Page 12 - Old School Gamer Magazine Issue #40 FREE Edition

Want to make a retro gamer squirm? Ask them about their least favorite video game controller, and you can almost guarantee that they will have an awful memory of several types of controllers that, in some countries, would be considered torture devices. I can instantly recall my Uncle purchasing a NES Quickshot Joypad controller for me as a Christmas gift. It was the most
“My hands hurt just looking at this thing!”
awkward controller to hold in your hand and could only be described as a result of a computer mouse and an Intellivision controller mating. The last thing you want to do is make your Uncle think that you hated the controller, though, so anytime he was over, I plugged it in to acknowledge that I appreciated the sentiment. My hands would hurt for days afterward. Showing
off that controller to him would ultimately backfire on me, though,
as the following year, my Uncle bought the same controller as a gift for me again! “Oh! I didn’t realize I got you that already! Well, now your little brother has one, too!” he said.
On that note, we decided to ask some of our fellow friends and family of the OSG Team what some of their most hated controllers were.
“The NES MAX seemed to be broken out of the box.”
John Riggs: “I remember my first experience with the NES Max.
It was supposed to be a step up from the pack-in traditional NES gamepad. I remember thinking how great it would be with those 360- ish controls instead of a standard D-pad. I was wrong. I’m sure some people love this controller, but I
felt like my thumb was getting an unnecessary workout from sliding that pad around more than I needed to. It was nearly impossible for
me to play platformers as I kept randomly ducking since it didn’t exactly ‘lock’ into place when I pressed left or right. Yeah, it wasn’t for me. Cool turbo buttons, though! I bet the MAX is great for shooters
but not so much for platformers or most other games.”
Justin Darner: “Somehow, as a kid, we thought a sliding plastic disc would somehow be an improvement over the d-pad. Yet years later, the d-pad still wins as the best way to play retro video games.”
Thomas A. Powell, CEO, PINT, inc.:
“I was an outlier in my neighborhood as the sole Odyssey 2 player. For some reason, my parents thought that the keyboard and more computer and educational posture of that system were a plus. In short, Magnavox marketing really worked for my parents.
Thomas’ silver Odyssey 2 controller.
Don’t get me wrong, some of the classic O2 games such as UFO!, K.C. Munchkin, Pickaxe Pete, and others brought the kids around to my house; it often came with a price. My Atari peers were conditioned to wrestle with their joysticks using all their might, and they quickly broke mine. I was fortunate to
have an early O2 console with
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HORRIBLE CONTROLLERS THE CONTROLLERS THAT PUSHED YOUR BUTTONS! By Mike Mertes
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