Auto Fire: Aching Thumb Saver? A Kind of Cheating?

[SAM]

Auto Fire is a common feature in mordern shmups. But in many older titles, auto fire featurs is not provided when the game is first released.

But auto fire offers more than just saving you form getting an aching thumb. I think everyone here should know auto fire got devastating effect if employed at point blank range. This offen allow us to knock out hard to kill enemy much faster than the game designers expact we could do.

If external auto fire is employed in NES 1943, you could instant kill almost every thing in the game in point blank range. I can 1cc the said game only with auto fire.

What I want to discuess at here whether it should be consider a kind of cheating when we use auto fire in the following situation:

(1) External Auto Fire
Using auto fire in game which does not provided auto fire function when it first release.

OR
Use an external auto fire device instead of the software auto fire feature provided in the game.

(2) Scoring
Use an exteranl auto fire device in games like MushiHimeSama to got a much higher score.


Don't take it wrong, I myself use auto fire to save having a aching thumb too.

[Klatrymadon]

Yeah, if a game has this function, I use it. I wouldn't bother trying to use anything external to increase my rate of fire or save my thumb, though. In a lot of games you can only have a certain amount of bullets on the screen at one time (which is why getting up close with auto-fire switched on is so devastating), and I wouldn't consider it cheating unless the player had no chance of firing at a similar speed themselves.

Tapping arcade buttons quickly and consistently is something I actually like, so I wouldn't change anything where those are concerned, either.

[Thunder Force]

As all forms of autofire reduce a player's risk of future RSI, it should not be dismissed as cheating by any sane standard, unless it's short-duration play for a special competition event.

Also, see previous forum discussions on autofire, found via forum search:

http://forum.shmups.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1287

http://forum.shmups.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4147

[Blade]

I personally think there should be three kinds of Autofire:

1. The obvious kind where holding down the button would produce the auto-fire effect.

2. This is for shmups where holding down the button actually does something else, such as Dodonpachi's "steady stream fire" It would actually be a Macro-ed Button where it did the rapid fire in intervals to avoid the "alternate attack" it would be more or less a 3rd button on the side as an auto-fire option as most shmups usually use 2 buttons.

3. I'd like to see a "Autofire Bombing" button, hehe, as a lot of games rely on bombs way too much for "moments of invincibility" all you'd do is make the ship not so invincible, lower the bombing radius, and there you go, instant sub-weapon.

[Zweihander]

another auto-fire discussion? is it that time of the week again?

[Samudra]

What is important to remember is that auto fire may actually release much more bullets than a human pressing buttons can.

The speed with which some bosses go down when auto fire is used is not limited to the fact that certain games only allow a certain amount of bullets/sprites on the screen at one time.

Imagine pressing the fire button in each frame. Something impossible to do manually, but an auto fire function programmed to act in that way will make it possible.

In such cases, yes using an external device or a software modification is cheating. On the other hand using a method of auto firing not superior to manual button presses will only alleviate possible physical problems while not causing any concern about cheating.

In modern games pressing the button repeatedly or using the auto fire button will lock the bullets fired at a certain speed.
It will really take some modification to do a thing mentioned above in modern games.

If you want to know more about the results of pressing buttons every frame check out what the people at
http://bisqwit.iki.fi/nesvideos/CommonTricks.html are doing.
I can't say I find what they doing as interesting as real super plays, but the tricks they use sure are nifty.

[howmuchkeefe]

I didn't know how important auto-fire was to me until I played Metal Slug 3 on the XBox. Ouch.

Another vote for "thumb-saving", here.

[Zweihander]

Auto-fire helps prevent Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, and Arthritis.

As much as I love shmups, if you prefer "authentic arcade-style control" over your own health, then you need to get your priorities straight. :/

END OF DISCUSSION.

[landshark]

I agree with Zweihander, but only in some cases. Rapid fire on games like Metal Slug help alot because my hand physically can hurt if I play that game too much.

The GBA had a great rapid fire rate for Metal Slug Advance.

There are cases where it degrades the game, such as Raiden DX for the PSX and Raiden 3. The rapid fire should be MUCH lower because the bosses can be destroyed too quickly and then you are not required to deal with their bullet patterns. (this is more the case with III than DX).

[Edge]

I myself never used rapid fire and my thumb never hurts...

But if you like playing with rapid fire. Hell why not?



Is auto fire cheating?

I think that depends on the game. If the autofire can give you an inhuman fire rate it is cheating. Cause like Bal-Sagoth or SAM mentioned, in some older games if you point blank the enemy with an inhuman fire rate it can be devastating. And no normal beeing could ever kill enemies that fast.

But if the fire rate is limited like in most newer shmups or if the autofire has a human like fire rate, I don't think it's cheating.

[yojo!]

I wish Truxton (PCB) had auto-fire. That game is killing me.

[a.c._slatercore]

Why does everybody give cheating such a negative connotation? I understand with high score rankings but other than that who gives a shit? Sometimes I like to pop in my gameshark and use auto-fire. I just like to blow up things...no skills needed.

[SAM]

Auto-fire helps prevent Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, and Arthritis.

As much as I love shmups, if you prefer "authentic arcade-style control" over your own health, then you need to get your priorities straight. :/

END OF DISCUSSION.

That's true, after reading the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome threads somewhere within this forum, I tends to agree with you now.

This new enlightment makes me feel better when I use auto fire (P.S. I use it all the time...).

But yet I still have to tap on the auto fire button to reduce it firing rate. In many games the in game auto fire use to firing so fast that it fire all the bullets you cout put on the screen in a single brust. Thus left you unable to fire until the bullets hit somthing or flying off the screen...