petter3k wrote:Tarnish wrote:I'm a bit puzzled by that USB Dreamcast controller. I mean, what games would that be good for exactly?
With the Genesis and Saturn controllers, one could say (and I agree with) that they're great for old school games due to their very good d-pad and 6 button layout.
But the DC controller doesn't have either of that, and with not enough buttons and only 1 analog stick it falls short of being an alternative to modern controllers as well, so..I find it weird.
Tho I guess it would be neat for use with DC emulators and indie devs for development.
First of all, the modern controllers
you like, are there because of this controller, or did you just think the original xbox US controller just fell down from the SKIES all by itself with no influence from ANY other controller? And the S controller after it? Or what about ANY controller for the Xbox anyway? While speaking of controllers I have yet to see a following of fans for controllers with 3 "handles" like the N64 controller. This controller not only laid the fundamentals of todays modern controllers but it is also the only one officially made that are 100% guaranteed to work with any games for this system, and I dont see how playing games for older consoles except those optimized for a 6 button layout, would be any different. Its a legendary controller. I could seriously fall asleep with this in my hands because of how comfortable it is and it has VMU slots. Not something you find so many other places, is it?
While we are talking controllers and you mention Saturn controllers, I might add that the MK1 version of the Saturn controller is maybe the worst controller available on any Sega system altogether. Not enough buttons? I would REALLY like to know what you are actually playing on a PC that this controller is not capable of doing, be it RPG, platform or just about anything.
Which game it would be good for? Are you serious? I would seriously like to know what YOU are playing that the Dreamcast controller is fundamentally
unable to handle if you are not playing a typical FPS game, where *ANY* controller sucks in the first place, and really is just a matter of getting used to, the button layout where you strafe with buttons instead of the left analog stick.
And yeah, if you are trying to develop something that requires user interaction but is doable with an emulator and you might not nescessarily HAVE TO use dcload-ip for example or the Katana Dev-kit, its nice to have the opportunity to actually test with the official controller for the system.
What I was trying to get at: why would anyone want to buy/use a Dreamcast controller in this day and age for anything other than to play Dreamcast games?
Like you said, the Xbox controller took the DC controller and
improved on it over the years, making the DC controller inferior by todays standards. It might have been fine when it was originally released in 1998/1999 (which I don't agree with, even back then it had problems that showed over time) but today it's inferior in the number of analog sticks, the quality of the analog stick (I just played using the factory DC thumbstick cap after years of using one with a PS4 cap..never want to use the original DC cap ever again) and the number of buttons.
The VMU slots were cool because the DC games were made with using them in mind. But what PC games use the VMU today? None, because noone ever thought there would be a USB DC controller one day. Game saves today are (I would assume) too big to even fit on a VMU, let alone the fact that memory cards are no longer the standard, and the games are not programmed to display anything on a VMU screen. Maybe the Jump packs are compatible with the rumble from games, that remains to be seen.
What games am I playing on the PC for which the DC controller would be not suitable? I don't play many games in general, but for example Carmageddon: Max Damage uses both analog sticks and all buttons (with the exception of one of the stick buttons if I recall). The left stick controls turning left/right (and the stick button sounds the horn), the right stick moves the camera in 360° to look around. The triggers are used for acceleration and brake, the shoulder buttons change back and forth between power-ups, the 4 face buttons are for handbrake, using the selected power-up, repairing and resetting the car. The Dpad is used for setting up quick shortcuts for your favorite power-ups. With a DC controller, I could not use the camera, sound the horn (this is not a real problem) or select between power-ups.
Another example would be Enter the Gungeon, a top down 2D run and gun game, where the left stick is used to move the character around, and the right stick is used for aiming 360°. Again, with a DC controller, you would need to compromise to play the game.
There is nothing the DC controller can do that other controllers can't do better. The only thing the DC controller can do that others can't are the VMU slots, but these are no longer useful today as controllers have built-in rumble, memory cards are no longer needed and a separate display screen on the controller didn't become a standard, and by today's standards the 48x32 dot screen is pathetically small to display anything useful.