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                    ³ Notes to Developers/Writers/Users ³
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 The idea of this section is to start a discussion about what will soon be 
 an important subject in the gaming world. A NEW GAMEPAD STANDARD.

 It's clear to me, and to many I've talked to, that todays input devices 
 are coping with the current level of games, but in many cases are slowing
 development of new techniques. The limited no. of buttons on standard
 joysticks seems to bee the biggest hurdle.
 
 What I'm trying to promote is a level of discussion between games authors, 
 developers and game players. All of these groups have an important role 
 in setting up a new standard. 
 
 Anyone with thoughts on the subject is welcome to put their ideas on to 
 floppy disk and send it to the address on the Main Menu. Once per month
 I will be mailing out a compilation of opinions and discussions I've 
 received, on floppy disk. A BBS, however, would be a better option. Those 
 that are seriously interested in this information may write to me for more 
 details. 
 
 Following are several subjects which will require disscussion, as well as 
 some ideas of my own for a standard based around the current SNES gamepads.

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  A. Do we need a new STANDARD?
  B. Do we invent a totally new Standard?
  C. If so, 1) at what cost?, 2) Will it get support of manufacturers? 
  D. If not, will an existing one, modified, keep pace with future
     game development?
  E. Work out what demands are likely to be placed on a controller in the
     near future. 1) No. of buttons, 2) Analog or Digital or both ?
  F. What will USERS Prefer?
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 ³ ABLE SOLUTIONS GAMEPAD STANDARD ³
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 My Opinion is to use existing SNES devices, already on the market, combined
 with a either A) a dedicated interface that plugs into a PC or B) an
 adapter that plugs into one of the PC's standard ports.

 My reasoning follows;     
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 A. Using an existing gamepad eliminates the NEED to invent one.
 
 B. Distribution chains/Suppliers already exist.  
 
 C. It's a recognised gamepad and already has tremendous support from both 
    third party manufacturers and users. Many gamepad makers in the Asia 
    Pacific region manufacture variations on the origonal SNES.
 
 D. The standard can be easily extended. Due to the way data is read from
    the SNES gamepad, a manufacturer could add extra buttons to the gamepad 
    with NO HARDWARE changes to your pc's card or adaptor. Games writers
    could easily support these by allowing extended functions to users with 
    the extended gamepads. 
 
 E. Games writers will find the code very simple. The time spent reading
    the gamepad is minimal, especially compared to the Analog joystick.
 
 F. Writers can include an option in the SETUP section of a games to 
    indicate 1) the port address of the gamepad and 2) the amount of buttons 
    to read. This doesn't complicate things to much and will allow users 
    the choice of buying a dedicated plug-in card or buying an adapter to 
    run off the parallel port.
 
 G. Users of the new gamepads will maintain compatibility with their old 
    games through a device driver like SNES PRO!. 
    
 H. The new dedicated ports could be 1) on their own seperate interface 
    card or preferably  2) built into a standard Multi I/O interface card. 
    Two SNES connectors fit onto a standard PC rear slot. Each of these  
    can accomadate three gamepads with the addition of a 'Y' adapter.    

 I. The Existing SNES Gamepad operation is simple. The PC;
    
    1) Resets the gamepad.
    2) Reads the status of each button, serially.
       The order being B,Y,SELECT,START,UP,DN,LEFT,RIGHT,A,X,L,R.
    
    This format could be extended to include more buttons, or the
    X,Y,Z value of any pointing device(say analog joystick). A standard
    format could be agreed upon, and a STANDARD implemented without
    complication.


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