Support NeoGAF

[Magnus]

The DS did launch alongside Ape Escape, didn't it?

I think some ppl easily forget the Dual Analog pad. They just remember the digital pad and the DualShock.

There was a dual analog controller before the Dual Shock? Same thing but no rumble?

 

[Celine]

It's easy to forget when it wasn't bundled with the actual console until later on.

 

[Manmademan]

The DS did launch alongside Ape Escape, didn't it?

nope. Dualshock was available almost 2 years before ape escape.

Sure, just like Sony invented the rumble too

"Nintendo invented the analog stick!" is a laughable one I hear a LOT more often.

 

[Breakage]

The DS did launch alongside Ape Escape, didn't it?



There was a dual analog controller before the Dual Shock? Same thing but no rumble?

It rumbled in Japan, but the motors were taken out for the EU and NA versions. It has a green led for a "flight stick" mode, longer grips and concave sticks.

 

[zewone]

dual analog controller before the Dual Shock? Same thing but no rumble?

Yep.

 

[Version 3.0]

nope. Dualshock was available almost 2 years before ape escape.

Ape Escape was the first game to require a Dual Shock. It's no surprise people would associate them, or think it was the first game to support it at all.

"Nintendo invented the analog stick!" is a laughable one I hear a LOT more often.

Just take it as shorthand for "the Nintendo 64 was the first console to use degree-sensing digital thumbsticks, which are erroneously called "analog".

 

[ferr]

what a great lifecycle, psx was the bestest

 

[Manmademan]

Just take it as shorthand for "the Nintendo 64 was the first console to use degree-sensing digital thumbsticks, which are erroneously called "analog".

that's not true either.

 

[PassiveObserver]

Came out in 1998 during peak PSX

 

[Jedi2016]

I remember playing the first Gran Turismo with analog.

 

[Flipyap]

There was a dual analog controller before the Dual Shock? Same thing but no rumble?

Not exactly. It had longer grips and concave sticks, then something terrible happened and they used a significantly worse design for two more generations.

 

[Yarbskoo]

Just take it as shorthand for "the Nintendo 64 was the first console to use degree-sensing digital thumbsticks, which are erroneously called "analog".

...

degree-sensing digital thumbsticks?

 

[inpHilltr8r]

Wasn't the Namco Negcon technically analogue too? IIRC that came out earlier than the dual analogue pad.

As technically as any of the other analog controllers. Only way to play Wipeout.

negcon (twist + accel + two shoulders) 95
analog (wacky flightsticks) 96
(N64 packs a single analog stick in 96)
dual analog (first dual analog controller) 97
dual shock 97
(PS2 packs a dual analog in 2000)


Analog controllers predate all those. Pong is probably the first (75?), then BBC Micro (81) and PC (81), probably some others in there too. There's an Apple II analog controller, but it's IIc/e which are 83/84.

[edit] Atari 2600 has analog paddle controllers in 1977

 

[EoinOL]

Wasn't the Namco Negcon technically analogue too? IIRC that came out earlier than the dual analogue pad.

Yes, and not just the twisty bit in the middle, but also the L shoulder button and the I and II buttons.

 

[RS4-]

I actually don't remember what the first game I played with using the analogs. Trying to remember if I even owned one.

 

[Doctre81]

They came around the launch of the n64.

 

[Lights and Waves]

The analog controllers were the start of the PS1.

 

[MrBS]

I thought I was living in the future when I got a dual shock controller. Even lame stuff like Kula World supporting the rumble feature but not the sticks I thought was great.

 

[inpHilltr8r]

degree-sensing digital thumbsticks?

They're as analog as any other sticks. They all get converted to digital signals.

 

[Manmademan]

As technically as any of the other analog controllers. Only way to play Wipeout.

negcon (twist + accel + two shoulders) 95
analog (wacky flightsticks) 96
(N64 packs a single analog stick in 96)
dual analog (first dual analog controller) 97
dual shock 97
(PS2 packs a dual analog in 2000)


Analog controllers predate all those. Pong is probably the first (75?), then BBC Micro (81) and PC (81), probably some others in there too. There's an Apple II analog controller, but it's IIc/e which are 83/84.

Milton Bradley built a self centering analog thumb stick for use with the Vectrex...in 1982

There's not really all that much point to an analog joystick if it's going to be used with a system pushing simple sprites.

The Vectrex was a strange system that built everything out of polygons though...simple as they were. Thus the joystick made sense.

This is probably why you don't see analog control show up again until ps1 and n64.

 

[inpHilltr8r]

Yes, and not just the twisty bit in the middle, but also the L shoulder button and the I and II buttons.

I thought it was both shoulder buttons? I could be wrong. We didn't support it.

 

[rjc571]

There's like more games that support the Analog Joystick than there's games on the Wii U and even that predates Dual Analog Controllers (which has a mode to emulate that stick)

And how many games actually benefitted from having analog controls? Most games simply mapped the existing digital controls to the joystick and called it a day.

 

[AmyS]

middle of PS1's lifespan. Not at the end, nor beginning of it.

But also:

And, of course:

 

[Unicorn]

I actively didn't want an analog psx controller. The weight of the sticks and vibration turned me off. When I was moving and digging through stuff, I swore my Genesis and psx controllers were 3rd party due to how shitty the plastic used felt. Xbox 360 and on really upped the quality of what our hands hold to input commands.

 

[Gormless Noodle]

I remember it becoming a thing a bit after the N64 came around. I know Sony had a prototype for it earlier though.

 

[Donniewahlberg]

I think people think of Ape Escape because it was the first game to explicitly require a dualshock on PS1, right? You could get by without one til then. Pretty sure we did.

 

[Rellik]

I actually don't remember what the first game I played with using the analogs. Trying to remember if I even owned one.

I owned one but refused to used them. I stuck to the dpad until games on the PS2 started forcing me to.

 

[I am Christina Aguilera]

I still have my SCPH-1180 (the Dual Analog controller that came out before the DualShock 1). I remember that Sony more or less rushed it to market in 1997 after the release of the N64 and the Saturn's analog NiGHTS pad. I was a bit disappointed at the time that it didn't come with rumble like the Japanese release of it did, but there were reports that the voltage from the rumble on Japan's Dual Analog fried people's consoles, so they left it out at the time. The DualShock 1 came out something like a year later, and when my first PS1 died, my new one came with a DS1.

The concave plastic-only analog sticks on the SCPH-1180 are not the most comfortable with circa-2017 hindsight in mind, but it having the longer handles than the PS1 digital pads and the DS1, 2, and 3 meant for me that the SCPH-1180 was the most comfortable version of a DualShock controller for me for ages until the DS4 finally came out. I would use it relentlessly with Symphony of the Night, FFVII, and pretty much anything else that didn't use rumble.

The dual flightstick, that I didn't have any experience with, but IIRC it came out about as early as the PS1 itself did. I'm sure that WarHawk was a good time with it.

 

[Version 3.0]

that's not true either.

Okay. News to me. As far as I'm aware, the tech was only previously used in joysticks, not thumbsticks. So, educate me.

...

degree-sensing digital thumbsticks?

Yes. None of the modern thumbsticks are actually analog. They're digital devices with a maximum number of detectable variations. Those variations are small enough that they're basically analog, as far as we humans are concerned.

 

[Manmademan]

Okay. News to me. As far as I'm aware, the tech was only previously used in joysticks, not thumbsticks. So, educate me.

Already did. Scroll up

 

[optimiss]

 

[Croash]

Well, the popular one, DualShock, arrived in 1998 so the PlayStation 2 was only 2 years away. I can imagine someone thinking it was "the end".
But oh man, those 2 years were packed...

It's a shame I don't remember the first time I played with such a controller. I do remember Ape Escape being the first franchise that made me realize thumbsticks could be super awesome, but that was on PS2 already.

 

[inpHilltr8r]

The Vectrex was a strange system that built everything out of polygons though...simple as they were.

It built everything out of lines. It was a vector display.

 

[Valkerionseven]

Remember playing Final Fantasy 8 and Parasite Eve with it so no, I would say middle lol.

 

[Manmademan]

It built everything out of lines. It was a vector display.

Sorry, should have clarified. Everything was built out of lines, but those lines made simple 2D polygons for most things. Important thing was that the shapes moved and scaled more like polygons did, so analog control made sense for that thing.

 

[Pagusas]

Not exactly. It had longer grips and concave sticks, then something terrible happened and they used a significantly worse design for two more generations.

Seriously the longer grips were sooooooo much better feeling. I hated the small hands version with a passion. Hell I believe the controller crap Sony did is what caused me to like Xbox more over time.

 

[Eusis]

Not exactly. It had longer grips and concave sticks, then something terrible happened and they used a significantly worse design for two more generations.

Huh. DS4 + XB1 sticks is the true successor to the original dual analog controller, isn't it?

My guess is many people didn't get a DualShock until later on, I had a Dual Analog so I took until MGS came out to get the DualShock. That may've registered as "at the end of the lifetime" for some people whose memories are hazier of that period, particularly if they didn't keep track of the time well. And hell, support was definitely better later into the generation than earlier.

 

[KORNdoggy]

All i know is i bought one when MGS was released.

 

[iidesuyo]

I heard that the Japanese PS1 controllers are smaller than the Western versions. Is that true?.

 

[notaskwid]

I think I never held a non dual analog ps1 controller.
My oldest memory of playing PS1 was either Tekken 2 or Adidas Power Soccer 98, in 97 when I was in second grade.
When I got my own, it was the Tekken 3 bundle in 99 and it came with a dualshock.

 

[Nosgotham]

nope. Dualshock was available almost 2 years before ape escape.

I think you're wrong ....right?

 

[PeakPointMatrix]

Bonus points for thinking that Dual Shocks launched with Ape Espace 🤔🤔

Yeah this is what I thought, I was 9, sue me.

 

[Pagusas]

I think you're wrong ....right?

He's right. Ape Escape came out in 1999. The first Dual Shock was released in November 1997

 

[hardcastlemccormick]

People remember stuff around the time when they got to experience it. Those controllers weren't adopted by everyone at the same time, and most people would have gotten one later in the console's lifespan.

Conflating it with "those controllers actually came out then" hardly seems like a horrible sin.

 

[Diablohead]

Not exactly. It had longer grips and concave sticks, then something terrible happened and they used a significantly worse design for two more generations.

I'm pretty sure the right side controller is how I played ape escape back in the day for the first time, I do remember those unique sticks from playing gran turismo too.

 

[120v]

i don't think i ever tried the non-analogue controller unless it was at a demo kiosk or something. i'd always just assumed sony jumped on it quick

by the time i jumped ship from N64 for FF7 and MGS it was already there. dear lord i would've hated playing without it

 

[BriGuy]

I got a dual analog stick for Colony Wars (1997 I think?) and a dual shock for Tekken 3 and MGS the following year. I guess you could call that middle-late into the PS1 lifespan if you end it where the PS2 released.

 

[Leynos]

Seriously the longer grips were sooooooo much better feeling. I hated the small hands version with a passion. Hell I believe the controller crap Sony did is what caused me to like Xbox more over time.

I held onto my Dual Analog controller for many years as the extra long grips felt sooo good in my hands. I was appalled that the Dual Shock, and Dual Shock 2 were seemingly made for children. And those concave sticks also were superior to the convex tops.

 

[Link1110]

I got the dual analog for star ocean 2 in summer of 98. Probably not the first game to use it but the first one I played

 

[Nosgotham]

He's right. Ape Escape came out in 1999. The first Dual Shock was released in November 1997

My memory is failing me. I though the DS1 was summer of 98. Dual Analog controller was 97, without rumble .