N64 Controller: a classic or not?

[Manolito]

I’ve read many times that the Super NES controller meant a lot for the video game industry. Indeed, most of the following controllers are shaped like the controller.

The N64 controller had its interesting things as well, though.



Trigger Button
It’s still the only controller where I feel that the trigger button feels like a trigger button. Combining it with the rumble pack made it quite heavy, but I liked that, too.

Button Placement
It had 6 face buttons. Now, the C buttons were small, yes. But a setup with 6 buttons is so convenient in many ways, I’d say. I felt I had far more control with a digital group of buttons for movement (Turok), than using the second control stick for it, like how it’s usually been done nowadays with FPS games, even though walk and strafing is being done digitally on the PC, as well (WSAD and shift to alternate between walking and running).

Control Stick
I’ve read many times that this is the weak part of the controller. That the control is stiff, and that it’s awkward with the fixed 8-way ends, because of the octagonal base. I do agree that it wears out far too soon, but when it’s still fully working, I prefer this ‘stiff’ control over the later GameCube control stick, up to even recent’s Classic Controller, or the one on the Wii-U.

The Bad
Yes, it should’ve had a select button, and maybe the 3 ways of holding the controller was not such a good idea, but I pretty much prefer it over the much more thought out GameCube controller, which I didn’t really like all that much. The bean buttons were nice, but the shoulder triggers were too clunky. The D-Pad was shockingly bad for a Nintendo product.

[Ganty]

Still my favourite controller of all time. I can't imagine playing a precision platformer (Mario, Banjo Kazzoie) with anything else.

[WRATH OF BOD]

i never got away with it, just didnt feel right for me, i do like the xbox & ps3 pads though

[Rick Sanchez]

I've still got my N64, I'll never get rid of it!

[Mr.James]

Pad was awful... But, and this is a 'future of gaming' changing BUT, golden eye (or was it perfect dark?) introduced (as far as I was concerned/aware) the dual analogue approach. Left pad analogue was walk/strafe, right pad analogue was aim and both had trigger to shoot. Either way, Nintendo invented the the future of gaming controller mechanisms...

[Rick Sanchez]

GoldenEye my friend

Sent from my Nexus 4

[fanni]

Goldeneye and that pad was the best years of gaming i ever had

Saying that street fighter 2 and the snes pad was bloody good as well

[Ashley]

Goldeneye and that pad was the best years of gaming i ever had

Saying that street fighter 2 and the snes pad was bloody good as well

I used to love the way you could strafe left and right using the C buttons, used to glide round corners

[nutty6]

If there's a rogue piece of software or a virus installed somewhere they could make the changes you said.

[AP0ll0UK]

If I'm not mistaken was that using the 1.2 Solitaire controller profile on GoldenEye

My mate and I lived on GoldenEye when it came out. Multiplayer with 4 people was awesome on a Friday night after a few beers.

I had it working on an N64 emu on my Touchpad running Android with the Wii controllers. It was ok but quite laggy. I suspect it may have run better on something like a Samsung Tab which natively runs Android and has a slightly better GPU.

I should probably investigate what needs to be done to get it running on my server under Ubuntu / XBMC when I've got the time.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

[AP0ll0UK]

If there's a rogue piece of software or a virus installed somewhere they could make the changes you said.

WTF?

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

[Manolito]

Pad was awful... But, and this is a 'future of gaming' changing BUT, golden eye (or was it perfect dark?) introduced (as far as I was concerned/aware) the dual analogue approach. Left pad analogue was walk/strafe, right pad analogue was aim and both had trigger to shoot. Either way, Nintendo invented the the future of gaming controller mechanisms...

Well, the standard controls had you walking and turning with the stick and strafing and looking up and down digitally with the c-buttons. You had analogue aiming control when holding R, so in a sense you could call it dual analogue control. But it’s not simultaneous dual analogue control.

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter was much closer. Released on February 28th, 1997—close to the European release of the N64, you aimed with the stick (look up/down, left/right), while you moved forward and backward, and strafed left and right with the c-buttons. Compared to GoldenEye: 007, you could say forward/backward and look up/look down were switched around.

[Mr.James]

Well, the standard controls had you walking and turning with the stick and strafing and looking up and down digitally with the c-buttons. You had analogue aiming control when holding R, so in a sense you could call it dual analogue control. But it’s not simultaneous dual analogue control.

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter was much closer. Released on February 28th, 1997—close to the European release of the N64, you aimed with the stick (look up/down, left/right), while you moved forward and backward, and strafed left and right with the c-buttons. Compared to GoldenEye: 007, you could say forward/backward and look up/look down were switched around.

Did you even play it?

There were 4 single controller configurations and 4 dual controller configurations.

I always used to play with 2.3 Domino. Left hand pad was look and strafe. Right hand pad was aim.


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[Goldberg]

Goldeneye, 3 mates and a 21" CRT TV! That was how 'multi-player' gaming was meant to be and the reason people have bad eyesight!

[{{909}}]

I dunno why but I never got into goldeneye but started my FPS gaming with Turok and because I was so used to its almost PCesque controls I could never play goldeneye without forgetting the controls and ending up facing into the floor in the heat of a shootout.

I do think the pad was a revolution though, sure it seems a bit shitty compared to current pads but they are all evolution of this pad, and after 14 years I would expect a few improvements. I prefer the ones on the nunchuck and classic pads out of them all I think. There was a lot of talk of the controller's colour being visible to console (for sports games etc) and profiles/playing styles being stored on the memory card in the pad so you could play virtual versions of your friends even if they weren't there, which never happened but were great ideas at the time.

[QfanatiQ]

Apart from teh very first oblong controller, I have loved the Nintendo ones. My fav has been the Cube controller. N64, very close behind.

Cheers.....Q

[GTI]

If we can Shoehorn Linux on to it, then I'll be able to run it up the flagpole and push the button on that

[mitchb]

probably my fav ever pad, the N64 one, although it was certainly helped by goldeneye.

loved the z trigger button on the bottom, felt like a real trigger.

[DelTrotter]

Wario Stadium 3-4 players .. Carnage!! Good times. Awesome pad

[Goldberg]

I powered up one of the recently aquireed N64's at the weekend (thanks {{909}}), I was playing Perfect Dark and could not for the life of me fire!!

10 minutes later I remembered about the trigger button....