Arcade experts: Help me with name input conventions

[Herr Schatten]

This is a question for people who regularly play arcade games well enough to warrant an entry in the respective game's highscore table.

For a hobby project, I’m currently coding my own highscore list, and I’m not sure about how name entries are commonly handled. Are there any conventions most, if not all, games follow?

Does pushing up change the current character to the next one (e.g. A—>B—>C) and pushing down to the previous one or should it be the other way around?
Should pushing left or right do anything?
Is it common to have a button to go back one space in the entry or is it sufficient to only have a button to confirm the current character choice?
Is it important to have a character that can end an entry before all 3 characters are selected?
What about a special button press that ends the entry at any given time?

I think I have seen variants of all of the above on occasions, but I have no idea, how wide-spread any of them are. I want to go for the archetypical entry method if possible, so your insight is much appreciated.

[Steven]

It's kind of completely all over the place. It's a huge mess.

Some games let you press up or down to change the letters, some don't, most have the right and/or down input as the command to go from A to B but some oddities have it backwards, some have only up or down inputs but some have both up and down and also left and right but others have only left and right, some let you hold the input to cycle through the letters but some don't and you have to do the input multiple times instead of holding it, some games like CAVE titles have the letters on a grid and you select them, some games like... uh... I think Andro Dunos (2? I forgot, but I think it's one of them) have a wheel thingy that you move to select your letters, Gradius and I think Xexex have male/female and zodiac signs, etc. Xexex also has a cool fortune-telling thingy for you after you enter your stuff, too! If you really want to do something fun/unusual, Enma Daiou dispenses a joke business card for the player upon completion of the game.

Whatever you do, please make the number of characters clear before the player begins entering their thing. I've lost count of how many times I get to a name entry screen and I can't remember how many characters are allowed because the game doesn't say, so I'll end up entering STEV instead of STEVEN or whatever else, and of course once you hit the limit most games immediately accept that as your final entry, although Neo Geo games seem to be an exception, at least on AES, which I think lets you delete stuff after you enter the third character. 3 characters seems standard, but there are exceptions like Toaplan, which usually allows 6 characters in most Japanese versions but only 3 in the overseas versions and some of the Japanese versions (Tatsujin Ou, Slap Fight, etc.), and then there is Out Zone with 7 characters, I've seen both 4 and 5 character limits, and I think Crimzon Clover has 8 or 9 or something like that. In such cases, there is an end thingy you can enter to end your thing without filling the rest of the spaces. Timing out on the name entry screen will either enter whatever the currently highlighted option is as part of the entered name or not enter it in some cases.

So yeah, you can do pretty much whatever and it'll fit in with something somehow.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

There's no convention, honestly. It varies widely from game to game. I will say that my preferred way of doing text entry on a console game is an onscreen keyboard similar to what Donpachi's name entry, instead of having to use left and right or up and down to cycle through each character individually. This has several benefits: it's easier to navigate, you can see the full character set (are there numbers, uppercase and lowercase, etc) and it's also easier to tell which character's which, especially if the game is using highly stylized fonts where there might be some ambiguity as to which character you're actually entering if you can only see one character at a time when inputting.

Your score screen may not have much space for this though. Another option is a letter/number wheel that shows the current character and like 5 characters to the left or right. Makes it easier to find the END character if you're looking for it.

PC games are a a bit inconsistent too on whether or not you can use the keyboard to do name entry. Some will allow keyboard inputs so you can just type them in, some only allow the directional/shoot/bomb inputs you mapped to work. I don't think mandating the keyboard is necessary especially if you're keeping a limited character set for name entry.

I would recommend trying to emulate something like ChoRenSha's score entry screen as it's a really good one with no particular issues other than perhaps the letters being limited to all uppercase.

I've lost count of how many times I get to a name entry screen and I can't remember how many characters are allowed because the game doesn't say, so I'll end up entering STEV instead of STEVEN or whatever else, and of course once you hit the limit most games immediately accept that as your final entry

Yeah, this is something to avoid. Design it so it's clear how many characters your game supports. If your game jumps to the END character after entering the last letter space on the board, make it so there's a delay so if you accidentally hit the wrong input while entering your name, you have a chance to backspace.

[Steven]

Out Zone has a pretty excellent name entry screen. It looks like this:

Massive picture warning!

Spoiler

You can clearly see how many spaces you have for your name entry (7), it has a grid thing to select the characters instead of cycling through them, and it has some amazing art and music. No lower case and no on-screen timer to let you know exactly how much time you have (it's actually a pretty long time, and you can kind of tell when the music is going to end), but other than that I'd say it is essentially perfect, as you'd expect from a game that is essentially perfect.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Yeah, the lack of a timer showing how long you have to enter your sucks, but otherwise OutZone's score entry gets top marks for how to do a score entry screen.

[Lander]

I'd expect left and right to be the primary back / next bindings for name entry, since English text is read left-to-right, so provides a clear semantic on which direction should be which.
For choosing an intuitive up/down, perhaps applying the same logic to traditional Japanese vertical text would be a robust choice?
But I suspect there's no way to please everyone there, given that flight stick and aiming Y-inversion is still hotly-debated to this day.

Omitting a binding (or special character) to go back a space always feels punitive to me - to the point where a good run's tension isn't actually over until you lock in your achievement with the right initials. It's quite frustrating to end up with KAN or MAN next to a good score after putting in the effort!
Though I suppose that could also be seen as an extension to unyielding arcade difficulty - c.f. top-tier TGM players pulling off frame-perfect name entry to flex on their opponent before a match begins.

Inclusion of an END character depends on how many letters you want to allow. If you're doing more than 3, definitely. Though in hardline terms, it's still applicable for any count >1.

[it290]

I agree with others that the 'keyboard' approach is usually best, especially for longer names, but for 3-character names I like the way Sega Rally does it:

[Herr Schatten]

Thanks for the answers so far, very informative.

That thing Outzone does is neat, but it seems like overkill, as I’m only going to allow three characters anyway.

I forgot to mention that it’s a project for the Game Gear, so something basic will do. As far as I’ve made up my mind, I’m probably going for the following:

- Name entry directly into the highscore table, no separate entry screen. This makes sure the player can see how many characters are allowed.

- Up cycles through characters forward.

- Down cycles through characters backward.

- Right or button 2 (the right one) moves the cursor one spot to the right.

- Left or button 1 (the left one) moves the cursor one step to the left.

- Selecting the „end“ character or pushing the start button ends the name entry.

Does that sound reasonable?

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Ah. Yeah, you can't get a full alphabet on a Game Gear screen easily.

- Up cycles through characters forward.

- Down cycles through characters backward.

- Right or button 2 (the right one) moves the cursor one spot to the right.

- Left or button 1 (the left one) moves the cursor one step to the left.

Don't do this. The Game Gear D-Pad isn't quite precise enough to avoide accidental diagonals, and I can't think of any game where Left and Right cycle which of the three characters you're inputting. While arcade conventions vary a lot, one thing that is basically always seen is the expectation that you enter each initial one at a time from left to right, and if you have to go back, you have to backspace.

I would make Up and Right both cycle letters forward, and Down and Left cycle letters back. One button for entry, one for backspace.

Also, pressing start should not immediately end name entry. It should immediately fill the remaining unentered initials with blanks, and set the cursor to the END entry, but you should have to hit start twice or start then the confirm button to finish.

If you're making a console game rather than an arcade game, you also don't need a timer on your score entry screen.

[Herr Schatten]

Those are good suggestions, thank you.

I wasn’t aware of the lack of precision of the GG's d-pad, as I play all my GG games on a Mega SG, with a Mega Drive Pad.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I'm too old to remember how precise the D-Pad was when it was brand new, but I know my old Game Gear that's well broken in (as I imagine most people's are) isn't necessarily gonna hit inputs perfectly, haha. If it's something you can refurb then maybe making it good as new again is an option? :p

[To Far Away Times]

In my mind I pictured pressing "up" to to move to the the next letter.

But incrementing from left to right probably makes more sense.

[Air Master Burst]

would make Up and Right both cycle letters forward, and Down and Left cycle letters back. One button for entry, one for backspace.

Also, pressing start should not immediately end name entry. It should immediately fill the remaining unentered initials with blanks, and set the cursor to the END entry, but you should have to hit start twice or start then the confirm button to finish.

The only thing I would add to this is, high scroll speed and for fuck's sake don't make the letter you're trying to choose flash. Different color or cursor only, please!