kisrael

Ask the atari 5200 controller owners Really? People played with those damn floppy non-centering pieces of crap long enough to break them???

Yimminy crickets, what are you doing to them? And what breaks, the analog stick? I've seen a few broken sticks, but I know my cousins abuse 'em and step on 'em etc, and one where the rubber mat for the z button folded under itself a bit making it a usable but less snappy, and one that was sticky internally probably 'cause of a spill. I see the sticks looking a little worn, you see the dust from where they grind, but very few actually end up busted. And I dunno if potential durability issues is enough to put any single controller in "worst ever" territory.

You mean like that big grey base, black stick one? It's random turnability drove me nuts. Plus, it had a large "throw"...it was comfortable to hold for long periods, but moving it around would be tiring in the long run I think...

...except the grips were angular and uncomfortable (Dreamcast), and the stick had terrible texture, so your thumb would always slip off while playing games where you almost constantly held up, like in FPS games (Dreamcast). Why do you keep saying Dreamcast? As an better example or something? Anyway, I found the top texture painful, not slippery... Heh, the original Mario Party and those stupid spinning games...ouch!

How far back does your gaming go? I mean, I feel kind of opposite of you, in that N64 is pretty good and Dual Shock 2 is pretty bad, but I wouldn't put either of them in the category of best ever / worst ever. And just because they break? I've broken like 1, and my system has gotten plenty of multiplayer (incl mario party) use--and even that 1 wasn't 'broken', just squishy 'cause juice got in it.

Haven't done a DC racer for 2 hours, but got some good long racing in on Rush 2049 or whatever it is. Seemed ok. I find the button doesn't so much click as crunch. Very poor feedback. And re thumb placement...the way you draw, the thumb looks stretched in a bad way. Is that how you're supposed to hold it or is there a better way?

You're obviously using it wrong. How so? In not finding the grip comfortable? (thumbs too far extended to hit the sticks) In finding too many similar buttons? (especially on the shoulders...my pointer and index fingers don't feel that different to me when I'm not looking) In thinking that the buttons, usually used for on/off tasks, don't have a nice solid response? In having trouble knowing how they feel pressed "partway"? Compared to the proper throttle buttons, like DC or GC, they really suck...I never feel confident that they're all the way pressed (like, the gas on GTA:3 or :VC)--that is just a ridiculously small amount of give to put in "255 degrees of sensitivity"--so I tend to overdo it, which hurts after a while To me, the Dual Shock 2 is a ridiculous, uncomfortable, relatively unimaginative controller whose only saving grace is symmetrical controles and the ability to click the sticks in.

Back in the day (of one stick/one button) you had some real innovation in stick design, because there were so many workable options. Now, most third party controls are just slightly malformed versions of the stock. So, going over memory lane: Gemini/Columbia Home Arcade - decent stick w/ built in paddle - B Amiga PowerStick - tiny but comfortable...tiny stick = good control - A- Wico - overrated. Too huge. The giant black and red one could be tolerable, but that grey and black pseudo-flightstick looking thing would rotate so the orientation of stick wasn't quite N/S/E/W. C- Epyx 500XJ - terrifix. So comfortable, great clicky feel. A. Wico Ergostick - a 500XJ with nice soft rubber all around, same great feel. A+. In terms of System: (graded on a curve, considering what the competitors were doing at the time.) Atari 2600 - elegant, but hard to push. B-. Intellivision - "precision" my ass. If I can't tell how to go exactly East, NOW, and not "East by North East" I don't want it. C-. Colecovision - Bad response. Good 2nd button. C. Atari 5200 - floppy fish. D-. Vectrex - ok stick, bad button placement. C. NES - elegent, boxy but comfortable. B. Gensis - Lame and derivative. Ooh, a third button. Buttons not in a crosspad formation. Props for backwards compatbility with old "atari" standard though... B. SNES - brilliant arrangement of 4 buttons as gamepad, shoulder buttons. B+. PSX - rip off of SNES, no decent crosspad, two many similar shoulder buttons. C. N64 - the return of the analog stick! good button differntiation. Scrapey joystick top tho. Most games made ok, conservsative use of crosspad if they also used the stick - A- Dreamcast - big but not bad. VMU was clever idea, not used well enough. Nice triggers. - A. PS2 Dualshock 2 - nice symmetry, but not that comfortable. too many similar buttons. Dualshock 2 really sucks--those should NOT be analog buttons, just makes 'em squishy, and you can't really judge the pressure. B-. GameCube - Sooo comfortable for long termplay, good button differntiation, too-tiny crosspad. If I had to pick one controller for videogames from now on, this would be it. A. I know I'm biased a bit, but Nintendo and to a lesser extent Sega have been the only innovators in controllers lately. Sony ripped off the SNES and then the N64 in analog sticks, but get some points for symmetry and pressing "in" is kind of useful. Xbox's ripoffness is widely known. Just adding in more buttons really isn't innovation. Breakway cords are a little clever.

Yeah, mine arrived yesterday. I still kinda wish he had e-mailed a confirmation ahead of time. Don't sellers usually do that? It gives me warm fuzzies and lets me know things are underway.

I guess Mario Tennis or Virtua Tennis is just a "prettier clone of Pong", huh? That quote's just stupid. This game had a good amount of depth, both visually and gameplay wise. Some collecting gameplay, multiple ways of attacking enemies, some exploration elements (finding all the balloons and bananas and K O N G), beautiful worlds, cart levels, some clever enemy design, your animal allies to ride, decent bosses, and a fun co-operative 2-player mode, different attributes for DK vs Diddy... Sure, you kind find many of those elements in other platformers, but very few did it so well in such a nice package...and the use of pre-rendered but dynamic graphics was innovative, and let the old SNES look better than most PSX and N64 games.

Jeez, was that 1940tony from Ebay? We haven't even touched base yet, and I Bought It Now on Thursday...

hey, have people who used that guy from ebay heard back from him yet? I'm not sure if I missed an email in my spam filter or what, but I haven't heard word one...

Well, you've clearly shown people can't be relied on to type other's name's correctly, so I guess you better do it yourself

I looked at the eBay auctions for the set for $8 plus the $3.50 shipping and its almost the same price as buying them at the store, without the risk of possible post office damage. Not sure where they are coming from so cheap on eBay. At first glance I thought maybe its an employee that got them but then I remembered reading news stories about employee's getting fired for just eating the hamburgers that had passed the "time limit" and were supposed to be thrown in the trash. Also, I wasn't sure if they'd let you get every single toy on one trip, I thought they were still in "no, this is THIS week's toy" mode, to get people to come back again and again.

??

$2 each, huh? I'm a little bit ahead via ebay, wonder where that guy gets 'em so cheap. BTW, why do so many people sign their names at the bottom of posts? I mean, isn't the avatar on the left and the name printed above it enough?

Thanks for the tip! Just for the convenience factor it's worth it.

They're also surprisingly durable I think... (probably to prevent the possibility of any loose parts -> choking -> lawsuit) You can't even press into the LED for that neat rainbow effect.

Snipe with a tommy gun? Huh. Well, for lamers like me (sometimes in Quake III I haven't even learned the map; I'm just doing the old run and gun, always in motion) it's great. Some of the single player stuff is awfully hard though, the challenge missions.

Thanks for the picture, I was indeed wondering a bit.

Unreal's framerate always seems pretty crappy to me, whether DC or PS2. Not unplayable per se, but not good at all. Quake III for DC is a standout in smooth gameplay. Time Splitters 2 is also very good, with a lot of variety. I've played it on GC, I assume the other versions stand up as well (pity about the lack of online play tho) Some random James Bond games have decent deathmatch. What was that first one that came out for GC? I get them all confused. "Agent Under Fire", that's the one. You have to tweak with the settings a bit to get a great game, but its fun. Haven't done much w/ Turok on the latest set of systems, though the load times and just not that fun rest of it make me wonder if they'd be any good.

Yeah, but on the FIRST day? This was a goofy little thing in a mall food court. Could the toys have arrived before the boxes? Or maybe they don't do boxes...the court already has a bit more trash than it can handle at lunchtime.

Yeah, but two things: you're underplaying the importance of the look (I don't think my aunt would have been as interested if it looked like, say, Mario) and two, it had some really nice graphic design with the characters and especially the backgrounds (in particular the underwater levels). They didn't just use a "cheaty" form of graphics; they used it well

Good game play and GREAT music I thought...I can't think of any 2600 game that has better.

According to that link, from today 'til July 24th or so. Dunno if they'll sell seperate or not...I think they will, but I"m not sure. The problem is traditionally only one type of toy is available at a time I think, so you have to keep hitting the store...correct me if someone knows better.