/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.749919]

Worst controller you ever owned?
I actually owned this peace of absolute crap. It felt like holding a piece of rock and there were more buttons on this then on a N64 controller.

[Anonymous No.749931]

As the name implies, it caused a lot of rage.
That dumb thing hardly worked properly with any games

[Anonymous No.749972]

>>749919
Dear god, it's like someone threw all the keys from a keyboard into some fucking playdough

Worst one I had was a PS1 controller made by madcatz. was blue, clear and it never fucking worked.I remember playing resident evil about 2 days after buying it and Chris was just raising and lowering his gun. I lost the receipt being an idiot kid and it permanantly became the player 2 controller, till I realised even that was too good for it and it got thrown away.

The worst part is I recently found the same fucking controller amongst my gf's vidya.

[Anonymous No.749975]

>>749931
Who....Tougt this would be comfortable to hold?

[Anonymous No.749984]

>>749975
some magazines actually gave it decent reviews...

[Anonymous No.749987]

>>749931
>Thrustmaster

I Shouldn't have found that funny but I did, sorry guys.

[Anonymous No.749990]

>>749984

[Anonymous No.750004]

This very bulky piece of junk. The direction pad on that thing is awful beyond belief.

[Anonymous No.750007]

>>749990
I know, I stopped reading that mag after I tried that pad

[Anonymous No.750013]

>>750004
No discription.

[Anonymous No.750019]

>there were more buttons on this then on a N64 controller
...I don't get it.
The N64 controller had exactly as many buttons as a PS1 controller, and only one more than a Saturn controller.
PS3 and 360 controllers have more buttons, if you count the clickable analog sticks.

[Anonymous No.750031]

>>750004
I have one of these.
Staggeringly bad.

Similarly: this Gamester LMP has a fucking attrocity of a dpad.

And its for the Sega Saturn. Think about how that.

[Anonymous No.750035]

>>750031
What happend to it, did it melt or something?

[Anonymous No.750052]

>>750035
What? No. Its just a shitty dpad. Though on closer inspection that photo did catch some weird reflections.

[Anonymous No.750059]

>>750052
reminds me of this

[Anonymous No.750060]

>>750035
Taking a photo of this that doesn't look shit is hard, light is poor here.

Its just a fucking bad dpad. Considering the official pad had a particularly well recieved on its particularly bad.

[Anonymous No.750080]

cant find a picture of it, but it was a n64 controller that was long like a TV remote

[Anonymous No.750096]

>>750080
This one?

[Anonymous No.750107]

[Anonymous No.750113]

>>749919

[Anonymous No.750115]

>>750096
ding ding ding. yes

[Anonymous No.750117]

>>750107
If that was an actual trackball, it could have potential.

But it isn't, and Packard Bell were fucking insane.

[Anonymous No.750149]

Years ago I had one of these, for a MegaDrive.

I even tried playing SF2 on it. Barely possible to do anything more complex than a 100 hand slap / electricity / hundred foot kick.

>>749919
>>750113

Kind of want, for some sick, twisted reason.

[Anonymous No.750160]

When I got my N64 years ago, it came with a proper pad and this horrible 3rd party one.

it was terrible, the stick was very loose and was defaulted to slightly to the left so any game you played would become much harder.
the slow and auto buttons were just pointless.

[Anonymous No.750186]

>>750060
The pad looks like an actual button...

It's... Strange.

[Anonymous No.750193]

>>750160
Lol I've got that one....I have no idea where it came from

[Anonymous No.750201]

>>750059

I have that piece of shit, came with my genesis that I bought from a pawn shop.

Touch Pad D-Pad = Pure Awfulness

[Anonymous No.750203]

>>750004
Why did this thing have such a horrible dpad? The grip is ergonomic, but the dpad is awful. I remember trying to do Return of the King on this one. It didn't work.

[Anonymous No.750213]

>>750203
I had that one, terrible dpad indeed, crooked to the right for some reason, it was impossible to play any game with it.

[Anonymous No.750214]

>>750203
Also, the motion sensor was horribly flawed. It worked okay for driving games where Gas and Reverse was mapped to buttons, but if you tried a 3D game, you quickly realized it had no proper deadzone so in any game it would result in randomly walking in directions. Even the orginal Wiimote had fixed that issue.

[Anonymous No.750216]

>>750004
>>750203

Interesting at least how the ABXY configuration (despite being ripped straight from the Sega) is still the same on the Xbox 360 controller.

[Anonymous No.750220]

>>750203
My guess is patents, There are only so many good ways to design a dpad affordably. MS didn't want to pay, either for the patent fee or invest in a more expensive design that'd kill their margin at the RRP sale.

[Anonymous No.750221]

>>750149
I had that one for my C64. It really was a shitty stick.

[Anonymous No.750223]

>>750160
I love that controller, I think it's much better than the regular N64 controllers. Very comfortable after you get used to it.

[Anonymous No.750226]

>>750220
But it is not patents. They could have tried a lot of things. They could even have went with a analog stick variant ala Saturn 3D and added a button for the interprention mode.
Logitech used a shittier version of the various Sega dpads for a while, as did tons of companies because Sega did not patent it.
You could even do a dpad where the feedback is that it has a octogonal gate and withh 8 switches as feedback.

[Anonymous No.750241]

>>750226
>used a shittier version of the various Sega dpads for a while, as did tons of companies because Sega did not patent it.

That was a design modified enough to keep the lawyers away. Its what MS essentially did.

>You could even do a dpad where the feedback is that it has a octogonal gate and withh 8 switches as feedback.

Show the the tools and costings estimates if you want to tell me what can be done. I've taken pads apart, and I've a degree in industrial design. Making shit for commerical sale is not as simple as kitbashing or following an instructible.

If its not patents (IT IS, though I concede it could also be something else), tell me what it is internet genius.

[Anonymous No.750283]

>>750241
>That was a design modified enough to keep the lawyers away. Its what MS essentially did.
Nope. They designed something that did not work, instead of trying to make something that worked.

>Show the the tools and costings estimates if you want to tell me what can be done. I've taken pads apart, and I've a degree in industrial design. Making shit for commerical sale is not as simple as kitbashing or following an instructible.
If you have a degree in industrial design, you should know about simple shit as the gravis dpad attachment to mimick arcade sticks. There was plenty of options. MS simply did not do their "jobs", and just pushed out a thing.

[Anonymous No.750281]

>>750031
>>750060
>>750220
>>750241

Teardown of how the d pad on this wreck worked. On the left, the cross.

Without permanently damaging it, I can't yet tell if its 2 parts that were attached together over and behind the front half of the case (cheaper tooling, more manual labour) OR was made as a 2 part injection moulding (more expensive tooling, less manual labour).

Next, an elastomer cover attached over 2 plastic bosses. This has protrusions that extend upwards to allign with the 4 contacts. Possibly a stock part, as...

...There are 4 elastomer extenders with a harder (conductive?) elastomer. These are sized to move and make contact with the pads on the right. That completes the circuit, and sends the signal (up, down, left, or right, OR combinations up+left for diagonal up left etc)

This is all a shitty way to make a dpad, but its very economical - no one patented such a shoddy solution in all likeliness because its poor and probably there's prior art.

Also, stock parts. So, for a third party manufacturer who didn't give a damn about reputation and wanted to sell cheap (cheaper than official pads by a considerable amount to earn market share) and plenty (the rarely used P3 - P10 pads for Super Bomberman?), this is how to get shit done.

This wreck I only bought because I wanted to experiment with building my own Saturn -> USB convertor, maybe open source hardware it (Prices on them are fucking extortionate, as are 2nd rate Saturn styled USB pad). As I don't own an oscilloscope and don't have reverse engineering experience with this kind of thing don't expect this producing results anytime soon.

[Anonymous No.750314]

>>750283

>Nope. They designed something that did not work, instead of trying to make something that worked.
It sold profitably. To them it worked. Sucked to be someone like me who bought it however. Compare: Sim City (EA) or Diablo 3.

That it does not function does not mean it wasn't a success for the business. EA are the worst business in the US for 2 years running and one of the most successful.

>If you have a degree in industrial design, you should know about simple shit as the gravis dpad attachment to mimick arcade sticks. There was plenty of options. MS simply did not do their "jobs", and just pushed out a thing.

Where did I say I had an encyclopedic knowledge of engineering solutions to d pad interface design? Hell, I take pads apart because I'm LEARNING how they work. I don't work in UI or product semantics.

And as for "simple". its the simple shit thats far harder to master than the fucking complicated stuff. Simplifying takes FAR longer to do than making something more specialised and complicated.

Talk to a programmer or engineer about simplicity sometime, it'll blow your mind.

2 more photos now to get back on topic. Front of the PCB...

[Anonymous No.750329]

>>750314

Rear of pad. Each wires here run to a connector pin to the console, so with a diagram of the saturn pad and some continuity testing this should help figure out what's what

Pin out is here if anyone else wants to try too - http://www.gamesx.com/controldata/saturn.htm

[Anonymous No.750334]

>>750314
It was a bundle with Motorcross mania or whatever it was. It only worked with racing games, or similar games where the movement buttons are mapped to normal buttons.

>And as for "simple". its the simple shit thats far harder to master than the fucking complicated stuff.
Fuck off. "Simple" for mass production means either few or many interchangable parts, which are cheap to make for their number.
MS is a company with a history of pushing out stuff, not making it refined or making it work. That still reflected in their product line to this day, and will still be for fucking ages unless they fall on hard times.

[Anonymous No.750345]

>>749987
make me think of the nick of some obnoxious european that tries to cyber with everyone in IRC or yahoo chat

[Anonymous No.750356]

>>750149
>>750221
it might not be very good as a joystick, but it seems like a cool novelty item/collector's piece

[Anonymous No.750359]

>>749919
> then

[Anonymous No.750361]

>>750334
>"Simple" for mass production means either few or many interchangable parts, which are cheap to make for their number.

If I didn't think you were 10 years old, I might actually take time to correct you on

- why lumping few or many as meanings into a single descriptor is foolish
- why talking about mass production (a business model) instead of design iteration (an internal collaborative process) outs you as someone utterly clueless
- why talking about MS's history any what they ship as "stuff" makes you sound like The Gamer Stereotype.

But since you're 10, enjoy your summer holidays kid. I get that hormones make your do and say crazy shit. Its OK.

[Anonymous No.750364]

>>750361
Nice one, haha

[Anonymous No.750384]

>>750359
Who the hell cares.

[Anonymous No.750392]

>>750216
actually, the xbox controller is based on the dreamcast's, the xbox was actually made in response to a deal they had with sega for the dreamcast after it was obvious that the dreamcast was going to fail

[Anonymous No.750401]

>>750283
I liked the gravis gamepad, it was essentially just an SNES gamepad for PCs, I don't see anything wrong with it for the time.

[Anonymous No.750732]

>>750401
The gravis pad do not belong in this tread because its good. Its only posted because somebody argued that MS did they job when they made the dpads for the sidewinder. The gravis dpad is a extremely good example of that MS did not do their jobs.

[Anonymous No.750759]

>>750392

wat

[Anonymous No.751063]

>>750283

I had a Playstation-style version of that controller (Gravis Gamepad Pro). It was awesome, it's too bad I lost it.

[Anonymous No.751106]

Fucking terrible idea - arcade stick with 2-axis analog joystick. Shit was so bad I only ever used it a handful of times. Fortunately it was also quite cheap.

[Anonymous No.751139]

>>749919
I... Just... What? is that like a fucking X-Pad made out of buttons? An X-Pad? Seriously? And a trackball? How the fuck does that even work?

[Anonymous No.751264]

>>751106
wait
it's an analog stick that only moves into 4 different directions?

[Anonymous No.753343]

>>751264
You had full motion. The Apple // and IBM PC used analog joysticks, effectively a paddle controller in the horizontal direction and a paddle controller in the vertical direction as far as the computer was concerned.
The argument could be made for it being superior to digital sticks as you could take variable readings along each axis (you want your plane to make a gradual dip, or a sharp dive?) but they tended to be bad for action games since they were often had a loose feel.

[Anonymous No.753396]

>>749919

Some bootleg famicom style controller with a really annoying side cord that hurt a lot between the fingers and provoked some weird shit like Link shinesparking across the screen on AoL.

[Anonymous No.753462]

>>750203
>>750214
>>750004
It's amazing that it took Microsoft such a long time to come up with a decent pad. You would after the original Xbox they would have got their shit together.

[Anonymous No.753475]

>>749919
..It....It looks like a deformed metroid

[Anonymous No.753584]

>>753462
See
>>750334
>MS is a company with a history of pushing out stuff, not making it refined or making it work.
The Xbox and the Xbox 360 are one of the few areas Microsoft actually tried hard to succeed in, because they do not have any monopoly advantage to autowin all cases.

[Anonymous No.753609]

>>750107
That thing is awesome for playing Forsaken.

[Anonymous No.753656]

>>750160
This was my favorite fucking controller until my dick head friend stepped on it and broke the stick. Mother fucker. I loved that controller

[Anonymous No.753658]

I seriously wonder why people actually buy stuff lie this.

[Anonymous No.753669]

>>753609
I saw a show where they advertised it as the ultimate controller for Descent

[Anonymous No.753679]

>>753658
That's a pretty BA-lookin controller there, sport.

[Anonymous No.753693]

>>749919
This controller right here. This is the built-in controller for the Olympian 2600. It is completely rectangular and the joystick doesn't even center.

[Anonymous No.753698]

>>753693
Looks to be one of those pong consoles, you probably don't want the controller to be centering itself. I'm guessing it's analog?

[PHG !bp4ntybF0M No.753707]

I have the "PRESS THE CHINESE BUTTON, NIGGA THEY ALL CHINESE" one

[Anonymous No.753719]

>>753693
Upside down wiimote?

[Anonymous No.753720]

>>753658
Where's my ’nigga press da chinese button’ when I need it?

[Anonymous No.753731]

>>753698
It is pong console, but the joystick really begs to be centered, it just feels really, really wonky. The console is pretty rad though.

[Anonymous No.753746]

The worst thing about these were the inserts that go over the buttons so you'd know what the controls were for a particular game. I'm amazed we didn't lose them.

[Anonymous No.753810]

I don't actually own one of these, kind of wish I did, though. I hear it's a piece of shit.

[Anonymous No.755848]

>>753810
So it ain't nothing to fuck with?