My tetris research proyect (need some advice)

Thread in 'Research & Development' started by Vince, 27 Jun 2013.

  1. WARNING: BROKEN ENGLISH POST​


    Hello, My name is Vincent and need your advice. :confused:

    I´m a college student from Peru (where I currently live), working in a research about the effect of tetris as a tool in cognitive rehab. I have the need to find a version of tetris nice enough to be friendly with elders and still challenging at the same time. Also a good joystick (think about an arcade stick of some type) not totaly pro but comfortable and responsive, some product name would help me, especially if it´s easy to track. Finally wish platform most use, which console, PC, portable console, smart phone, tablets?

    I know lots of you folks would have better ideas than me. Please think in the best possible way to experience a classic one player tetris for noobs.

    Postdata: no way to afford a real arcade machine :V
     
  2. Hm, is an arcade stick a requirement? Most of the less expensive arcade sticks are tailored for genres such as fighting or shooting games that use movement in 8 directions (cardinal directions and diagonals). Tetris games typically aren't suited to 8-way joysticks (square or circular movement shape) and instead work best with 4-way joysticks (diamond movement shape, which blocks the diagonals). We could certainly help you find and configure a suitable arcade joystick, but I think it may be more straightforward and cost-effective to use a gamepad or keyboard for controls.

    (I believe the least expensive arcade stick that can be configured for 4-way movement without buying extra parts or making modifications was the WWE BrawlStick; it features parts that clone the ones Sanwa makes -- Sanwa is a popular Japanese arcade part manufacturer -- and can be configured for 4-way in the same way as official Sanwa joysticks. However, the price online seems to have recently gone up for some reason... It was selling for 40 US Dollars, but now I'm seeing it at ~70 US Dollars on Amazon.com right now -- at that price, you could probably buy a higher quality controller with real arcade parts. :/)

    I think I would recommend a game for PC, home console, or portable/handheld consoles. (There are many good choices for these platforms... I'll think it over and make a second post with suggestions.) I don't feel that smart phones or tablets are the best platforms to experience the game -- touchscreen controls feel somewhat unresponsive and indirect compared to keyboard, arcade stick, and gamepad.
     
  3. Zaphod77

    Zaphod77 Resident Misinformer

    for a time gamestop was selling the bawl sticks for $20! (they had them confused with the brawlPAD, which was indeed supposed to sell for 20$)

    i wish i had known then, I would have bought one.
     
  4. Thank you very much guys your answers are a great start.

    About Kitaru´s question. I Think about a arcade joystick type because the group I´m researching are elder people with mild cognitive impairment, then the less useless bottons plus a more obvious use of every part of the game interface the better.
     
  5. I think a portable game console such as the Gameboy or Gameboy Advance would be the best choice for ease of use and cost. It has a very plain interface that's easy to use. You can find the Gameboy Advance console for under $30 USD. You can get the Gameboy Advance version of Tetris for under $10 (Tetris Worlds). The only downside is that it isn't "backlit" and relies on reflected light to see the screen (like the early Kindle, or Nook e-readers).
     
  6. Ah, I see. I can certainly see that an arcade stick is a big improvement compared to a full-sized keyboard in that case. However, most arcade sticks these days (unless you modify it or are building something custom) would have 6~8 buttons. If you used a Game Boy or a Nintendo, you would probably have an easier time limiting the number of buttons -- d-pad to move pieces, two buttons to rotate.
     

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