Ep 76 - Controllers!

Retrologic

RetroLogic - Episode 76

RetroLogic isn’t just a podcast, It’s a whole community of retro gamers! Visit RetroLogic.games for our discord link, fair trade merch, blog posts written by Sam Wagers…And dive into our family of podcasts!RetroGroove, a music history podcast, and On Topic Retro, a podcast dedicated to 1 video game per episode hosted by our very own John Cummins.

Housekeeping:

• Retro Rewind April game is ToeJam & Earl!

Icebreaker - what did you buy? And what did you play?

Sam: Bought: The Ooze (Genesis), more 3DS eshop (Etrian Odyssey V, Nexus, Untold 2, Kirby’s Block Ball, Kirby’s Star Stacker, Kirby’s Pinball Land, Lufia: the legend returns, Sword of Hope II, Defenders of Oasis, Shining force: the Sword of Hajya)

Played: beat triangle strategy (again). Mega Man: Dr. Wily’s Revenge (Gameboy via 3DS), Pocket Card Jockey (3DS), Lords of Thunder (TG mini), Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (TG mini). And of course more Earthbound Beginnings (NSO NES)

John: Bought: Sonic Pocket Adventure NGPC and Kirby and the forgotten land

Played: Triangle Strategy, frog from whom the bell tolls, and

Dan: Advance Wars 2, Kirby, Hey Pikmin, Gameboy games lot (Game and watch gallery 3, Kirby’s Dream Land, Pocket Bomberman, Mario Land 2, Wave Race, DKL2, Yoshi).

The price is RETRO

“If this is your first time playing The Price Is Retro, this is how we play.

I’m going to list off 4-5 games, and everyone else has to guess how much the games are worth in total. Whoever’s guess is the closest wins that round, and the next person lists off their games. Everyone brought a list of games, and everyone guesses on each other’s lists.

At the end of the game, whoever won the most rounds wins the game!But look out for Polterguest! He guesses $300 on each list, and if he wins the game I have to give away a sticker from the merch store!”

Dan’s list

Sam’s list

John’s list

“Spot the fake”

“We’re given a list of game titles, and we have to guess which one was made up”- Sam’s list

“Games Described Badly”

“We’re given several descriptions of video games and we have to guess what game is being described.”

- Ambassador

“Retro-pedia”

“I’m going to start reading the description of a game from wikipedia. As soon as you think you know it, yell out your answer! If you’re wrong I’m giving the other people an opportunity to guess. If everyone’s wrong I’ll keep reading until someone else yells out.”

“Trivia Card”

Check out the Price Is Retro Database at Retrologic.games, we’ll be having Flightsy on an episode coming up to talk PiR stats!

Show Topic

Topic: Controllers throughout history

Arcades:

Since whole cabinets were made for one game, truly unique controls could be tailored to a single game.

Joysticks and buttons became standard quickly, but button placement could vary.

Trackballs (Centipede, Marble Madness)

Dials (pong, arkanoid)

Steering wheels and pedals (like every racing game)

Light guns (like every arcade shooting game)

Rotating Joysticks (Ikari warriors and other SNK games)

DDR

Consoles(main):

Atari Joystick w/ 1 button

NES controller gives us the D-PadGenesis does 3 buttons for some reason.

4 face buttons on the SNES, another industry standardSony’s Dual shock Controller gives us dual analog, which becomes a gold standard for industry.N64 Controller: it’s not that bad

Dreamcast: divisive. But ergonomic. I wish the stick was more grippy.

Gamecube: perfection (except that D-pad)

3rd party and peripherals:

Fightsticks - still tournament standard for most fighting games, esp. Street fighter.

HOTAS or Yoke (hands on throttle and stick) - flight simsLight guns (NES Zapper, Master System, Super Scope)Powerglove

Gameboy Tilt ControlsMicrophone - N64, Gamecube

SNES Mouse (and N64 mouse for DD)

R.O.B.Guitar Hero, Rock Band, etc.

Alternative controllers (that you might play any game with)NES - Max, advantage, dogbone

Genesis - 6 button

Playstation - the aforementioned dual shock

Community:Question: I wanna hear about the weirdest 3rd party controller you've ever used.

Fight Crab Fanatic — 03/28/2022

The Steam controller had a track pad instead of a right thumb stick. The pad had to be edited for every game on Steam. The trackpad had a cool haptic feedback

WondrousWill — 03/28/2022

I've used the Onimusha katana for PS2. I remember it somehow being better than I expected, but not good enough to use a 2nd time. Fortunately, it wasn't mine. It made for a very cool display piece, though.

SpiderShan — 03/28/2022

Do those Wii lightsaber Wiimote holders count? Not really controllers themselves. I’ve always wanted a DQ Slime controller.

ChrisHL94 🇨🇦 — 03/28/2022

I wouldn’t call it weird but I loved the NES Advantage growing up. It was the real arcade feeling that I enjoyed the most. The rapid fire A and B buttons were great as well. I would unleash a hail of fire balls playing any of the Mario games.

OctoRock (Adam) — 03/28/2022

This one is a little bit out there, and it might be a loose fit, but a family friend of ours in the ‘80s had a Captain Power set complete with the spaceships and multiple corresponding VHS tapes. It’s crazy to think about now, but the ships were basically equal parts toy and light gun controller that worked similarly to the NES Zapper. But there was no game console, the ships would interact with certain elements contained within the video playing from the VHS tapes. (I think there was also a TV show that aired that the ships could interact with, but I don’t think it lasted long).

The ships even had an action figure in the cockpit that would eject and fly across the room if you lost the mission.

Seems really archaic now, but as a 5 year old it was like magic.

Flightsy — 03/28/2022

I’m afraid I don’t have a fun story for this one. The only 3rd party controllers I’ve used are fake Gamecube controllers, where the only notable thing was that the analog stick wore out really quick.

SkinnyMatt — 03/29/2022

Epyx made a joystick. We used these for the C-64. It looks funny, but man was it comfortable. The button placement was great, and it was easy to hold. ESL orally good while playing Summer Games and Summer Games II on the Commodore. FYI, they made one for the NES too!

Community Couch

Questions

Fight Crab Fanatic — 03/24/2022

Big question that can be answered right now or over the air: What does your spouse say when you say "Honey I want to buy (insert $200-$300 system)"

Outro

Thanks for listening to the RetroLogic Podcast! We are proudly part of the Nintendo Dads family of podcasts. If you like what you hear, check me out on Twitter and Instagram @RetrologicGames. You’re also welcome to jump into our friendly and 100% non-toxic Discord Community! The link to that is in my twitter bio.

You can also find everything on our website Retrologic.games