Notices

I've been looking at the screenshots of both emulators and ofcourse the layout of the keyboard, but it seems limited in a way, because you can't press up and right at the same time, because of the size of the keyboard.
So my proposal is this, could an onscreen keypad be made?
I know that every iPhone game has this, but it might not be a bad idea (i said might).

I've tried to do a mockup with the vGBA emulator by Marat Fayzullin.


I'm thinking that the keys, like A, B, START etc. would still be linked to real keys.

Would this be a problem with the resistive screen vs. a capacitive?

The second part of the proposal would be making the onscreen buttons configurable.
I remember from my days with my Dell Axim x50v i used PocketGBA for emulating GBA games as well, and I found the ability to layout onscreen keys yourself through an editor, very innovative.

Heres two examples of PocketGBA onscreen key layouts.


Only the save buttons positions are different though.

And yes, I know that it's not multitouch, but the SELECT and START key could be placed on the screen as well.

Just a thought, thats all, but would love to hear from the devs if they think it would be usable?

An onscreen D-Pad might work but I have found onscreen controls to generally be annoying, even for a Dpad.

Dedicated diagonal keys ought to work fine I would think. The N900 has even key spacing so it wouldn't be all staggered and weird.

QWE ↖↑↗
A * D ← →
ZXC ↙↓↘

Or better yet keep a wiimote in your back pocket!

@sadfist
yes, I realised it myself, after i posted it, that the keyrows are not skewed like on a desktop keyboard, so your idea seems very natural, and might even be what I'd end up using over an onscreen keypad.

But still, onscreen keys might not be all that bad, for START and SELECT or maybe even still the keypad for some.

I'm with sadfist on this one though (though I'm sort of contradicting my self), but I still think devs should consider onscreen keyboards, or atleast make a poll on what people would prefeer to use, before dismissing this one totally.

as much as I hate to say it, an OSK for emulation is a pretty good idea, I really haven't adjusted back to using a hard keyboard for directionals, its not quite like playing on a PC where your fingers rest on the actual keys they need to hit. In that instance, muscle memory takes over and its very easy to play. Im sure one could get used to playing with the N900's keyboard for directionals, but the keys are pretty small and I've yet to adjust... Still the emulation efforts so far are stellar.