Hmm, you HAVE done much thinking on this, haven't you? Though, you are doing your final component of your course on this, yes?
Indeed I have. And no, it's a whole year project that will get me my degree. The project is a bit more complex than I made it sound in my introductory post, especially because I have to do a whole load of research.
The Controller is so peculiar that the value of a comfortable layout will far outweigh the extra time taken to learn something that makes less sense (as, really, they're all buttons in the end).
Yes, this is quite true, especially with these controllers Microsoft and Sony want us to use nowadays (luckily there's the Wii remote, though they're kind of defeating the point of the simplicity by adding lots of extra accesories...)
Bear in mind that all I said in my post was that you can't take a particular solution for granted, and not that using B/X should be avoided.
agj, I think you're gonna like this place.
Hah!
Seams the general rule of thumb is keep it as a different button. I guess really, it all boils down to the game itself and should be decided on a game to game basis.
And this is the moral of the thread.
People that want to connect NES controllers on computers:
http://www.retrousb.com/