Mega Man X

Okay, just a minor update for today's entry.

I completed Machinarium: that was a fun romp. It was less convoluted than anything in the Deponia series, and I enjoyed the aesthetics.

I got my hands on Mega Man X Legacy Collection and Mega Man X Legacy Collection 2. They were not exactly cheap (about SGD60 in all), busted this year's game budget, but considering that they are official and legitimate releases of the Megaman X series on the PC (with each of the 8 games probably retailing at about SGD50 each), it's a real steal.

It also allows me to take on the games to as close to as how they are originally designed as it can get, i.e. with a controller.

Now, to be fair, I'm using a Logitech F310 Gamepad, which has a hybrid layout of the PlayStation Dual Analogue Controller and the XBox Controller. The F310 inherits the positions of the analogue sticks, D-pad, and buttons of the Dual Analogue Controller, but have the XBox Controller's action-key layout, which looks something like:

 Y 
X B
 A 

For the Mega Man X, Mega Man X2, and Mega Man X3 games, they make use of the Super NES Controller layout, which looks like:

 X 
Y A
 B 

The Mega Man X Legacy Collection had thankfully assigned the default keys according to the XBox Controller key names, but with the Super NES Controller action key positions. This means that the default actions are assigned as:

Action	SNES	XBox
Shoot	Y	X
Jump	B	A
Dash	A	B
Switch Weapon ←	L	LB
Switch Weapon →	R	RB
Menu	Start	Start

The problem with this layout is that it is bloody cramping to dash jump while holding a charge, a move that allows for very fast movement that I could easily pull off via the keyboard back in the emulator days of aeons past, because all these three buttons need to be operated by the right thumb.

In theory, I could use my thumb tip to hold the charge (it's just holding the shoot action button), then use the base of my thumb to wiggle between the dash and/or jump buttons, but it is horrifically imprecise. In any Mega Man game, imprecision is a great way to fall into bottomless pits, and since this is a legit port to the PC, there isn't any ``saved states'' available to recover from.

I needed a better scheme.

I looked through the speed run tutorials for Mega Man games. There was the ``claw grip'', which used the [right] thumb to control the jump/dash buttons, while curling the index finger to control the shoot button, and using the middle finger to manipulate the Switch Weapon ← button---it was used by a large majority of players since it didn't involve changing the default controls in anyway. The main drawback of it was the inevitable cramp from this rather unnatural position.

There was the ``piano grip'', which involved resting the controller on a lap, and then use [right] index finger to control shoot, middle finger for jump, and ring finger for dash. This was the grip that I was using when I played through the first seven robot masters in Mega Man X, and it felt uncomfortable. The space on the F310 was not large enough to support the three fingers smooshed into it, and the need for using a lap to balance meant a certain imbalance when combined with movement control on the D-pad with my left hand.

Then I came across this old Reddit thread which proposed something radical: use the L-button for dash instead.

It made me think hard. I didn't use the quick weapon switch buttons much anyway, preferring to select more carefully through the menu page instead. By shifting the dash button to the LB-button [on my F310], it reduced the amount of crap my right hand needed to do.

Intrigued, I set up my control scheme to operate this way now:

Action	SNES	XBox
Shoot	Y	X
Jump	B	A
Dash	L	LB
Switch Weapon ←	X	Y
Switch Weapon →	A	B
Menu	R	RB

That definitely did the trick, and I was playing more comfortably. There was an added benefit of using a more comfortable button (the RB-button) to access the frequently used Menu action instead of the awkwardly placed Start button.

It did take another bit of re-adaptation (the first was the switch from using my right hand to control movement on the keyboard to using my left thumb for the same on controller), but after that, things felt much smoother.

The only caveat is that since Mega Man X (and X2 and X3 for sure) did not actually save anything, I had to re-assign the control scheme in the options menu item each time I booted up the game to play.

A small price to pay for a more comfortable play.

And yes, I did complete Mega Man X legit, i.e. with no save states, and on controller. It felt great! I was no speedrunner for sure, but there's this sense of accomplishment for actually completing the game ``as intended'' with no cheat mechanism.

I'm going to get started on Mega Man X2 soon. The only caveat is that the ``save'' mechanisms will never save the hidden upgrades and the actual final boss stages, and so I am probably going to have to ensure that when I am ready to take on the final boss stages, I actually give myself enough time to finish it all at one shot, including any farming of resources that are needed both before and after getting the overpowered hidden upgrades. In the end though, I do end up not relying too much on the hidden upgrades and fighting the bosses legit anyway---the hidden upgrades may be powerful, but they do need good timing to actually pull off; they are not a ``sure win'' action that can be done without practice.

Anyway, hope that this little nugget of information may prove useful for others who may want to play these games. Till the next update.