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[PtM]

I also played Goldeneye that way, which was a more popular game, but the default scheme was half aim, half move on each stick (weird as hell, IMO, thank goodness it had what I called "Turok controls" as an option).

Weren't they called "Dinosaur Hunter" or somesuch?

I think that you people need to dig up your copies of Goldeneye and actually play that dual analog mode before acting like it applies to the OP...

It didn't popularize dual analog FPS control. It isn't even dual analog FPS control in the conventional sense that the second analog is used exclusively for view control, iirc.

Pretty sure it was one of at least two dual-wield options.

For me my first experience with it was Timepslitters on PS2.

Playing multiplayer with my brother, ugh I hated it initially because they forced those controls (I think?) and it really didn't sit well with me.

Then after a little while we got use to it and were running around like pros lol. Man Timepslitters (the whole series) was awesome as!

TS2 at least has multiple control options. Only thing they forced, as far as I remember, is inverted vertical view control.

Spoiler

It (and OoT3D/Starfox 3D) is why I forced myself back into the scheme with other games like Monster Hunter.

 

[PapaEmeritus]

I was gonna say resident evil on PS1 the Director's Cut, I could be wrong though. or Tomb Raider 1, Wiki Says Ape Escape in '99

 

[Synth]

I was gonna say resident evil on PS1 the Director's Cut, I could be wrong though. or Tomb Raider 1, Wiki Says Ape Escape in '99

It certainly wasn't Tomb Raider 1. Tomb Raider has camera manipulation that very closely matches what we put on a right stick... but it was being mapped to shoulder buttons at the time, due to the right stick not existing.

Mario 64 is a similarly bad answer (worse even imo), as despite having buttons for moving the camera, they don't even attempt to simulate a full range of motion like an analog stick would. It simply snaps like 90 degrees with each press... if it deems it acceptable to.

 

[Darkangel]

The N64 was probably the first console to come up with the "concept" of dedicated camera controls. The C (Camera) buttons could basically act like a second analog stick (only without the analog part). Naturally the GameCube went on to have a C-stick.

I think Goldeneye was technically the first twin stick shooter (dual controller mode). The setup was a little weird though since the left stick was still assigned to turning instead of strafing.

That Alien game on PSX was probably the first example of a modern twin stick shooter.

Halo 1 definitely popularized the setup and brought it into the mainstream.

 

[nkarafo]

I think Goldeneye was technically the first twin stick shooter (dual controller mode). The setup was a little weird though since the left stick was still assigned to turning instead of strafing.

Except you can change it.

 

[Inuhanyou]

Why do you bring up Goldeneye when the post in question was talking about about late 90's/2000 shooters? The point is that the dual setup was already commonplace in the genre before Halo came along.

I brought up those because they popularized the scene they were in after there were examples on the market. So naming Alien as a thumbstick shooter in this thread makes no sense when the thread title has "popularized" in the title. Alien didn't popularize that control scheme for FPS in the larger sense, Halo did.

 

[xir]

does anyone know where the alien resurrection reviewer is today? I tried to find him via linkedin and the like but no dice. wanted to do an interview

 

[Solid Samus]

Pretty sure it was one of at least two dual-wield options.

There's a few, two of them do relegate camera control entirely to the 'second' stick, which for some reason is recommended for your left hand as opposed to your right. So yeah, you can enable something like a modern FPS experience by picking the right control scheme, switching the hands the controllers are in, and disabling the scheme's default-on inverted look.

 

[Sub_Level]

Wanted to bump this thread because I noticed Quake for PS1 was brought up a couple times. Just tried it and while technically its dual analog, it is not the same left stick movement right stick camera control that we know today. It's weird because it gives you an option to use either left stick or right stick. Left for camera or right for camera. Then you use face buttons for movement. It's less than ideal.

But even more awful is the option to use both sticks. It sounds great: left for movement, right for camera. But in actuality the game makes you play it like this:

what the fuck is this. Both sticks are simultaneously functions of movement and camera. It plays like a nightmare if you use this control scheme.

So far Alien Resurrection is still the earliest to use proper dual analog FPS controls from what I've seen. I guess Goldeneye might be the technicality answer, I dunno.

 

[Eusis]

There IS a logic to doing that but it's rooted in using the arrow keys to turn and move forward/back with strafing an extra thing bound to completely separate keys. Adoption of WASD and likely realizing it just made more sense to treat turning as viewpoint control rather than movement control defucked it for later games (other than King's Field because From doesn't give a fuck.)

 

[Tranquilo]

Red Faction on PS2 was the first game that really opened people's eyes to the lucidity possible in a dual stick FPS imo.

 

[Inuhanyou]

Popularized? Halo. It wasn't the first to do it, but the first to do it in the right manner to make it an industry thing

 

[malfcn]

For me it was the C-buttons and C-sticks from Nintendo.

After that, probably some fps like Halo.

 

[slick7rick]

Halo, no doubt about it.

 

[To Far Away Times]

Halo was what made it industry standard. That game was ahead of it's time.

 

[Alex_Mexico]

Wanted to bump this thread because I noticed Quake for PS1 was brought up a couple times. Just tried it and while technically its dual analog, it is not the same left stick movement right stick camera control that we know today. It's weird because it gives you an option to use either left stick or right stick. Left for camera or right for camera. Then you use face buttons for movement. It's less than ideal.

But even more awful is the option to use both sticks. It sounds great: left for movement, right for camera. But in actuality the game makes you play it like this:

what the fuck is this. Both sticks are simultaneously functions of movement and camera. It plays like a nightmare if you use this control scheme.

So far Alien Resurrection is still the earliest to use proper dual analog FPS controls from what I've seen. I guess Goldeneye might be the technicality answer, I dunno.

Unless I misunderstood wouldn't that Quake twin stick control scheme on PS1 means it was copying the Goldeneye default controls where you'd turn with the left stick and strafe left and right with the right stick/C-buttons?

Because yes that's not ideal but it's far from being a nightmare. Anyone that played Metroid Prime 1 and/or 2 knows about moving forward and turning with the same stick.

 

[tanooki27]

lakitu's documentary

what'd he end up doing with all that footage?

 

[grandwizard]

This would still be how people felt about dual analog if Bungie didn't crank up the aim assist to 11 to make the control scheme actually usable. Dual analog has always been a poor solution for shooter controls. Ideally we could have one that didn't require cheats for them to be playable and were more intuitive for new audiences, but sadly 'hardcore gamers' rejected the Wii remote.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL1_ht1EdAU

 

[Sölf]

Can't answer your question, but I'll never forget the first game I played which used the second anolog stick as the camera, Medal of Honor: Frontline for the PS2. I was aiming like a blind man with Parkinson's disease. I got used to it after more practice, of course. It just felt so unnatural at first.

Even walking with it felt completely strange at first. Yes, most N64 games worked like that, but when the PS suddenly got those and I played Kingdom Hearts (I think that was it) for the first time where you had to use the sticks instead of the pad to move... god, I think I died to everything.