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[cireza]

This controller was fine overall. The d-pad is not too bad for fighting games, and it was also decent for FPS with movement done on the ABXY buttons, aiming on the stick and both triggers to shoot/jump.

It was a step forward for comfortable 3D gameplay in my opinion. It is almost the same shape as every modern controller nowadays. Simply, it did not have the second stick yet.

 

[piggychan]

i blame it for VF3tb's "black sheep" reputation. that game rules but controls like shit on DC pad

Wait till you see the bug on Shun's level !

I actually quite like the controller and VMU plus Rumble pack but the trigger buttons began to crack under strain.

 

[Egida]

My guess is drunk bet.

 

[Just_myles]

That is how it was at the time. Just look at the n54 controller.

 

[pmj]

Cords that come out from the top makes a controller more top heavy, especially since you often tilt the controller a bit upwards which tends to extend the a amount of cable that you have to lift.

Maybe not a big deal to most, but as someone who has had issues with my hands for years, I've been wishing all corded controllers had the cord come out the bottom to reduce fatigue from holding them.

 

[oneida]

Wait till you see the bug on Shun's level !

I actually quite like the controller and VMU plus Rumble pack but the trigger buttons began to crack under strain.

Pretty sure that is in the arcade version too, just hard to trigger due to default 30 sec timer.
Assuming you're talking about flipping the boat.

 

[peppermints]

It's been 15 years since I've played the Dreamcast in any regular fashion, so my memories of this are foggy - but how did games handle camera control? N64 at least had the C buttons for this primarily.

Was it just L trigger to center behind what you were controlling? I remember a lot of games like Shenmue and Skies of Arcadia had fixed angles.

 

[SoulUnison]

It's been 15 years since I've played the Dreamcast in any regular fashion, so my memories of this are foggy - but how did games handle camera control? N64 at least had the C buttons for this primarily.

Was it just L trigger to center behind what you were controlling? I remember a lot of games like Shenmue and Skies of Arcadia had fixed angles.

A lot of Dreamcast games had either no direct camera control, used L and R to rotate the camera horizontally, or used a single button on the controller to center the camera behind the character.

I realized typing this that I never actually owned or played one, but I can't imagine playing First Person Shooters on the Dreamcast was much fun. Probably used the "hold a button to stand still and aim" system.

 

[peppermints]

A lot of Dreamcast games had either no direct camera control, used L and R to rotate the camera horizontally, or used a single button on the controller to center the camera behind the character.

I realized typing this that I never actually owned or played one, but I can't imagine playing First Person Shooters on the Dreamcast was much fun. Probably used the "hold a button to stand still and aim" system.

I played a lot of Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament with the mouse and keyboard accessories.

That's right, I do have some muscle memory now of using the triggers to rotate horizontally.

Man Dreamcast was such a unique system.

 

[nightopian]

Loved the controller. VMU was great for RE:CV. Jump pack had my favorite rumble function and added good weight to it. Anyone that would play THPS on PS over Dc was crazy.

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

I always thought the Dreamcast controller was a good joypad, dependable and solid for some kinds of games, less effective for others. I have the sense that Sega was trying to simplify its Saturn 3D controller design, make it more accessible to the masses without confusing them. I also have the impression that Sega was looking at the Nintendo 64 for inspiration, and overall did a good job. The analog stick is good, if a touch slippery at times, and I never cared much for the dual-analog thing, so I'm fine with having only one. Too many buttons is a turn-off (which, in some circles, is precisely the point).

The VMU was the grand experiment, and if it had succeeded this conversation simply wouldn't exist. That's classic Sega, always taking the crazy gamble, not always successful, but you're glad they tried. If only those little Chao pets from Sonic Adventure had become popular...if only, if only.

For Street Fighter and Virtua Fighter, the DC joypad was terrible. For most other games, it was pretty good. It's great for Soul Calibur and NFL/NBA 2K, Hydro Thunder and San Francisco Rush 2049.

Just consider yourselves lucky you're no longer stuck with the "telephone" videogame controllers like Atari 5200, 7800, Intellivision and Colecovision. Those things were just painful. I'm getting hand cramps just thinking about them.

 

[CD'S BAR]

it looks nice and i always liked the bumpy, convex thumbstick. the backside is cramped though.

 

[grfunkulus]

It's pretty bad. It's a combination of terrible ideas.

I would also say that it popularizing analog triggers was a net-loss. Outside of racers, almost nothing takes advantage of analog triggers. Instead of gaining anything of worth we lost two regular, immediately responsive buttons. At least Nintendo seems to have abandoned analog triggers.

Ummm no, just no. Non-analog triggers feel cheap, and I’m sure Sony and MS’s internal and external testing showed this or those controllers wouldn’t be designed the way they are

 

[Codes 208]

It sure as hell wasnt my favorite but it still tops over the N64 and PS3 controllers for me.

And the design influence was pretty obvious on the xbox duke controller. Then they improved on that for the more recognizeable shape we got with the S controller and going further down the line with the 360 and XB1 controllers.

 

[Phoenix RISING]

I thought it was an excellent controller. MvC2 was designed so that you didn't need to have jab, strong, fierce punch/kicks, and combos were easier because the game would automatically convert jab/strong in combos with a single button press.

In Street Fighter 3: Third Strike--still my personal favorite due to the animation--you still had enough buttons if you wanted to fight the classic way, and the d-pad was perfect for doing things like instant dragon punch on wakeup. Oh, and OFC, SFA2 and SFA3.

Unlike this gen, I never felt forced to use the analog. I would STILL be using a d-pad in everything if I could.

And that's before the VMU memory card storage!

 

[NickFire]

I hated the official one. Never felt comfortable. But I loved a third party version whose name slips my mind. They were larger if I recall correctly, wider in shape, and brightly colored.

 

[Cpt Conifer]

It's probably my favorite pad from that generation, followed by Controller S, but I hold the uncommon opinion that everyone's controller standards just arbitrarily dropped for that generation, possibly because "arcade" gaming also faded somewhat into the background. The Dual Shock 2 and GameCube controllers are overrated. I mean, for the latter, there was absolutely no reason for Nintendo to put out a gimped dpad unless they also held the same agenda as SCEA to cram 3d gameplay down our throats. The same goes for the "C-stick".

Meanwhile the Dual Shock 2 was just devoid of passion. They engineered it to be "good enough" in every aspect, not sucking but not excelling at any one task; it was best for navigating menus in Jrpgs. Tiny dpad buttons with shallow travel and almost no tactile feedback, it's only remembered fondly because people were just happy to have something functional. I realize what I sound like, but if they'd held a NeoGeo, Saturn, or Genesis 6-button pad (despite how the former wears out after like 2 months), they'd know what was good, at least for 2d, and what to demand from the engineers (lol). But I realize how complicated it is; for example, all of these companies hold patents for their respective designs, not to mention there was probably a desire for increased durability over most 1990s pads.

 

[hokagespit]

It was an ok controller. The n64 still the worst imo , but I really dislike the switch nunchucks, feel cheap and the height of the analog sticks is horrible. Wat a turnaround grabbing the pro controller makes. Nintendo now at once currently has the best and worst feeling controllers.

 

[Wolfgang Jr]

Nothing wrong with it, stop bitching about things from decades ago.

 

[120v]

it wasn't until the mid 2000s until there was a more or less universal analogue controller concept across all platforms. though playstation always kept it steady with dualshock

 

[luxsol]

It's probably my favorite pad from that generation, followed by Controller S, but I hold the uncommon opinion that everyone's controller standards just arbitrarily dropped for that generation, possibly because "arcade" gaming also faded somewhat into the background. The Dual Shock 2 and GameCube controllers are overrated. I mean, for the latter, there was absolutely no reason for Nintendo to put out a gimped dpad unless they also held the same agenda as SCEA to cram 3d gameplay down our throats. The same goes for the "C-stick".

Meanwhile the Dual Shock 2 was just devoid of passion. They engineered it to be "good enough" in every aspect, not sucking but not excelling at any one task; it was best for navigating menus in Jrpgs. Tiny dpad buttons with shallow travel and almost no tactile feedback, it's only remembered fondly because people were just happy to have something functional. I realize what I sound like, but if they'd held a NeoGeo, Saturn, or Genesis 6-button pad (despite how the former wears out after like 2 months), they'd know what was good, at least for 2d, and what to demand from the engineers (lol). But I realize how complicated it is; for example, all of these companies hold patents for their respective designs, not to mention there was probably a desire for increased durability over most 1990s pads.

Bleh.
The Dreamcast controller is one of the worst controllers outside of the 80s ones. The parallel handles made my hands cramp up so easily. The one analog stick wasn't enough by that point. Then the Dpad was third party controller quality and the analog stick itself could be twisted, so if you pushed it forward when it was off centered, your would either skew to the left or right.
It's such a halfassed controller.

GCN controller was weird, but it was so intuitive and natural. Just touching a single button, you knew exactly what you were touching. And it was very comfortable to hold.

The Dual Shock 2 was as half assed as the Dual Shock 1. The original PSX controller was great. Nice long handles that was comfortable to hold and the Dpad in a very natural position.... which Sony fucked up by just slapdashing the analog sticks right there in the middle. So your thumbs would have to stretch inwardly and you now had even less space to hold the controller by, leading to cramping over long gaming sessions. The DS2 was lazy as hell and the triggers... did the DS3 or DS2 have the bottom triggers slopping downward so you couldn't actually set it down without them being pushed? Either way, DS3 continued with the laziness with the same mistakes the DS had, plus more.
I've barely used the PS4 controller, so i can't say much except that the share button is cramped in there and its laggy as fuck when you accidently push it.

 

[Morinaga]

The Dreamcast controller was probably designed around an arcade layout (1 joystick 4 buttons) with some addtional controls (dpad triggers) to cover the control schemes from all possible Sega Naomi games. Considering the periphals they released with the DC (Decent Arcade Controller, wheel, light gun, marakas) this I think was probably the reason for its design. Dual analogue sticks were never used in the arcade or really on home consoles back then so probably wasnt thought of as a thing.

 

[visiblemode]

I always liked the build quality, actually. I just found that long sessions would always make my hands uncomfortable. There was something too square about the grip angle.

 

[ReBurn]

I never had an issue with the Dreamcast controller. It got the job done. Some of the games are so good.

 

[RAIDEN1]

Well it wasn't soo weird that no other company would look at it's design for influence, even Microsoft were using it as a template so to speak when designing the controllers for the O.G Xbox back in 99-2000

 

[nush]

The only think I didnt like was the fragile triggers.

 

[RokkanStoned]

I can't remember how it felt like, as I never owned it, just played it a few times. But I remember being fascinated with it around the time the Dreamcast came out, especially in regards to the VMU and the recognizable design. I love the large variations in design that existed previously in regards to controllers, something that's not so common nowadays. There's just something attractive with the diversity of controllers that existed, like the Dreamcast, N64, Jaguar and Saturn 3D controllers.

 

[Koala Driving a Ferrari]

Some could call it weird, I guess, but most would say it was innovative. Using analog triggers in racing games for the first time was fantastic and the VMU was great (when it wasn't beeping at you because the battery was flat).

Build quality was an issue, however. It probably should have had another design revision or two before release to fix the well know issues. But overall it was a solid design for the time. I have a rubber thumb stick cover and a custom dpad on mine and I enjoy using it for everything bar fighting games on the system.

 

[DonJimbo]

The Dreamcast controller was the forefather of the xbox nuke controller

 

[Nikodemos]

My DC controller feels quite OK in my hands after putting in the rumble pack and the memory card. Though I admit it's too light without them. And yeah, having to use triggers to rotate the camera left/right is highly suboptimal.
However the d-pad is rubbish. It's such a downgrade from my 3-button Mega Drive pad.

 

[RedHotBoss]

I still have the little scars on the ends of my middle and index fingers from rubbing the backside of this controller. If it were just a little wider then maybe all those intense sessions of MvC2 would not have done so much damage! Still, lots of fond memories with this beast of a console.

 

[Petrae]

The Dreamcast controller’s fatal flaw is the beyond shitty D-pad. As someone who uses the D-pad for games like Tony Hawk and Street Fighter Alpha 3, I am forced to stick with the PlayStation versions over the arguably better Dreamcast versions because of this.

Any games that use the analog stick instead are fine. The button layout is comfortably familiar and the triggers feel fine.

 

[FF:Enhanced_Reality]

You know the ironic thing about the DreamCast controller is that it is crazy comfortable. Really easy to hold in the hands. It's main flaws are the lack of a second set of shoulder buttons, the lack of a second analog stick and a pretty shitty D-Pad. But, if the controller had a second analog stick below the buttons, two shoulder triggers and a d-pad more akin to the Vita, it would be an amazing pad.

 

[kunonabi]

Most of the dc library didnt really need the extra stick and buttons so i never found it to be much of an issue. The few games that did had really good alternate control options such as the arcade stick or mouse/keyboard anyway. The dpad isnt great when it's new but after breaking it in I liked it well enough. I'd still take it over the various xbox, ds4, GC, n64, and switch dpads to be quite honest.

 

[CLEEK]

It was death for 2d fighters.

I was so happy to finally import this back in the day:

...but the d pad eventually wore out.

TIL that Australia got its own Dreamcast controller.

 

[1morerobot]

edit: wrong thread!

 

[v1oz]

And people say the n64 pad was bad.

 

[mr_sockochris]

Probably my least favourite controller of all the consoles I've owned. Thankfully the official arcade stick was great and I just used that for everything I possibly could.

 

[Vitacat]

I'm biased, because the DC is one of my favorite systems of all time. So, I don't think the controller is that bad, and I loved the accessory slot design, so you could have a VMU and rumble pack inserted at the same time.

But, like mr_sockochris above, I've always been an arcade stick guy, and that's what I used for fighters and shmups.