I have been thinking about four direction controls, or joystick emulation (also cursors).
Basically there are five ways to achieve this on the N3DS or N2DS, theoretically.
- Circle Pad
- Control Pad (D-Pad)
- C-Pad
- ABXY Buttons
- The touch screen
- The virtual keyboard (honorary mention)
4) and 5) are a little odd.
The ABXY Buttons can be used as a direction control. The thumb can press two buttons together to create a diagonal impression.
The touch screen has been used in countless games on the DS, and in a select few on the 3DS, to provide directional control. On the C64 emulator, with the virtual keyboard turned off, you would point your stylus or finger anywhere on the lower screen, and as soon as you move it, Vice 3DS would recognize it as joystick (or cursor) movement. Some people will want to use their right hand for this, others their left hand. This means the fire button needs to be put on one of the action buttons opposing the hand controlling the joystick directions. This might be counter intuitive for some because it means the two directional pads on the left side would be turned into fire buttons. This is also important for left handed people.
I envision a setup where it's easy to assign any job to any of the keys (or touch screen) to emulate joystick (or cursor) control. The current settings still live in the world of old school VICE emulation - a Windows computer with a physical keyboard and maybe one or two controllers.
Vice 3DS is better, and different. It has 5 controllers built in. No others can be added though. The keyboard is virtual, but always on, on a separate screen. There is also no realistic way to have two players using two joysticks at the same time. Maybe down the road with network play.
The four shoulder buttons provide additional opportunities for customization. Again, the action or fire button should always be on the side opposing the directional pads.
In terms of switching between joy port 1 and 2, it doesn't make real sense to have joy 1 assigned to the d-pad and joy 2 assigned to the circle pad, or vice versa. Why? Because you cannot use the 3DS with two people anyway. What you really want is the ability to assign the directional control, and action control (fire button) to any of the keys or key pads present, and switch around as you like it. Including crazy choices like touch pad for direction and shoulder L for fire. Or shoulder R.
For Boulder Dash you will want to use the D-Pad for accuracy, but for R-Type you will want the circle pad or touch screen for fine control. You might prefer your left hand or right hand for this. Your call.
Sorry for the rambling post, I'm just pouring out all of my ideas.