Console Design Blunders

General and high profile video game topics.
Alucard1191
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Re: Console Design Blunders

Postby Alucard1191 » February 14th, 2020, 2:20 pm

C64_Critic wrote:
Alucard1191 wrote:I am really surprised no one has said this: The wire on the dreamcast controller coming out the front. One of the worst design decisions on a main stream system.

The whole dreamcast controller would be worth mentioning except that the VMU port did allow some genuinely innovative things... but damn that thing is hard on the hands and not well designed.


Oh I gotta disagree with you on this one. While the choice of having the Dreamcast cable come out the front is odd to say the least, I never found that it adversely affected it's use. And aside from that, I think it's otherwise a very good, easy to use, and never caused me any hand discomfort.


I play almost exclusively fighting games on my Dreamcast, the main one being MvC2. I can only play that for about 45 to an hour before my hands are really hurting. On the other hand, I can play Dragonball FighterZ on my Switch for the entire length of a 2 hour film without discomfort. The D pad specifically is really, really rough.

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C64_Critic
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Re: Console Design Blunders

Postby C64_Critic » February 16th, 2020, 2:27 pm

VideoGameCritic wrote:
C64_Critic wrote:Oh I gotta disagree with you on this one. While the choice of having the Dreamcast cable come out the front is odd to say the least, I never found that it adversely affected it's use. And aside from that, I think it's otherwise a very good, easy to use, and never caused me any hand discomfort.


That's because there's a little slot on the back of the controller where you can tuck in the wire to "guide" it towards the back. The fact that they even needed to include something like that tells you Sega had become aware of this design defect late in the process. I'm pretty sure I can remember you mocking it for that!


I have no doubts, in fact I'd be shocked if I DIDN'T make fun of it. I guess my point was, although it was a strange design decision, I don't feel like it has any negative affect when actually using the controller, and mostly I never found that the Dreamcast controller itself was awkward or uncomfortable to use. I actually find it pretty ergonomically pleasing, it fits in my hand great, and I can hit all the buttons and controls I need without any problem. Unlike the Intellivision controller, which causes my hands to cramp up just thinking about using it.

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C64_Critic
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Re: Console Design Blunders

Postby C64_Critic » February 16th, 2020, 2:29 pm

Alucard1191 wrote:I play almost exclusively fighting games on my Dreamcast, the main one being MvC2. I can only play that for about 45 to an hour before my hands are really hurting. On the other hand, I can play Dragonball FighterZ on my Switch for the entire length of a 2 hour film without discomfort. The D pad specifically is really, really rough.


Fair enough, I can't say that I've ever tried to play any fighting games on the DC for more than 15-20 minutes at a time. I typically stick to things like Crazy Taxi, Worms, or NFL2K and don't recall ever having a comfort issue.

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VideoGameCritic
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Re: Console Design Blunders

Postby VideoGameCritic » February 16th, 2020, 6:22 pm

Alucard - if you're serious about playing Dreamcast fighting games you really should invest in the arcade stick - the one with the green buttons. It's built like a tank and is far more conducive to button tapping!

Alucard1191
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Re: Console Design Blunders

Postby Alucard1191 » February 16th, 2020, 9:26 pm

VideoGameCritic wrote:Alucard - if you're serious about playing Dreamcast fighting games you really should invest in the arcade stick - the one with the green buttons. It's built like a tank and is far more conducive to button tapping!


I actually do want one at one point, they do seem to be really pricey though, so I haven't quite pulled the trigger on that. Though with how much I like to play MvC2 specifically it would probably be worth it.

CaptainCruch
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Re: Console Design Blunders

Postby CaptainCruch » February 17th, 2020, 6:45 am

Someone mentioned it before, but the Virtual Boy must be one of the worst game consoles design ever. ("A pair of goggles on a stick", as the Angry Game Nerd but put). The lack of a head strap is just silly.

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Stalvern
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Re: Console Design Blunders

Postby Stalvern » February 17th, 2020, 12:27 pm

The thing's too bulky and heavy for a strap. It just plain shouldn't have been made.

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MSR1701
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Re: Console Design Blunders

Postby MSR1701 » February 18th, 2020, 9:07 am

Stalvern wrote:The thing's too bulky and heavy for a strap. It just plain shouldn't have been made.

As an R&D Concept, it would have been good for experimentation; as a retail product, it failed.

Just think of how many prototypes we never see that are scrapped for a reason

TheEagleXIII
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Re: Console Design Blunders

Postby TheEagleXIII » March 1st, 2020, 5:45 pm

On the XBox 360 I really hate(d) the 'battery low warning' lights on the official wireless controllers.

The battery is measured in 4 bars and literally the moment it reaches 2 bars the warning kicks in. And it's not just a warning, its a non-stop friggin' light show :x :x :x The quarter circle lights on the controller starts flashing in twos and 'spinning' and it doesn't... stop... until the battery dies, you swap/change the battery, or you stop playing and charge it back up.

It is the most annoying and distracting thing I have ever dealt with whilst gaming - and its right at the bottom of your peripheral vision, in your hands, where its difficult to ignore. It's bad enough gaming in the day/light, in the dark it's ridiculous. For me, it essentially made the battery life feel half as long, because they're more like panic lights than warning lights. Like, calm down dude, you're at 50% not 5% :roll:

Why not start the epileptic flashing when it's down to 1 bar, when it actually feels a bit more urgent? Why not just a handy reminder on screen when there's half battery and then again when it's down to 1 bar?

To be fair, I've never heard anyone else mention it. But it always bugged me :lol:

CaptainCruch
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Re: Console Design Blunders

Postby CaptainCruch » March 3rd, 2020, 5:08 am

VideoGameCritic wrote:Intellivision control "phones" wires - could they make these any shorter? You practically need to keep the console on your lap to play it!
PS4 "sliver" buttons - too skinny to read the symbols; nobody knows what they do. Tapping one is different from holding it in for 5.24 seconds. WTF
Atari 5200 non-centering joysticks - this just may be #1.


Instead of 'Console Design Blunders' maybe you can narrow it down to 'Controller Design Blunders', since a lot of blunders since to to focus on the controllers! The wires of the Intellivision, the fragility of the Atari 5200 controller, the uselessness of the original CD-i remote controller, the gigantic Xbox 1 'Duke' controller.... (for good measure, you could throw in some third-party controllers too... PowerGlove like...)


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