Hey guys, I recently found and acquired a prototype GameCube controller that I would like to share. As far as I know it should work in a standard GameCube, but I haven't had the chance to test it yet. The Z button is clickable, but it seems to be missing a small plastic piece that would make it protrude more from the controller. I am new to this forum; sorry if I did something wrong in this post. If anyone would like to know more please let me know.
If memory serves right its missing like a blue cap or something on the Z button. Dont take my post as absolute fact because Nintendo stuff is not my strong field. Otherwise good item/find. It's a rare item indeed and pretty neat in general given the bean shapes.
I've only personally seen this bean shape on controllers labeled for the 3/4 speed kits. The existence of this seems to suggest that the chipset and controller plug were finalized before the controller itself. Interesting...anyone have more details on the timeline of this all?
Looks like there were several different shells for this controllers...interesting. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nintendo-GameCube-Dolphin-DS5-Controller-Prototype-FL.jpg Here is some info on the 3/4 controller that is similar to this one. Thats a good find by the way Video of Comparison of retail and prototype controller
The longer handles look so much more comfortable than the production controllers, i have big hands so the gamecube controller was never comfortable to me.
But how well can you shield drop in Melee with it? Seriously though, I'm very jealous. The Gamecube has some great controller variations, but this is the first I've seen of this.
According to the SDK: https://i.imgur.com/CmMNYvA.png Since DS5 is listed as "same as the production version", this pretty much confirms what you said. Also of note, some prototype GC controller (although I'm not sure which, probably a much earlier one) had support for analog A/B inputs and the function for controlling this is still in the SDK reference manual. Also, the GC supports reading the N64 controller, and the N64 keyboard and mouse, for some reason.
I have been busy with some other things, but I finally tested this controller the other day and everything seems to work fine.
I wasn't specifically looking for this controller. I just got lucky and found it at a good price. The best advice I could give is to look often and have hope that you'll find something interesting.
