We discussed this a bit in the teamspeak chat the other night and I figured I'd open up the discussion to the rest of the forum. We all know that over the years, third parties have tried to capitalize on innovation by releasing some really strange shit or just oddly designed controllers that don't have much of a practical use.
While I know they aren't the worst, my votes go to the Turbo Touch 360 controller from the 8.16-bit days. These things had a "touch-sensitive" d-pad (OMG Nintendo copied!) instead of a traditional raised one. You were supposed to just slide your finger across in the direction you wanted to go, but in practice it was frustrating and lacked the tactile appeal that made the traditional d-pad so wonderful to use.
The other one I remember is a one-handed RPG controller so you could use your other hand to flip through a strategy guide (noobs!). Of course, one could easily think of other situations where such a controller might just come in handy.
While I know they aren't the worst, my votes go to the Turbo Touch 360 controller from the 8.16-bit days. These things had a "touch-sensitive" d-pad (OMG Nintendo copied!) instead of a traditional raised one. You were supposed to just slide your finger across in the direction you wanted to go, but in practice it was frustrating and lacked the tactile appeal that made the traditional d-pad so wonderful to use.
The other one I remember is a one-handed RPG controller so you could use your other hand to flip through a strategy guide (noobs!). Of course, one could easily think of other situations where such a controller might just come in handy.