Annoying things about your favorite systems?

[BassGuitari]

Just 'cause we love them doesn't mean they're perfect.

 

 

 

Atari 7800: Having to manhandle the console to remove a [7800] cartridge.

 

VIC-20: Cartridge port at back of computer; extremely tight cart port.

 

Intellivision, Studio II, Astrocade: Brushed aluminum panels are scratch magnets.

 

Channel F, Astrocade: Controller/cartridge storage lids invariably have "cord melt" or extensive scuffing and scratching.

 

DINA: Composite mod and controller extension cords basically required; upside-down Parker Bros. labels.

 

TI-99/4a: Keyboard has only about 11 keys, each with 7 shift functions. (I exaggerate, but only just.)

 

Pong systems in general: They're so fun to collect, but there's so little reason to do so.

[80s_Atari_Guy]

Commodore 16 / Plus4 - Why take industry standard 9-pin joystick ports, and change them for mini din sockets ? And why change the cassette port to a mini din ?

Intellivision - The joypads being wired to the system. And that Disc will always divide opinion. I hated it.

Colecovision - That massive PSU, with non-standard socket. Those awful controllers.

Atari 7800 - All Atari''s previous hardware had fairly standard PSU sockets, so it was easier to get replacement PSUs. Cue the 7800, with it's weird PSU socket.

Acorn Electron - Really nice computer, Acorn's cheap BBC Micro alternative. But when you wanted to expand it, Plus 1, Plus 3, Roms, etc.. you ended up with a computer now bigger than a BBC B.

http://lionels.orpheusweb.co.uk/CompNyb/TechStuff/8-Bit/Electron/Electron.html

Commodore 64 - The Joysticks ports 1 & 2 were great if you wanted some 2-player action. But for one player, you never knew if the game wanted Port 1 or Port 2, so you would have to keep swapping ports. If you left 2 joysticks in at all times, you sometimes had problems, including weird characters appearing on the home screen.

[spacecadet]

This has the risk of just turning in to a list of flaws of every system, so to keep it limited to my favorites and the things I still have to overlook about them:

 

Intellivision: its cartridges feel cheap compared to its competitors, metal panels dent so easily that it's difficult to find a system that's undamaged these days.

 

Dreamcast: LOUD in regular operation, and alarming in the sounds it makes; battery is *soldered* in!

 

Apple II: they all yellow to hell, and until the IIGS I feel like the keyboards all had one problem or another (keys that pop off, switches that stop working, rubber membranes that stiffen up, etc.)

 

Atari XL: I know there are at least 5 different keyboards, but all the ones I've typed on were total mush.

 

C64: Same as Atari XL.

 

Probably my favorite consoles ever are the Sega Genesis and Saturn; I tried to think of some actual flaws in those systems (as opposed to debatable design decisions) and I couldn't. There may be things about them that I would change if I had the power to do so, but nothing about them that I feel like actually got in the way of the end user experience. Maybe the original controller on the Saturn, which was about the flimsiest piece of plastic I've ever picked up. But they fixed that.

[Flojomojo]

Fun topic.

 

Most of my beefs are 21st century problems; I liked the old systems well enough when they were new, but wish they were all HDMI ready with wireless controls. I love me some Flashbacks, warts and all.

 

Atari 2600

Then: put the Difficulty Switches back in the front, and make it clearer which way is which! Also, the joysticks hurt the hands, and should plug into the front.

Now: Atari Flashback added wireless controllers and put the jacks in the front (yay!) but still don't label the difficulty switches in an easy to read way.

 

Intellivision

Then: the discs, of course ... and the coiled controllers. Plus it got awfully hot.

Now: no good replacement for the weird controllers apart from Flashback

 

Colecovision: Mostly air inside, coiled controllers, finicky

 

Atari 5200: size of a small car, big power brick, bad games

 

Atari Jaguar, Sega Saturn: not straightforward enough to have a kickass emulator

 

Playstation: disc read errors, must turn upside down :-(

 

Dreamcast: no one has made a Dreamcast Mini

 

Xbox One: what ape designed this GUI?

 

Nintendo Switch: too big to pocket, too fragile to carry everywhere

 

I like video games, don't get me wrong

[pacman000]

Game Boy Series: Hard to see in poorly lit rooms.

 

PS1; PS2; PS3: Loading.

 

 

Dreamcast: no one has made a Dreamcast Mini

https://segaretro.org/Treamcast

[zzip]

Atari 2600 - Why does the power cord always wind itself up?

 

Atari 8-bit - The color placement limitations always irked me when I learned about them. Although I see people doing amazing things with it now!

 

Atari STe - Lack of battery-backed system clock. Really needs a hard drive to maximize, but the cost to add a hard drive was crazy back then, because you not only needed a more expensive SCSI drive, you needed an external case, a custom cable, and an ACSI <-> SCSI Adapter

 

PC - always seemed to need some hardware upgraded to play that new game you bought

 

Nintendo GBA SP Clamshell - Nothing, it's perfect!

 

Wii - its large game library is lackluster outside a few great titles. Also the annoying menu screen/eShop music.

 

PS4 - Battery life for DS4 is too short. The invisible buttons on my launch model.. Too easy to touch them by accident.

 

PSVR - The cables

[BassGuitari]

 

Commodore 64 - The Joysticks ports 1 & 2 were great if you wanted some 2-player action. But for one player, you never knew if the game wanted Port 1 or Port 2, so you would have to keep swapping ports. If you left 2 joysticks in at all times, you sometimes had problems, including weird characters appearing on the home screen.

 

Preach.

 

This has the risk of just turning in to a list of flaws of every system, so to keep it limited to my favorites and the things I still have to overlook about them:

 

Atari XL: I know there are at least 5 different keyboards, but all the ones I've typed on were total mush.

 

C64: Same as Atari XL.

 

Really? Every C64 or Atari XL keyboard I've run across had very crisp action, except maybe one 800XL keyboard that wasn't as snappy but still pretty nice.

 

Now, Atari XE and ST keyboards...those are mush.

 

Fun topic.

 

Atari 5200: ......bad games

 

We can't be friends anymore.

 

Game Boy Series: Hard to see in poorly lit rooms.

 

Even in good lighting conditions, the screen on an original brick GB is so blurry it's tear-inducing. Makes me wonder how I ever put up with it BITD.

 

The GB Pocket and GB Color screens were better at least, but still impossible to see unless under direct light.

 

PC - always seemed to need some hardware upgraded to play that new game you bought

 

The PC situation was definitely my case after the mid-'90s. Our stock Packard Bell 486 could run Dark Forces and TIE Fighter and Doom II and Duke 3D in its sleep, but even after we upgraded to a new system a few years later, it seemed like I always needed to upgrade the RAM and video card and whatever to play Battlefield 1942 or Quake III on even the most basic settings.

[derFunkenstein]

Just a few here:

Dreamcast - loud, didn't play back DVDs (which might have saved it), and only 4 face buttons when we really needed 6.

 

PS4 - controller battery life is abysmal.

 

Genesis - got a bad reputation for voice sample playback that I blame almost entirely on Capcom and its ports of SF2 and Super SF2. Other games have no problems with sampled audio, and there are hacks that greatly improve it in those Capcom games.

 

Gamecube - the controller OMG (even though lots of folks think it's fine)

[juansolo]

Dreamcast: LOUD in regular operation, and alarming in the sounds it makes; battery is *soldered* in!

 

All fixable with a bit of fettling.

 

[Flojomojo]

Nintendo GBA SP Clamshell - Nothing, it's perfect!

 

Mostly great. 2 major flaws:

 

1. There are 2 different screens. The early one is dim, the updated one is perfect.

2. No headphone jack.

 

If Nintendo made a new AGS-101 screen GBA that charged off USB C and had a headphone jack, I'd buy a bunch immediately.

[spacecadet]

Really? Every C64 or Atari XL keyboard I've run across had very crisp action, except maybe one 800XL keyboard that wasn't as snappy but still pretty nice.

 

Now, Atari XE and ST keyboards...those are mush.

 

 

We might just have different expectations. I grew up with Apple II's of various types; the ][+ was what made me want one in the first place, the IIe is the one I hoped to get someday, and the IIc is the one I ended up with. The original II's had linear keyboards that bottomed out easily. They didn't feel light, exactly - they still felt heavy, but the resistance was constant throughout the keystroke. The IIc had a clicky keyboard that felt like a poor-man's IBM Model M.

 

So the Atari XL and Commodore computers always felt mushy to me. The resistance definitely gets stronger as the key travels downward. It's hard to bottom out either keyboard in regular typing, unless you are a really seriously heavy typist.

 

I just recently got an Atari 800 and it's a little better. It reminds me more of an Apple ][+ keyboard, although still not quite the same.

 

But even today I prefer either fully linear (unchanging resistance and no tactile bump) or clicky, tactile keyboards (which give way completely after the bump). The one kind of keyboard that I can't stand are ones that have greater resistance at the bottom than the top. The XL line and C64 had that; so did a lot of other computers in those days but I wouldn't call any others among my favorite computers, so I only mentioned those two. The ST definitely had a mushier keyboard, but it also isn't among my favorite systems so I didn't mention it either.

[dj_convoy]

Atari 5200; well, yeah, the controllers (except for a handful of games where the controller really works well, like Robotron, Space Dungeon and Defender) plus the gargantuan size

 

Colecovision; the controllers

 

Vectrex, not a huge fan of the controller, maybe a bit finicky when inserting a cart

 

NES; colors are often pretty poor, modern fetishization of it and it's games is dumb

 

Genesis; lack of displayable on screen colors make people think it's weak or somehow bad when most often it's lazy ports that are to blame (see hacks where Pyron and others tweak colors)

 

Saturn; too many games left behind in Japan, collecting for it these days is a bitch. Drains the CMOS battery ridiculously fast

 

Dreamcast; that damn, noisy-ass fan and soldered in battery (yes, fixable by some, but not me)

 

PS3; wish the PS2 backward compatibility had been left in

 

PS4; wish it had any backward compatibility

 

Game Gear; wish the default screen didn't entirely suck

 

Lynx; ditto

 

Sega Master System; don't make me say anything bad about my precious baby. Okay; I wish the library was deeper (at least you can move on to collecting PAL games)

 

 

 

Almost every system; shovelware can bloat make it difficult to find the good stuff

[BydoEmpire]

7800 & SMS - pause button on the console. Nice to have a pause button, but with my current setup it's inconvenient to have it on the console instead of the controller.

 

7800 - love the console, but hate the PainLines and the Euro pads aren't any better. Fortunately most games work with 2600 sticks.

 

Intellivision - love the library, but so many have to be played on level 4 because the other difficulties are sooooo slooooow.

 

Dreamcast - floaty Dpad. It's awful, although I like the DC controller in general.

[80s_Atari_Guy]

I love the Sega Megadrive (Or Genesis for the US), but this was annoying.

 

[Flojomojo]

I love the Sega Megadrive (Or Genesis for the US), but this was annoying.

 

I wish the Neptune had been built.

[Lord Innit]

N64 - No RGB without modding. Never understood why they crippled the console with inferior composhite and S-Video.

[derFunkenstein]

 

All fixable with a bit of fettling.

 

 

Yep, I've got one of those in the USB-GDROM Dreamcast I'm looking to part with. And I'm only saying that because it makes an ENORMOUS difference, if you get the right fan. There's a 5-v capable version of that fan and one that's not; the one that's not doesn't spin at all and the system overheats. The one that spins does a great job venting air and keeping it cool without being loud.

 

I also replaced the heatsinks and fan in my v1.0 Xbox. Got the 1.1 heatsinks (passive GPU cooler) and a 70-mm fan, and it's tons quieter.

Edited July 12, 2018 by derFunkenstein

[Eltigro]

 

Intellivision - The joypads being wired to the system. And that Disc will always divide opinion. I hated it.

 

Yeah... I'd play much more Intellivision if the controllers weren't how they are... hate that disc and the side buttons are just so hard to press (although that could be due to age?... the system's, not mine)

 

 

 

Atari Jaguar, Sega Saturn: not straightforward enough to have a kickass emulator

 

Playstation: disc read errors, must turn upside down :-(

 

 

 

Yeah, it's difficult to get a Saturn emulator to work like you want, but it can be done... For the Jag, though, I still haven't found one that works enough for me to want to fight it.

 

And I had to do that with my original playstation back in the day... don't remember how I figured out that it would still work if I did that...

 

 

Game Boy Series: Hard to see in poorly lit rooms.

 

 

 

Yes!

 

As for my own gripes...

 

TurboGrafx-16 - I hate how much the single controller port annoys other people. It doesn't bother me. Seems like any time the system is mentioned that topic is required to come up.

 

Dreamcast - The controllers just aren't that comfortable to me. I've mentioned it before, but the hand grips on the back are pretty close to parallel and it feels unnatural compared to the angled out grips of, say, the Playstation or XBox. Also, I gave up on putting batteries in my VMUs a long time ago...

 

Saturn - Why is my battery dead again? I need to play it more I guess... Other than that, love the system. Just wish it had more games... and they were cheaper...

 

Jaguar - First, the number pad thing is just a bad idea imo. But second, I wish there were more (any) aftermarket controllers... some joysticks or controllers with auto fire or spinners... I know there are some modded controllers out there, but I wish there were some that were made that way originally... Also, a dust cover to protect the cartridge port. I've gotten to where I just leave a cartridge inthe system so it doesn't get dusty in there. Tired of red screens.

 

PSP - Wish it would connect to a WPA2 secured wifi. I think later models will, but mine won't.

 

Sega Master System - Pause button on the console? No separate start button on the controller? Maybe I'm just used to the NES controllers.

[Tanooki]

TG16 - Agreed, seems more like a reason to complain about just 1 controller port, but I think it's a fair gripe to bitch about having to buy a turbo booster at the price it was 30 years ago and definitely with the current gaming inflation going on.

 

SMS- Agreed about the stupid pause button location entirely. I'd also add it wasn't made to allow for external game card side expansion, so the games never got better than the hardware allowed for.

 

PS1/Saturn - Endless seeming load screens that just dragged in so many games, Saturn was even slower to load.

 

Genesis - Tinny metallic audio style, never felt they utilitized that common arcade used audio chip well. And unlike djconvoy I think it is a solid grip ripping on it for the crappy on screen color allowances in its day, even the PCE/TG16 that's older made it look bad.

 

GameGear/Nomad -- God awful screen, equally crappy battery life.

 

GBC - Lame assed TFT panel, no light source (same with stock original GBA too which was even harder to see even with decent light.)

 

GBASP - No audio jack without lame paid dongle, L/R buttons can make the backs of the hands sore on L/R button more intense usage games

 

Gameboy series being dark - I'd agree kind of, I didn't mind using worm lights, but I have a GB Light handheld now so that is dead, though that leaves GBC still at the mercy of using a GBA SP.

 

N64 - Yamauchi likely suffering from some delusions or early stage alzheimers in the 90s allows it to not use CDs, screws Nintendo in that present for games/licensee losses for years to come

 

Wii/DS - (Grouping it for same crime) -- That crime would be force touch/motion(manipulation) controls that diminished a lot of games making them very annoying juggling functions around game play or muddying an experience with forced bloat as a gimmick

[+save2600]

Having trouble coming up with many gripes about the original 6-switch VCS. Rear controller ports never really bugged me, but I suppose it would have been nice to have them in the front. Only "real" gripe I can think of is how the cartridge slot, being made of aluminum, would scratch up or mar your carts after a while.

 

I do "hate" how the 7800 isn't Imagic & Mattel cartridge friendly, but at least the controller ports are up front.

 

Some of these have already been mentioned:

 

Lynx screen

ColecoVision controllers

Intellivision controllers

Vectrex controller (asinine employing an analog joystick)

Ditto for the 5200 of course

Quality of CD add-ons (nearly all are fragile as hell)

C64 musical joystick lunacy

TI-99/4A for not having 2 controller ports and Texas Instruments prematurely ditching the machine & leaving the home computer market

Idiotically designed CD-ROM on the Jaguar w/ no RAM

Poor, lazy and sloppy conversions for the Amiga and CD32

Premature death of the SuperGrafx

Lack of quality titles for the TurboGrafx, when all that needed to be done was bring over many of the Japanese titles

NEC PC-FX - pffft (not a fav system, but coulda/shoulda been)

[Newsdee]

NEC PC Engine Duos: no RGB (without mod) after every other earlier console had RGB via expansion port...

[Jess Ragan]

So Dreamcast, what do you have to say for yourself?

 

EEEEEEEEEE

 

That's what I thought.

[sprazzi]

Sinclair ZX Spectrum: the keybords is among what defines the system, but maybe not really good for playing...

[mr_me]

...

 

Intellivision - love the library, but so many have to be played on level 4 because the other difficulties are sooooo slooooow.

 

...

Many Intellivision games have slow speed options but the difficulty is really the same. Always play these games at normal speed by pressing the disc to start. There are some games that have difficulty options rather than play speeds, e.g. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Reference the instructions to know for sure.

 

Intellivision side buttons are stiff, although I don't remember complaining about it as a kid.

[Video]

Any console with primary fire buttons on the SIDE of the controller (7800, 5200, coleco, intellivision etc) this simply has never been 'normal' or comfortable.

 

C=64. I LOVE it, but no standard for what joystick port is port 1.

 

Dreamcast. Loud as hell, and that blocky controller with to few buttons by late 90's standards.

 

N64, that abortion of a controller, wtf?!

 

Game boy sp. Weird port for charging, no headphone port, low throw buttons that want to be clicky, but aren't.

 

Nintendo (company) for NOT releasing game boy light in us.

 

Game boy pocket, carp battery life.

 

Sega genesis, and addons, requiring another psu for each piece.

 

Coilly controller cords, any system (coleco and intellivision)

 

Actuall, most my beef with most consoles is the controller, LOL. As for consoles themselves, mostly empty space, make the same things smaller (Even without modding the board, many systems can easily be half the size they are)

 

(Edit) modern devices and their spell checkers that throw whatever the he'll they want in place of words, regardless of the words spelling being correct or not.

Edited July 13, 2018 by Video