In contrast to my recent thread, I put a small list together of the three controllers which are generally considered the least useable devices in the history of games.


Atari Jaguar


Standard Xbox controller (aka 'duke')


Atari 5200

However, feel free to mention any others controllers you personally hated, despite general approval.

Discuss!

P.S. I voted for the Atari 5200's controller. Keypads suck, and the joystick wore out incredibly quickly. It makes the N64's stick seem durable by comparison!!

Personally, I've only used the original Xbox controller (duke) out of the 3 you listed Chris. My vote also went to the Atari 5200 controller, but this was based on appearance of the controller. (first time I've seen it.) Looks like I'm another person who bases opinion on appearance...

Trust me, you don't have to have used a 5200 controller to know it sucks.

I mean, for a start they're bloody uncomfortable. Plus the joysticks wore out completely in a very short time. Not to mention the joysticks had no centering mechanism. To return to the centre you had to physically push it back. No spring return whatsoever.

IMO the duke is great, the only one i use(never tryed the Smaller one).

Out of the other two, i would go for Atari 5200, god that looks crappy.

I've only used the duke out of those 3, and I absolutely hate the design..the controller S however, is much better.

But based on looks alone, I can't go past the Atari 5200. What's the deal with the keypad...expecting alot of pin code related games were they?

Another controller thread? Jeez....

The XBOX controller should not be on that list. Past complaints were from fanboys or people with unusually small hands. No way can you put it down as one of history's worst.

There's nothing fundamentally wrong with the standard XBOX pad. Most adult XBOX owners I know prefer it - especially for FPS and driving games.

Looking crappy is a bad thing :(

It's not the size, its the button configuration, it's the way everything sat on the control pad, it's the size!

I and many others like the size though. Some people have big hands so it's more comfortable than any of the other controllers. Again it comes down to preference, but I use the duke a lot and have no problems.

As for worst controller, my vote goes to the Atari 5200

I voted other in place of the Duel Shock.

The placment of the sticks is my main gripe, it can be very uncomfortable.

Just commenting on the Duke, I find it better than the S controller, that little thing is just tooo little, and it seems to make your hands sit more Inwards.
If you know what I mean. :huh:

I only put the Xbox duke on there because it's the most recent example of a controller that got a lot of criticism.

I don't agree with that criticism however, and I quite like the controller. It can be a bit awkward for my little hands, but it's still perfectly useable - and I quite like for playing racing games. I'd like to see if I can still get one to supplement my Controller S's.

I only have Xbox S Controllers in my house as I find them more comfortable and easier to use.

I know others will prefer it because they have taken the time to master the way the buttons are positioned.

My biggest gripe with the Duke is that it takes too long to become used to it.

You can move from dual shock to S Control very easily but to move from the S to the Duke is torture.

I voted for the Atari one. I think I'm one of the few here that's actually used a Jaguar and I have to say that the controller isn't as bad as you might think. The number pad down the bottom is a bit iffy, but other than that, I don't mind it.

My vote goes to the Atari 5200. I recently had a razz on my cousins 5200, the controllers were fragile and no self centering made it unruley to use - in a word...pathetic.

I voted for the Atari Jaguar because like the console itself, the controller was ill-conceived. I think those designers had to do something with the xbox controller. :P

You forgot this one; :lol:

Take a look at it: That thing is horrendous!

I personally think the Atari Jaguar is pretty cool <_<

I'm with Slink, that is horrendous. But I can't judge it on its games as I've never played it before.

I see your point, In a "non-ergonomic Star-Trek cruiser resembling hand crampingly fun-fun!" kind of way.

not in your case :P

DJ-Civic: how the hell could you use that thing if you put it on one of your hands? :huh:

Ah the Nintendo Power Glove I believe... It was an interesting idea... Here is a retro ad advertising it. Right Click Save As 5MB

Oh and Darklord, It works simular to the Eye Toy but you dont appear on the screen. Just say you playing a boxing game you would pretend to punch the air and it would happen in the game. Unless I have been misinformed?

If I'm right, the Nintendo Power Glove was the one that the movie Wizard tried selling off, right?

I've not used any of the mentioned controllers (or if I have, I was too young to remember it), aside from the XBox one and that's bad enough, the others I can only imagine. But by the looks of them I should be glad I haven't. ;)

YEah they used the Power glove in the movie. Ah I should go see if you can get the Wizard on DVD.

Great ad there, cd2. :D I love the "available summer 1990" text at the bottom for some reason. :lol:

And the thing sensed movement, which is pretty good for a 1980's peripheral.

The 'duke' is crap in my opinion I always have to readjust to it never have goten use to it the colevision round disk thingy ones were better to use and were just stuip.

The Atari Jaguar was the world's first 64-bit gaming console.

However, it was merely two-32 bit processors shoved together. One might think, "well, 32-bit is still decent!"

Oh no.

See that word "shoved" a few lines back? It's not far from the truth. The Jaguar's system architecture was so poorly designed and used such underpowered componentry, it seems archaic in comparison to the 3DO, Saturn and PlayStation it competed against.

The main problem was the Atari designed the console to run in either 32-bit mode or 64-bit mode. Programmers found it nearly impossible to co-ordinate the two processors (even Atari themselves) so 90% of Jaguar's games were programmed to run with only one processor functioning. This resulted in a largely sub-standard library of games. At best, it got average ports of popular PC games.

It's best title, Tempest 2000 is one of only a few great games for the system.

However, the Jaguar did receive a CD add-on device which apparently opened up the console far more extensively. Though I have no knowledge of it's capabilities and associated games.

This is has been another impromptu information session from Chris "I should've been retro mod" Cubed.

I just wish to add that I believe the worst controllers I have used, would be the first saturn pad, which was bent & twisted at the same time.

But, I think that the NES controller was rubbish. Now...yes, I had a NES and played it all the time, I loved a majority of games on there. But, it was extremely square and long play times usually resulted in one of the corners digging into your hand, but worse than that was the ridiculous D-pad. It did no favours to your thumb let me tell you.

Atleast the SMS had a better pad whilst still being boxy.

The SMS's controller was a nice evolution from the boxy NES controller.

I mean, I'm all for simple controllers, but the NES controller was too angular and this can't be overlooked.

At least for the SMS they rounded the corners a littleand put on a smooth control pad. My only gripe is that there was no pause button. The pause button is located on the console itself which is an incredibly stupid idea.

I like the Jaguar controller the least of the ones there. The worst one I've actually used?
Well, the N64 controller could've been great, but was let down because of the crappy analogue stick.

The Panasonic 3dO...

Come on, it didn't even have Diagonals for pete's sake!

The Apple IIe joystick. Terrible terrible terrible.

....terrible

I voted for the Xbox controller (bearing in mind I haven't used any others). Ridiculously large, with small buttons that are hard to press. And what was with that 5200 controller? Looks like and EFTPOS machine. I cannot fathom the ergonomics of it. What were you expected to do? Use the joystick with your right hand, and mash the keypad with your wrist? Weird.

the megadrive pad! without question. i remember borrowing my mates megadrive eons ago and getting really bad cramps from using the controller after about an hour or so. useless thing it was. it was good though because it added more fuel to my all important (at the time anyway) "sega sucks" argument.

heh heh.

I voted for the Eftpos Machine.

any of the small thin kinda ones like the SMS and SNES they always end up hurting my hands. (extended playing sessions dont help)

Yeah, SNES controller is crap *rubs sore fingers*

As for others, I think the N64 controller is terrible. It weighs 0.01 grams, so you feel like you're holding nothing, it's feels like it's of terrible quality.... and dont even get me started on the joystick.

But, I voted for the XBox controller, purely because I think that in this age manufacturers should've learned from mistakes and at least release good, snug-fitting controllers. Sure, it isn't as bad in a direct comparison with the Atari's, but for our time, Microsoft should've given us better than that.

Lucky they did. I bought three Controller S when they came out and I think they're even better than the Dual Shock. The Dual Shock is great though... simple, reliable, with a basic layout, it's the easiest to use. But, my vote for favourite controller would go to the Controller S, I think it's great.

In think the USB controllers microsoft were selling before Xbox were a hell of a lot worse than the Xbox controller itself. What where they? Sidewinders? Bleh (Have to give credit where it's due though, the flight sticks were quite nice).

I'm sure there are many many third party controllers that beat the current selection that you can vote on, however I'm sure you all know that. ;)

Sorry to revive a very old topic but I would have to say that the ColecoVision controller was pretty bad in my opinion.

lets just say it was a good thing that Shiggy came along with NES controller, damn all these old controllers are crap man like this ColecoVision one, I've never played the console but it looks outwordly and uncomfortable.

Sega's 16 and 32 bit controllers had really stiff buttons and it was hard to use in fighting and action games, but the Jaguars takes the cake. Man that was awefull, it was like holding onto one of those steel compactor button thingies but for gaming sessions, very bad.

On the flipside the best controller is either Dreamcasts or the Wavebird that I've played with, just so comfortable.