Most annoying user interface
This has to go to Slaine. Actions flying across the screen in word form, in various speeds, and you had to point a bloody hand at them.
I never did complete it. I got as far as taking a spyglass out of a telescope and dumping it in a fountain.
I never did complete it. I got as far as taking a spyglass out of a telescope and dumping it in a fountain.
Post edited by JohnnyJman on
Comments
To be honest, seen the relative simplicity of most Spectrum games, I can't really think of one of them featuring an user interface so annoying I steer clear of it... Well, maybe the icon control of action/adventure games like Psygnosis's Barbarian and Obliterator is unfriendly enough if you don't have a mouse handy like the machines they were originally designed for - although you can override most of it with keyboard/joystick commands.
Speccy related , any game that uses rotate/move forward controls
Slaine was different , in much the same way that Stifflip was - mastering the control system was meant to be part of the challenge,
Having said that, a difficult control system is a difficult control system and, even with practice, I never got the hang of it with keys. I think I've mentioned elsewhere that it would have worked well as a sub-game but for the whole thing it was a bit convoluted and unwieldy to be much fun.
I prefer joypads for FPS games, a lot of people do. Granted a keyboard + mouse is faster and more accurate, but if you're playing a console game (which is optimized for joypad play) or against other humans who are also using joypads, then it's a level playing field if everyone is happy with joypads.
RTS games on a joypad are awkward though. You just can't 'lasso' items with a joypad the way you can with a mouse.
I agree about the up-to-jump bit, I hated that.
There you stand in a real time situation being attacked and you need to scroll through all the commands that begin with the letter T to find 'Throw', press enter, then scroll through all the objects beginning with R to select a 'Rock'.
All while your character is being pummeled to death! I'm sure they could have devised a simpler user interface than that.
I always found Ant Attacks controls really annoying.
Escape from the planet of the robot monsters had hideous controls. Shame really, as it could've been great.
anything that takes longer to use than by keys etc I guess :)
the keys on FPS games is samey now , as much as we used to use QAOP-M
I can remember that throwing me to start with too, simply as it's not intuitive - but after a few mins of play I found it was cool. Also the ability to easily access 2 jumps, 2 melee and (ok admittedly with space bar) a whole shed load of special items/weapons etc on a joystick with one button is actually quite a good interface no?
But for a platform game that doesn't have something to shoot, using up to jump is a poor option. Is it Crimbo that does that? Spoils an otherwise brilliant game.
Personally I can't use 'down' to hover in Jetpac; it would make the game easier but it's so counter-intuitive.
- IONIAN-GAMES.com -
*meanies begin to attack*
Use... kettle. Damn. Use... knob of butter. Drat. Use... *dies* knife. Darn.
EDIT: Just noticed thingley has already posted about this. I share your pain, thingley. :grin:
It's okay until you're fighting a boss and instead of pressing down for a straight up jump you press up... and end up jumping forward into a pit of fire!
I've always played Jetpac with the keyboard and never really found much use for the hover button; it seems simple enough just to tap the thrust one to roughly maintain height when you need to.
Anyway, I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Halls of the Things yet. It uses dozens of keys all over the place with seemingly little logic to them. Then, eventually, the remix version came along and you could redefine them; the game became so much more playable.
Games that used the spectrum cursor keys
Any game that didn't use qaop and space or have a redefine keys option
The lens lock copy protection system.
I think they're supposed to remain unknown. It's all part of the (non) fun. :razz:
I think Movie could've done with less fiddly controls, but it's a great game nonetheless.
Apart from QAOPM, cursor keys were my preferred keys.
Wait, there's a "hover" button?! :-o I played this game to death and always used the thrust button to judiciously maintain the height.
Bytes:Chuntey - Spectrum tech blog.
it's daunting at first.. but once you play a while it's pretty OK.. same with escape from krakatoa (both favs of mine)
I agree- Halls Of The Things is one of my favourite speccy games of all time,if you bare in mind with these types of games that you do not use all buttons at the same time you will be fine,this also applies to Warlock Of Firetop Mountain which is another good one.
I think it's a great game too, but I'd maintain that the original controls are terrible. And although you never have to use all of them at once, it'd be nice if you could access all four of your weapons without having to use separate keys all over the place to operate them.
It also commits the cardinal sin of having the up and down keys on the same row; at least with the Ultimate games though you've only got to use three or four other buttons.
Anyway, they redeemed themselves with the remix where you can put together a much more logical layout. Give it a try sometime if you've not done so already.
Barbarian - complete mystery why what is essentially an arcade game needs to be driven by icons...
...and... (dare I say it?)
Avalon - where the toughest arcade part of the game involves negotiating a long list of spells (with inverted up & down keys?). Many a game was lost frantically trying to find the 'move' option from that list... :-x
Still a great game though! :)
Was pleased that Dragontorc subsequently at least allowed a quick escape from the menu back to movement (by pressing left or right). Made it a bit easier for me.
[Edit - sorry, just mentioned that Barbarian was mentioned before - but it was Alessandro's post, I'm sure he won't notice that something's been mentioned twice..!]
You don't have to find the move command, if I remember rightly, just click fire once and move. :-)
What?!? :o
Couldn't you have told me that 25 years ago????
I'm pretty sure that was how it worked, but now you've got me wondering if I'm getting it mixed up with Dragontorc? I'll give it a go when I get in. :)
:lol::lol::lol:
Sorry - that tickled me
I stand corrected. Just checked both games and it is just Dragontorc that lets you move whenever you want to. My apologies. :smile:
You would get the salt water spade and then have to leave teh water to rearrage the item list so you wouldn't have accidents and drop the snorkel before the spade...
So what you're essentially saying is "console gamers prefer joypads over keyboard + mouse". Because I think you'll find that most PC FPS gamers would prefer the keyboard + mouse combo over joypad.