Top 10 worst game controllers

vsp · 03-01-2006, 08:27 AM

Any article that shits on the Intellivision controller and ranks the 5200 controller as being LESS offensive is ridiculous.

I grew up with an Intellivision, and the "up or up and slightly left?" thing they mentioned would hang you up for... oh... twenty seconds until you got used to it, unless you had the reflexes of a six-year-old. It was perfect for the sports games that were the system's flagship titles, a poor man's analog that worked better with its sixteen directions than the eight-direction Atari 2600 standard. The keypad allowed much more complicated games than Atari's controllers allowed, a fact Atari acknowledged when it packaged Star Raiders with a "Video Touch Pad" kluge (and even then Space Spartans on Inty was better and _had voice_).

The side fire buttons were the only problem with the Inty controller, and there weren't many games that would wear your fingers out when using them.

For my money, the ColecoVision controller (similar design, but with an 8-dir knob on top instead of a 16-dir disc on the bottom) was worse, because accessing the keypad was tougher than it was on the Inty's.

But the 5200 stick was the pits. Not only did it have the ridiculous non-centering joystick, not only did it have awful chiclet fire buttons, but its buttons and moving parts had a half-life of about two weeks. When I was heavily into my retrogaming collection, finding decent 5200 controllers with all parts intact was one of the holy grails. Didn't happen often if at all.

Can't believe that they didn't put the <a href="http://www.atariage.com/controller_page.html?SystemID=2600&ControllerID=11">Joyboard</a> on the list. A rocking controller that you had to stand on and balance yourself while playing? Yeah, that'll play in Peoria.

The Jaguar controller wasn't GOOD per se, but it worked well with Tempest 2000, which was the only reason to own the system in the first place.

03-01-2006, 08:27 AM	#1
vsp Syndrome of a Down Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: West Chester Posts: 1,367	Any article that shits on the Intellivision controller and ranks the 5200 controller as being LESS offensive is ridiculous. I grew up with an Intellivision, and the "up or up and slightly left?" thing they mentioned would hang you up for... oh... twenty seconds until you got used to it, unless you had the reflexes of a six-year-old. It was perfect for the sports games that were the system's flagship titles, a poor man's analog that worked better with its sixteen directions than the eight-direction Atari 2600 standard. The keypad allowed much more complicated games than Atari's controllers allowed, a fact Atari acknowledged when it packaged Star Raiders with a "Video Touch Pad" kluge (and even then Space Spartans on Inty was better and _had voice_). The side fire buttons were the only problem with the Inty controller, and there weren't many games that would wear your fingers out when using them. For my money, the ColecoVision controller (similar design, but with an 8-dir knob on top instead of a 16-dir disc on the bottom) was worse, because accessing the keypad was tougher than it was on the Inty's. But the 5200 stick was the pits. Not only did it have the ridiculous non-centering joystick, not only did it have awful chiclet fire buttons, but its buttons and moving parts had a half-life of about two weeks. When I was heavily into my retrogaming collection, finding decent 5200 controllers with all parts intact was one of the holy grails. Didn't happen often if at all. Can't believe that they didn't put the <a href="http://www.atariage.com/controller_page.html?SystemID=2600&ControllerID=11">Joyboard</a> on the list. A rocking controller that you had to stand on and balance yourself while playing? Yeah, that'll play in Peoria. The Jaguar controller wasn't GOOD per se, but it worked well with Tempest 2000, which was the only reason to own the system in the first place.

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