/vr/ - Retro Games

>>4887819
>It might not have been a thing until PS2, honestly.

Lots of Dreamcast games used the d-pad for additional functions before the PS2 was ever released. Third person games like MDK2 and first person games like Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament.

It's hard to think of many PS1 games that used the D-Pad for anything beyond movement. Sony still had to support the original PS1 pad and probably had some guidelines somewhere stating that the default controls need to support both game pads.