Do you use turbo/auto buttons? Are they cheating?

[Pixel_Outlaw]

Mostly wondering if there are any people who like to tap tap tap on the older stuff rather than use a hardware aid like a turbo button or switch.

I just can't hammer quickly on a button non-stop for half an hour it seems.
Old arcade gamers were tough.

If you do, what are your favorite devices?

[Ed Oscuro]

three fingers on the button at once, yessir, now you're cooking with ripple!

[Shepardus]

Define "cheating."

I generally avoid using external (not built in) autofire, but using autofire sometimes gets me to play games that I otherwise wouldn't play. such as Sand Scorpion I pretty much never use autofire if the game already has autofire in some form, even if it's just on a particular ship (Batsugun, Thunder Dragon 2), or at a slow rate (Darius Gaiden), assuming that slow rate is reasonably playable and not something like Raiden's 1-2 shots per second. In such cases it's clear that the developers thought about autofire and sought to balance the game for people who don't like tapping the button all the time. I also don't bother with autofire if the game only requires slow-moderate tapping, like in Cho Ren Sha 68K, rather than tapping for every single shot you fire. If I'm playing a game for score I'm fine with doing whatever it takes, including autofire - I use an autofire button with Battle Bakraid because the default fire rate with speed-type ships is way too slow (you can also adjust the autofire rate with button combinations but adjusting it with a dedicated autofire button is more convenient).

In short, no I don't consider it "cheating," but whether it's more enjoyable with autofire or without is a separate question.

[Squire Grooktook]

I do it when Trap tells me to

Only game where I hate autofire/turbo is in Darius Gaiden, because some of the bosses and enemies die before they can use their most fun patterns/attacks :\

[Ghegs]

tap tap tap

Fuck that shit.

For arcade stuff, I have RGB's magnificient Reco boards giving me autofire capabilities. For NES/Famicom games, I have a third-party device called Turbo Blaster to which I can connect any NES controller and it provides autofire (and you can even change the fire rate). I have a similar device for PS1/PS2 games, so I can just use my favorite Saturn-style PS2 controller.

I flat-out refuse to play a game that would require me to tap-tap-tap constantly for the next 30 or so minutes. I value my hands and wrists (and controllers) much more than any random Internet person's claims that I'm cheating because of autofire.

[chempop]

I use one of these:

[Squire Grooktook]

tap tap tap

I flat-out refuse to play a game that would require me to tap-tap-tap constantly for the next 30 or so minutes. I value my hands and wrists (and controllers) much more than any random Internet person's claims that I'm cheating because of autofire.

Kind of off-topic, but how do you feel about charge shot mechanics (since those require you to tap for a "normal shot". I think it feels fine if the tapping is slow (ie one press causes a few frames of fire so you can get a constant stream from a low amount of taps) and not constant due to the charging.

[Xyga]

Depends on the game, some require it and are definitely playable with tapping by design, some are just silly without autofire like the developers forgot something.

It' not cheating in many cases IMHO, more a matter of knowing if it's useful or not during your run.

But in the case of games like Lethal Thunder, well yeah that's cheating of course.

[Jeneki]

I remember playing Zed Blade for around a month with no autofire. Your scoring potential pretty much revolves around your tap rate. Not sure if I'll do that again.

Also try playing Sengeki Striker without autofire. No, not because it kills your hand. Rather, if you even slightly let up on your tap rate it triggers special weapon attacks. If this happens at the wrong time it can be a Very Bad Thing. I can't imagine who thought this was a good idea.

[chempop]

Also try playing Sengeki Striker

Threadworthy

[Ghegs]

tap tap tap

I flat-out refuse to play a game that would require me to tap-tap-tap constantly for the next 30 or so minutes. I value my hands and wrists (and controllers) much more than any random Internet person's claims that I'm cheating because of autofire.

Kind of off-topic, but how do you feel about charge shot mechanics (since those require you to tap for a "normal shot". I think it feels fine if the tapping is slow (ie one press causes a few frames of fire so you can get a constant stream from a low amount of taps) and not constant due to the charging.

Then I use one button for autofire and a second one for charge shots.

[Perikles]

I'm with Ghegs on that one. I find tapping/mashing not only to be annoying as all hell (especially since controllers are way too small for my hands as it is, no one thought of people that are over 2 meters tall when developing these ), but exceedingly distracting, too. I have played games without autofire in the past (Cotton Original was the last game I played, actually), but I'm enjoying myself a lot more when I have access to autofire. And yes, that includes Darius Gaiden - rapid autofire all the way, wheeeee!

[Kollision]

I refuse to vote on this poll because it's missing the most obvious option:

- No, because mashing buttons is stupid and unfun.

[ProjectAKo]

if you're competing against people who used autofire

[qmish]

If you call it "cheating", than some can also call need of tapping fast for long time a "bad game design" too.

Anyway, that depends on game - see Blazing Stars or Mushihimesama or Ibara cases

three fingers on the button at once, yessir, now you're cooking with ripple!

When possible, though. Btw, that reminds me one of guitar playing techniques.

[Elixir]

lol hey it's the bi-yearly "is autofire cheating?" thread

[BIL]

I'm ok with tapping provided 1) minimal violence is needed for an effective and visceral firing rate, and 2) there's a sensibly low cap. Strikers 1945 II feels good, especially with its rapid shot/charge attack dynamic.

I find "how fast can u tap rofl" systems like Darius Gaiden's actively harmful to my enjoyment and the shooting aesthetic. We're sorry Captain Saviour but the repeater mechanism is on the blink, you'll need to manually bash out those rounds! <-- get fucked When forced to choose between autofire and such systems I'll lean towards the former, though I'll make exceptions if an otherwise good game is critically monged without tapping (eg Darius Gaiden).

I'm sure he's a great guy but IDGAF about Takahashi Meijin's button-tapping prowess. I've a lot more respect for that one African bloke I saw swinging a bag of cement from his nutsack on the late-night telly.

[monouchi]

Gun Frontier without autofire...no thanks. (Reco pcb, I loove you.)

[Obiwanshinobi]

Depends on the game. Baraduke, in my book, is in a way defined by its manual firing rate management, so the only thing wrong with the PSX port is that I can't map fire onto R2 (the one game I fancy getteing a stick for).
Arcade Chelnov, however, wouldn't feel complete to me without auto-fire... that originally wasn't there. Similarily, Time Pilot with auto-fire (takes entering the Konami code in GBA port on Arcade Advanced collection) for my money is a better game than without it.

Sometimes button mashing simply FEELS good (case in point - F-Zero: Maximum Velocity, on a real GBA SP, no less), therefore I choose the controls more enjoyable to me when given a choice.

[Blinge]

Poll options are too narrow.

[copy-paster]

Games like Metal Slug, Psikyo stuff, etc have a nice job using TAP-TAP-TAP system.

[STG]

Depends on the game

This basically.

With certain older games, I don't mind using autofire if the game didn't implement it originally and if it saves my hands. Games that benefit from it for scoring and/or attack power (like people brought up Mushihimesama), absolutely. Games that such methods "break" it in some way then I probably wouldn't use it.

Although there are some games that I choose to tap even if autofire is there in some form, like the DC version of Mars Matrix. I find playing that game much more comfortable not using autofire and going the single button route the game was designed around, plus the piercing shot autofire is borked anyways with that small delay...

[CloudyMusic]

I'm not interested in developing RSI, so I'll use autofire whenever possible. Plus,

mashing buttons is stupid and unfun.

[Stevens]

Gun Frontier without autofire...no thanks. (Reco pcb, I loove you.)

I've just started playing GF, and it was suggested I go the auto fire route. Digging it a lot.

I refuse to vote on this poll because it's missing the most obvious option: - No, because mashing buttons is stupid and unfun.

Fuck that shit.

I flat-out refuse to play a game that would require me to tap-tap-tap constantly for the next 30 or so minutes. I value my hands and wrists (and controllers) much more than any random Internet person's claims that I'm cheating because of autofire.

Agree with the both of you.

like the DC version of Mars Matrix. plus the piercing shot autofire is borked anyways with that small delay...

I use auto pierce when I play MM, but I basically had to plan my route around when I was going to pierce and when I would use tap shot. I basically use tap shot any time I might have to emergency mosquito, and pierce with the parts I am comfortable with.

As long as using auto doesn't make the game ridiculously easy I'm on board. If it does I'll play another game.

[Strikers1945guy]

Depends on the game obviously but most of the games I play don't require near godlike rapid tapping anyways.

[Kollision]

What a nice coincidence

I'm playing Trizeal on the PS2 at the moment and noticed the game has two autofire settings, one for autofire and another for "rapid" autofire or something like that (don't remember now).

Having played the game on the DC years ago, I don't recall that version having this second rapid fire option (need to check that).
The issue here is that this "rapid" autofire is much more effective, and if you somehow know the game you'll understand how devastating it is at point blank distance.

For the sake of old habits I'm playing with normal autofire, but what do you guys think?
Should I switch to rapid or not?

If people go the rapid autofire route, my opinion is that this should at least be specified in the HS thread since it does make a huge difference both for survival and scoring.

[Perikles]

Should I switch to rapid or not?

Do it, you know you want to!

In all seriousness: a game should reward your familiarity with it, your creativity, your strategic approach, your improvisational thinking in case of RNG patterns/behaviours. Not your ability to repeatedly press a button for an extended period of time. As BIL already outlined: if the designers don't want some degree of autofire to be detrimental to the overall experience then it's their job to implement a reasonable ceiling for that. It's war out there, I'm not considering the enemies' feeling in all of this - sometimes I get shot at a lot, sometimes they get obliterated. 'Tis a cruel life.

[trap15]

Autofire is never cheating in shooting games. Use it if you want to, it makes some games more interesting and other games less interesting, but it's your call.

[TransatlanticFoe]

If the game offers it, it's fair game and most console ports have autofire. I prefer it where you have different firing modes for tap and shoot, so you can hold autofire then hold another button for focus shots.

For when you have to enter a code to access a faster autofire, or use a hardware modification to get a higher rate than possible manually, that's a cheat but hey, you're playing so whatever gives you enjoyment from the game - just don't pass off your scores as done without it (like playing on easy and claiming your score as normal/default)

Though cheating might be more acceptable if the game does stupid mashing-based play like in Kyukyoku Tiger II! And let's not mention Darius Gaiden again

[cicada88]

If it is not in the game to begin with of course it is "cheating".

Like many said, it is completely game dependent and is necessary and accepted in many games to save them from being terrible.

Also, fuck wearing your fingers out over some mediocre game.