as A in a Super Nintendo controller, which is traditionally "accept." X is in the same position as "B" which is traditionally "Cancel." Also, in Japan in particular, a circle means something is correct and an X means it's wrong; this is used in grading sheets quite a bit. Over States-side, the X still has that meaning...

... but somewhere along the line we lost that, and started using the X button to mean "accept," because we just have to be contrary to common sense.

Sakamoto demands an explanation for this shit.

^B was the default button in Super Mario Kart (my first SNES game) and I'd say the same of The Legend Of Zelda A Link To The Past though for this one it could as well be A. It's only when I discovered Final Fantasy VII that I learned the "south button = cancel" control scheme. Whoops, I forgot the Gameboy; The Legend Of Zelda Links Awakening had B to cancel some text boxes.

edited 27th Dec '10 9:58:17 AM by Medinoc

"And as long as a sack of shit is not a good thing to be, chivalry will never die."

Are there still games where you can't change the controller config?

I usually don't have to mess with game controls, usually, but after playing Fallout 3 a whole lot, I kept hitting [TAB] to access my inventory in Star Wars Galaxies - cursed muscle memory... I have half a mind to change it from [I] to [TAB] just 'cuz.

Happiness is zero-gee with a sinus cold.

Yes? Particularly, it's difficult to change the menu controls. This is mostly just console/handheld games, but it's rather annoying. It's one of the reasons I like sticking to Nintendo-console games.

Helpful Scripts and Stylesheets here.

As someone who never owned (and barely used) any console before a PS 2 (and never used a Super Nintendo controller), I find X as accept to be the most comfortable choice, since it's the button that's closest to my thumb, and therefore it's default position. Given that, in most games you're going to accept things far more often than you will decline, it'd make sense to put the accept button in the "automatic" spot.

I suppose... and while tradition laid the control scheme in the same pattern, on a Super Nintendo controller your hands tend to come in from the sides, not underneath, placing the A button right under your right thumb for users. The way modern controllers are arranged makes things different.

Thus, the arrangement probably should have been O at the bottom, X on the right, etc...

edited 27th Dec '10 10:29:48 AM by GoggleFox

Sakamoto demands an explanation for this shit.

Am I the only one who hates both default configs? I'm using Square for confirm here. And Triangle for cancel.

O and X were changed because of the way the hand rests on the controller - not because SCEA liked to be contrary.

edited 27th Dec '10 10:39:46 AM by Completion

I tend to use X for confirm and O for cancel.

I only play games on computers.

They let you customise the controls.

A different shape every step I take A different mind every step of the line

Square's clear on the other side of the controller. Where it is was chosen by Sony as the "other" button because it was, in their estimates, to be used rarely. Obviously that didn't work out.

Sakamoto demands an explanation for this shit.

"Square" was supposed to be the menu button, actually. That's what the square itself was supposed to represent, a menu box.

Helpful Scripts and Stylesheets here.

This O/X problem is a significant barrier for my getting into PS 1 games. Even with emulation.

edited 10th Dec '12 9:31:47 PM by GlennMagusHarvey

I feel like I'm in the minority now, because I'm used to bottom being confirm, right being cancel, left being something else and top being menu. I use this naming convention because it applies to PS, Xbox, Wii U, and DS. I would find it quite weird and disconcerting to have confirm being left, frankly.

And I can understand why some games like Metal Gear Solid make right confirm and bottom being cancel, because on the PS system, circle is right and x is bottom, and those correspond to confirm/correct and cancel/incorrect in japanese things.

Very big Daydream Believer. "That's not knowledge, that's a crapshoot!" -Al Murray "Welcome to QI" -Stephen Fry

That's the way it was on the SNES, and that's actually the one I'm used to. A (far right) is confirm, B (bottom) is cancel.