Is it really better to use controls and buttons?

[kellanphil]

I have a bunch of handhelds that could run ScummVM, and am trying to figure out the best way to experience classic LucasArt point & click adventure games. My thinking was to use an Android device, because the touchscreen support could better imitate a mouse cursor. But I'm wondering if the touchscreen would be fairly imprecise, anyways, due to the small size of the screen itself, and whether just using controls and buttons would actually be better. In which case the portability and convenience of a Linux handheld might win out, despite having less screen real estate.

[criezy]

In my experience on a small handheld device (5.4 inch diagonal) toochscreen works well with LucasArts games. Those games are at a 320x200 pixel resolution, which means that you usually don't need to be very precise. Some other game with pixel hunting can be more difficult to play on a touch screen, but this can be mitigated by changing to touchpad mode (which ScummVM supports on Android and iOS).

[LogicDeLuxe]

When mouse or trackball is no option, I would prefer a joystick. This was even the only option on C64 SCUMM originally.