Do you have any experience with BS, gimmicky gaming peripherals?

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

I used to have a PS Move. It was actually kinda fun, even though I don't really like motion control games. Sports Champions was honestly one of the most fun games I've played

Cool! I still own both the joystick and the disc — the sword game made me sweat like a pig, but it was great fun.

 

[TechBlisSTer]

In my PSX days we buyed a Playstation controller, it was... not exactly great, had to refund it since no one could make it work, i remember it had a sort of sphere in the left side

You had a ASCII Sphere 360?

I have one of the originals. The SpaceOrb 360, which was made for games like Descent.

 

[Bakuma1997]

You had a ASCII Sphere 360? View attachment 179133
I have one of the originals. The SpaceOrb 360, which was made for games like Descent.
View attachment 179134

That one, never found how to make it work (Or if it worked at all) so we changed it for another one

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

Looks like someone took a look at the Atari trackball controller and went like 'I can do that!'.

 

[KenaiPhoenix]

Well I got this piece of shit on 2010:

Totally useless, never registered anything right.

I did wanted it to success and my hopes where in Steel Battalion, but after testing the demo... yeah they should have bother to.

I was tricked into getting this BS controller...

I envy you so much...

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

Well I got this piece of shit on 2010:

Totally useless, never registered anything right.

I did wanted it to success and my hopes where in Steel Battalion, but after testing the demo... yeah they should have bother to.



I envy you so much...

YouTuber CallMeKevin used to have a FIELD DAY ripping that Kinect BS apart lol.

 

[HoyeBoye]

I’m gonna say my PS1 soft DDR pad. It was a fine DDR pad, but I justified the purchase because the package showed OTHER games you could play with it. Sure Bust-a-Groove was a rhythm game, but it was not enhanced by using the pad; quite the opposite. And Tekken? I might as well have been playing on a Sega Activator.
That said, it was hilarious watching my wife try to play Rampage World Tour with the pad.

 

[Zerodelgato]

I actively miss fishing controllers, does that count?

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

I actively miss fishing controllers, does that count?

Of course.

Always wanted the MegaDrive's golf club and baseball bat, too.

 

[sosumi]

I never really had it per se, but I remember desperately wanting a PS2 eye toy after seeing a featurette on it in a tech magazine. I think I severely misunderstood the concept, because I was fully convinced that if I got one I'd be able to use it with ANY game, and the idea of showing up in, like, Scooby Doo First Frights or whatever the hell 7 Year old me was playing back then was such an insane concept to me

Until one day, I finally met someone who had the damn thing and... Well... Let's just say I was glad I wasn't the one who wasted a Christmas gift on that piece of crap XD

 

[bjork]

Not sure if they count, but I had the NegCon and the JogCon for PS1. Also multiple GunCons because I happened upon used complete copies of the Point Blank games, but that also doesn't seem too wild.

Had a soft DDR pad that my friend secured to a sheet of plywood with plastic dropcloth and staples, and it was remarkably durable. Also had a 5-button beatmania controller, that was fun.

Can't remember anything else until PS2 era and that's too late to be in the scope of OP's request, and I had a trak-ball that I think was for the 2600 but I used it on my Commodore 64, so that's too early.

 

[Badseed Badseed]

I was tricked into getting this BS controller...

View attachment 178309and it was the best thing EVER!!!

Actually it wasn't much of a trick, someone asked me if you want to be a Mech pilot.
And use this "controller" . I was blown away, the game is so-so, but I think the "real"
challenge of that game is just managing your own mech with ALL those buttons. G'dam you gotta go through like a 5 minuite checklist just to get the thing sarted. Great Stuff. I miss all of it

 

[Aunt Sarah]

Why yes, I did own a Nintendo Wii.

 

[Sfjeov]

Well I got this piece of shit on 2010:

Totally useless, never registered anything right.

I did wanted it to success and my hopes where in Steel Battalion, but after testing the demo... yeah they should have bother to.



I envy you so much...

Don't really know any good games for this besides Just Dance. Any other kinect games were pretty unbearable to play.

 

[WitchDetective]

When I was little, I was absolutely obsessed with Wii sports and motion controls. So when Christmas was coming around, I asked for more plastic crap to shove my wii remote in. There must be dynasties built on the back of this market.

At least I learned my lesson after collecting all that useless plastic crap and I'd never fall for getting another shoddy peripheral built for Nintendo products... Right?

 

[PacGuy]

I fucking loved this thing. Still have it, but it no longer works. Just keep it for the aesthetic of it.

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

View attachment 184515
I fucking loved this thing. Still have it, but it no longer works. Just keep it for the aesthetic of it.

Looks badass, man.

 

[What's His Face]

While I do feel bad for kids - and their parents - who were scammed into buying junk like the SEGA Activator and the Rollin' Rocker, I don't trust angry-style reviewers who dismiss them outright — I refuse to believe that they didn't have any functionality whatsoever and were allowed to release in (or near) completely useless states.

Let's set the record straight, alright?

If you have/had ANY peripheral from NES to PS1, please share your experiences with it. The more gimmicky and overblown, the better!

Takk!

Believe it. I got to try these when a friend worked at a game store.

The Activator? It worked...in a "does something happen on screen if I flail my arms enough?" kind of way. It was designed specifically for Mortal Kombat & Eternal Champions (for which it worked decently but no better than a normal controller), but it was advertised as working for any game. Which was only true in the loosest of definitions.

Same with the U-Force for the NES...so long as you had the settings right for it. And knew what settings to use. The highly restrictive range of motion and the fact that it often just didn't understand the motions most of the time made it trash. You really had to exaggerate your motions for it to pick them up, which often caused delays. It also came with a "steering stick" but not the one I tried.

The Power Glove really was so bad. I knew a guy back in school who had his house robbed - the thieves stole all of his gaming stuff except the Power Glove. No, I'm not the originator of the meme. It was like the Activator - it worked in the loosest of definitions.

The NES Speedboard was just a table-cradle for your controller with the declaration that you could "press the buttons faster." Which is true...you could use the B A buttons with two fingers instead of your thumb, but you're also using the thumb-designed d-pad with your fingers, too! It was horrible and it did NOT do anything worthwhile.

I absolutely refused to try the only Trance Vibrator they ever got in the store.

AVGN absolutely got it right with the weird peripherals. Most felt like things you'd find in a dollar store as a knock-off of something better...but was the real thing. They were made with a very specific purpose but had to be marketed with a wider usage to get them to sell in most cases (the Speedboard was just a scam), and it's in that wider marketing of using those devices for games they were absolutely NOT designed for is where their reputations stem from.