Reason why Sega got away with a cross-shaped D-Pad (Nintendo patent until 2005)

It's not in peoples heads at all. It really is an awful D-Pad. Playing shooters on it is horrid. It's just so unresponsive. Basically it's like having 4 buttons rather than a d-pad. A lot of people stick with it because they've never really used another controller for a great deal of time. Many people who love the pad were born as part of the PlayStation generation so they seems to think it's the definitive d-pad. That's just my opinion of course.

talking about shit pads, the FZ10 Panasonic 3D0 D-pad is bloody awful as is the Jaguar D-pad.

 

Never understood why people like using a psx pad for fighters. Thumb would hurt super bad. It's mostly cause it has this weird indent on in it and the edges are really uncomfortable. Stiffness was also a problem, especially on psp. Gba sp another dpad I didn't like cause of the hard button press it had cause of it using click buttons instead of usual rubber with pads that connect circuit.

 

maybe thumb size has something to do with it, or just familiarity, I dunno. I can execute any street fighter motion quickly & perfectly on a PS pad (and SNES, genesis, saturn and PCE). I can't on Xbox/DC. I can play fighting/action games on it for hours and not feel sore. Maybe I formed calluses when I was younger, I dunno. I don't understand the hate, except for:

HAHAHA try Psyvariar on the PS2 pad The "throw" on the PS d-pad is just too far.

Shooters are really the only thing I don't like playing on the PS style pad. Then again, that's what the stick is for, and DC had better shooters anyway

 

I didn't even know about the patent, very cool information.

 

A question earlier in this thread I think I should answer:

Why did no Sega controller have rumble?

Sega actually started haptic feedback in games with a 1976 arcade title called Moto-Cross. However, the tech didn't appear in a console as far as I can see until 1997's Star Fox 64 as an optional pack-in accessory! Dreamcast came out little over a year later on November 27th, 1998 in Japan and Sony had only recently made the Dualshock their console pack-in. Sega did not match this for the 1999 Western Dreamcast releases. After all they were bleeding money. The launch DC didn't even come with a VMU. Instead a high margin "Jump Pack" was released as a controller add-on. Naturally it was the last pack-in console controller without built-in rumble with the exception of the Sixaxis because Sony didn't want to pay for tech it had made use of.

 

360's was one of the worst ones i've used....ever, just felt like one huge lump of cheap plastic and things like pressing 'down' would register as pressing 'right' but each to their own i guess (i did say i liked the dualshocks d-pad after all)

apart from the d-pad i did like the 360 controller though, but i was raised on the dualshock layout so its second nature for me

 

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Playstation D-pad hurts bad in fighters, couldn't play Dead or Alive 5 for very long and would stop playing with a red thumb.

 

yup, i have a rumble pack or two, kind of the same way as the N64, was nice having thr two slots one for rumble and 1 for VMU, works nicely with the Gun for ligjhtgun games.

 

However, Dualshock was standard by then and Sega started haptic feedback in games. I already answered this in more detail. If Sega had the money and the desire they could have included it, Rumble on consoles had started in 1997 after all during Katana R&D.

 

Speaking of D-pads, the thing I like most about the XBO controller is that it has a bona fide D-pad, and it's a damn good one. From my personal perspective, it's head and shoulders above the 360 D-pad. In fact, I think the entire XBO controller is vastly superior to the 360 controller (and it damn well better be after Microsoft put umpteen-million dollars worth of research into it ).

 

Interestingly It always seemed to me the PS2 d-pad was even worse than the original PS1.

 

In my experience, the Dreamcast D-Pad is far from the worst I've ever used. It can be a bit iffy, but compared to the shape of the controller itself and the placement of the buttons it's pretty inoffensive (overall, I think it'd be better if they stayed closer to the design of the Saturn 3D Pad, including having two extra face buttons by default). Genesis and Saturn have god-tier D-Pads. I most prefer the US Saturn one, specifically.

Now, as others have covered, Sony's pre-Vita/DS4 D-Pads are right awful; like MaxWar, I'd say the PS2 one was worse than the PS1's. How my left thumb ever survived playing the Fatal Fury Collections with a DS2 is a mystery. Worse experience than the N64 control stick*.

Nintendo's SNES/N64 D-Pads are alright. They can be awkward for fighters, but they're overall serviceable IMO. However, where they got shitty is putting their mini D-Pads on the Gamecube. They're fine being small on portables due to their, well, portability (GBA, DS Lite, etc), but they're godawful on the Gamecube and Wii Remote, which is a shame since the Gamecube controller is sex otherwise. Hell, even the oft-touted, magical N64 Hori MiniPad is guilty of this; its location on the controller doesn't help either. As for the D-Pads on the Classic Controller and the WiiU Gamepad, they're fine; nothing too special, but they work well enough. Worst Nintendo D-Pad I've used is on the Virtual Boy because it's too stiff and concave. (That whole controller was bullshit, really.)

*Mario Party 1 notwithstanding, cuz that's not even fair.

 

While the XBO controller does feel infinitely better than the 360 controller on all fronts, the casing looks like a rush job. The connectors at the top and bottom are sticking through much larger rectangular holes exposing parts of the PCB. While it does nothing to affect game play it pisses me off that for the money they command it could have at least had a rubber grommet around them to fill in the huge gaps.

 

I use my Dreamcast controller the most on my PC to play shooters, best D-Pad for shooters in my opinion. I always found it flowed much better than other D-pads. The Playstation D-Pad always hurt. Going to have to get around to getting a Dreamcast controller to work on my 60gb PS3 for some shooter goodness one of these days.

anyway very cool info on how Sega got around the patent.

 

Dreamcast controller is hands down my favourite of all time, seems to fit perfectly in my hands and I like the analogue stick placement (although it does get slippy during a heavy session...that's what she said).

As for the D-Pad though, it's not the greatest but I can't think of more than a handful of occasions where I actually used it beyond secondary functions. I find in most beat em ups/shooters that I could do pretty well with the stick even though I appreciate that's not exactly "hardcore" of me.

 

I don't understand why people even like Sony's D-Pad. They are always too hard on my thumbs, and playing for and hour using them gives me blisters. The only D-Pad I've seen with the PS design that I like is definitely the 3000's. The PS4 does have a better Dpad but that's something else.

I don't really care for the Dreamcast D-Pad too and have wondered if anybody modded the controller to accept aftermarket SNES/NES dpads or something. One controller I have has a really rock hard dpad, the other has a softer feel. But both aren't very good when playing Marvel vs. Capcom or Street Fighter since I keep jumping around the screen. I tried removing that nub, and didn't really see that much of a difference.

 

I asked this question and I was actually being quite pessimistic of SEGA, which is not like me but the comment in question was sarcastic.
I said I couldn't believe the Dreamcast controller didn't have a built in rumble pack because one of there main software ports was the Resident evil franchise (I wish I had the code veronica special edition console). I would never, ever, re-visit resident evil 2, which is my favorite, without rumble on PS1, Gamecube or Dreamcast. But the rumble feature was new.


I really like the Dreamcast controller I actually have no complaints. I find it to be extremely sturdy, the analog stick feels like it will last forever unlike the 3DS XL stick. I love the design(triangle start button) and the shape. The triggers are right where they should be. I love the VMU ports, you can see what game you are playing in LCD on the controller and an Icon of your choosing when you're not. The controller feels just right for me and I have medium sized hands, I also played Giga wing for an hour and half all the way till the end with the D-pad and experienced no pain in the thumb so the D-pad is a good one. I actually like using the 3DS D-pad more than the Analog because I feel like the Analog will snap off on the 3ds XL, what the fuck Nintendo?

Basically, I really like the Dreamcast, It's a pretty dope console.