Author: Wes
Posted: 05 Apr 2013 02:27:51 am (GMT -5)
Years ago, I purchased two handheld electronic checkers games: "Excalibur LCD Chess & Checkers" and "Radica Pocket Checkers". (Okay, so I like checkers.![Smile]()
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The interface on the Excalibur device had diaganols, but you used all 8 arrows to select the piece, then pressed the "move" button, then used the diagonal arrows again to indicate the direction of the move. On the Radica game, you used the left/right/up/down arrows to select the piece and the diagonal arrows to indicate the move.
The Excalibur interface made sense for chess where pieces can move in any direction, but for checkers it was kind of clunky. I found that having to switch between "select mode" and "move mode" was cumbersome (kind of like the mode switching in the unix vi text editor).
The Radica interface was more natural for checkers since the pieces can only move in diagonal directions. The Radica game played lousy, but the interface sure was nice.
So I'd say use the number pad using 2,4,6,8 to move from piece to piece and 1,3,7,9 to indicate direction of move.
(Then again, you might not want to trust me---I thought the light grey checker board on the right was the best. The one in the middle made my eyes hurt.)
-wes
Posted: 05 Apr 2013 02:27:51 am (GMT -5)
| tifreak8x wrote: |
| So, I was thinking about being able to move the cursor. Should I use the number pad to make it go diagonal, or should I just use the main arrows so it only goes 4 directions? |
Years ago, I purchased two handheld electronic checkers games: "Excalibur LCD Chess & Checkers" and "Radica Pocket Checkers". (Okay, so I like checkers.
)The interface on the Excalibur device had diaganols, but you used all 8 arrows to select the piece, then pressed the "move" button, then used the diagonal arrows again to indicate the direction of the move. On the Radica game, you used the left/right/up/down arrows to select the piece and the diagonal arrows to indicate the move.
The Excalibur interface made sense for chess where pieces can move in any direction, but for checkers it was kind of clunky. I found that having to switch between "select mode" and "move mode" was cumbersome (kind of like the mode switching in the unix vi text editor).
The Radica interface was more natural for checkers since the pieces can only move in diagonal directions. The Radica game played lousy, but the interface sure was nice.
So I'd say use the number pad using 2,4,6,8 to move from piece to piece and 1,3,7,9 to indicate direction of move.
(Then again, you might not want to trust me---I thought the light grey checker board on the right was the best. The one in the middle made my eyes hurt.)
-wes