/vr/ - Retro Games

Why would you need to hit all 3 buttons?
Really the design was very well done, the entire controller was curved just slightly to shape with the hands, the d-pad had a great center pivot with easy diagonal hits and the buttons were done in a way to cater to people who play in both the normal handheld style and arcade style.

Well it was designed in 1988.

They redeemed themselves by making the best non-analog controller ever (Saturn).

>>1046553
>Why would you need to hit all 3 buttons?
Lots of games, hell even the game it was packed with (Altered Beast).
Some are so bad you have to use your other fingers and play it like an arcade stick, which is full retard.

>>1046516
>big and comfortable
>for the time, and the games it was designed around, it was fine. Basic platformers, sports games and arcade beat em ups and shooters, don't really need 8-buttons, and an arcade-style stance with fingers on all the buttons at once, took care of limited access problem.

It didn't bother me at the time, but now I find the d-pad too harsh-edged and the contacts to hard, but Sega redeemed themselves wonderfully with the 6-button follow up, which is perfect for that generation.

Still better than a Dualshock 3.

Seriously, those triggers are shit and the general Playstation controller design scheme encourages use of THE CLAW

>only 3 buttons in a row
Fucking plebs.
True GOAT controller coming through. Last time I checked, 14 > 3.

>>1046647
>find a Model M keyboard with a PS/2 connector in my girlfriend's attic
>tfw it doesn't have mechanical keys

I bought an overpriced coolermaster mech keyboard from a tigerdirect b&m store to compensate

>>1046653
At least you'll be pulling sick combos in OMF2097.

>>1046653
It's not a Model M if it's not mechanical

>>1046661
trust me, it's some membrane bullshit

>>1046516

It was to compete with the NES to be honest.

NES: 2 buttons (A B)
Mega Drive: 3 Buttons (A, B, C)

HOLY SHIT 3 BUTTONS, MY GOD SO AMAZING SEGA ARE THE MASTERS OF VIDYA HOLY SHIT ENJOY YOUR 2 BUTTON CONTROLLER NINTENBABIES.

That was basically it. Sega thought how to one up Nintendo, and brought out this to have another button, although to be honest, back then there wasn't really a set controller design. These days it has to be two sticks, 4 shoulders, a Dee-pad, Start and Select and 4 face button. .

>>1046672
>back then there wasn't really a set controller design. These days it has to be two sticks, 4 shoulders, a Dee-pad, Start and Select and 4 face button. .

I miss when there was no set design. It used to be exciting to see what new kind of controller would come out. Now they're basically just the same, maybe with one or two things moved around some. It's not interesting anymore.

>>1046678
Yeah no one is original anymore with their controller designs.

Back in the 90's everything from the Genesis to the Jaguar had their very own play on controllers. They didn't always look good nor were they ergonomic but they were original.

>>1046695
Yep. Each system felt much more unique than they do now. The controller was a big part of that.

>>1046703
Hell the Xbox ripped the trigger and face buttons right off of the Dreamcast and just re-arranged em.. Now that's original.

>>1046647
>>1046653
Model M's are pretty shit anyway, outside of the way they feel.

>2KRO

>>1046665
Shit...
Mfw i found a mech keyboard with alps at an e waste bin
Shits loud thou...

>>1046672
But the Genesis has no Select. Though yeah, Sega was from a now extinct breed of console companies where the console makers also made games for their platform. If NEC, Sega, or SNK still made consoles, would those be avoided by third party support, since their first title games will likely outsell any third party effort?

>>1046661

Later model Ms were available with rubber domes. They marketed them as "Quiet Touch" keyboards.

I think the 3 button pad is perfect for most games I use it over the 6 button pad which is a god tier controller itself. A is you select basically I used it for magic and special attacks, b is your attack and c is jump and the start button is close by its a perfect set up I have pretty big hands and it fits them nicely but I even loved the controller as a kid and HATED the snes one. I was a SNES owned too and I found the shoulder buttons were so hard to work at the same time as the Dpad on shit like Fzero. I FUCKING HATE THE L BUTTON its way too close to the dpad. I always want to smash people in the face when they talk about how good the SNES controller is, the shoulder buttons just make it shit and feel cramped.

I could hit all three buttons with my thumb as a kid.

There isn't a problem with the controller, you just can't adapt or have small hands.

>>1046779
I just like how the Genesis controller fits in your hands more nicely with its handles and also indentations on the back so your fingers can go into it unlike the SNES controller.

>>1046713

The guy who made the Dreamcast controller helped make the Xbox controller.

To be honest, I like having A,B,X and Y. It's much better then having the Sony way or any other form of letters or numbers.

If anything modern controllers have too many freaking buttons. I think the SNES has it about perfect.

>>1046695
And yet people complain about Nintendo's newer controllers. They at least make something different.

>>1046672
It wasn't really meant to "one up" anything, that's just exactly how Sega's three-button arcade layout is.

>>1046678
The current set design would be hard to beat, however.

>>1047323
I'm interested to see how they'll have improved on controllers 20 or 30 years from now. There's been so many innovations that seem elementary in hindsight (d-pad, dual analog, shoulder buttons, ergonomically design) or were obvious but technologically unreliable/unfeasible until relatively recently (wireless, motion detection, touch screen).

I think interchangeable buttons will make a mainstream appearance eventually. I think there's a gamepad for the PC that does it.

>>1046678

Yeah, it was interesting to see different controllers back then, but I don't think you'd want to play a controller that didn't have half the buttons a modern one does, and you can't do much for ergonomics when you have to have those buttons.

>>1046725

I thought it was because they didn't want to be Nintendo, while it was retarded they did it.
Nintendo had a select, Sega didn't believe they needed one, it's why it wasn't on the Saturn or the Dreamcast.

>>1047318

Oh, I thought it was because the Master System had two buttons, and was a copy of Nintendo's to an extent, and since they wanted to be first in the 4th gen, they wanted to do something that Nintendo didn't.

So three buttons was their answer.

>>1046678
It was pretty hit or miss, but it did used to be kind of fun.

How about those fucking telephone pad controllers?

>>1047441
>Oh, I thought it was because the Master System had two buttons, and was a copy of Nintendo's to an extent, and since they wanted to be first in the 4th gen, they wanted to do something that Nintendo didn't.

The Genesis was far from the first of the fourth generation. The PC Engine was the first, and hugely popular, console and came out in 1987. Genesis wouldn't come out in Japan until a year later. Remember, Sega in Japan especially prioritizes arcades first, consoles second, unlike NEC and Nintendo, who in the late 80s had no arcade market. Their arcade games primarily used a three button control scheme, so their controller reflected that.

>>1046562

This explanation is the best one so far.

>>1047481
Here's the real answer.

JAMMA

>>1046595
Sega are an arcade oriented company. YOU have gone full retard.

>>1047280
>If anything modern controllers have too many freaking buttons. I think the SNES has it about perfect.
Depending upon the controller they only have two to four more buttons than the SNES controller, and usually it is just the extra shoulder button/trigger.

>>1047557
>Sega is an arcade company
>therefore, you should hold their controller in a ridiculous and uncomfortable manner
I don't quite follow...

IMO, they should've laid the face buttons out like a triangle for the three-button pad. I'm not sure what they could've done with six buttons, though.
The SNES just got it right; you can reach all six buttons (4 face, 2 shoulder) without straining your fingers or holding the controller irregularly.

>>1048804
>therefore, you should hold their controller in a ridiculous and uncomfortable manner
Controller on thigh, fingers on face buttons, thumb on directional. That's uncomfortable? Do you have arthritis?

>>1048816
A controller is meant to be held in your hands and played with your thumbs. Putting it on your lap kind of defeats that purpose and is pretty clumsy, since it has no weight to it.

If it was meant to be played as you say, it would've looked more like the Vectrex controller.

>>1048842
It was meant to be versatile, even if the experiment didn't work perfectly. Again, in 88, there was no set design for controllers. SNES has the first true "modern" controller.

>>1048842
>A controller is meant to be held in your hands
That is wrong. Controllers can be used in your hands, on a table, or even on the floor. You have a very narrow view of what a controller is.

>>1048804
Your reasoning is suspect because Nintendo and Atari were Arcade companies too.

>>1047235
>Dreamcast and Xbox have it opposite of the Nintendo controllers

This irritates me so much. Especially when the button flashes on the screen in Xbox games, I was raised on a SNES and I always press the wrong button.

>>1049007
Nintendo evolved into a home game developer and hardware maker, and their games and hardware reflected that. Sega never stopped being an arcade game developer at heart, and their systems and games reflected that

>>1049012
A on the right
Gameboy
GBA
NDS
NES
SNES
N64
GCN

A on the Left
Dreamcast
Xbox

I know that feel bro

I've never been comfortable with the six button Genesis controller, it just feels too small

>>1046779
>>1046818

My caucasians.

>>1046595
Did you ever consider the fact that maybe this was meant to play put down and pushed on floor, not holding up?

>>1046516
I had a SNES growing up, so I can't really comment on the Genesis controls. But man! was the SNES controller tight as fuck. It was so satisfying.

Even to this day as I dust off my SNES and play some Super Mario World; the precision, the satisfying tactual response, the way it fits on your palm....makes ma' dick hard

>>1046647
Keyboard master race.

>>1046713
Are you silly? The face buttons from the dreamcast are a direct copy of the SNES controller

>>1054260
The buttons are mirrored actually.
I grabbed my Dreamcast controller and SNES controller to check.

SNES is
YX
BA

Dreamcast is
XY
AB

>>1054275
you could replace the letters with hieroglyphs and it would be the same design

>>1054275

To be honest, Sega always had it on the left, since the Mega Drive.

Much better than the shitbabby sized NES controller with only two buttons.

>>1054648
The irony is that the best Genesis games didn't even make use of all 3 buttons

>>1054650
>lazy NES port
>A and C do the same thing
At least you can switch control styles just by scooting your thumb over.