![Sega-Dreamcast-Cont-n-VMU[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/M7IEvrM.jpg "Sega-Dreamcast-Cont-n-VMU[1].jpg")
The Dreamcast controller and memory card were bad.
Let's start with the good. The controller is certainly comfortable. It's large, all the buttons are easy to reach, nice triggers and good grips. The analog stick is highly responsive. The VMU screen is occasionally useful, like in Resident Evil. It's nice that you can transfer saves between VMUs just by connecting them to each other.
Most glaringly, there is a severe deficit of buttons. The complete lack of a second analog stick means that the camera in 3D Dreamcast games consistently suffers. Some games map the camera controls to the triggers (Sonic Adventure) or d-pad (Legacy of Kain), but that still limits inputs since you can't look up or down, which is incredibly limiting. Ports of shooters such as Quake or Half Life suffered massively. Compare the Dualshock and it's a simple step backwards. It's in fact a step backwards from Sega's own Saturn 3D controller, since it's also lacking the C and Z buttons. With a console as rich in fighting games as the Dreamcast, it seems like a pretty bizarre decision to remove these buttons.
The analog stick is not comfortable to use for very long. While raised into a comfortable position, the hard plastic that it's made from does not have the grip that the sticks on a Dualshock do. Or again, you can compare the Saturn 3D controller. The d-pad is also mediocre and too floaty.
The VMUs are severely underutilized. 90% of games just display the game's title on the screen, and that's all for the whole game. The minigames that you could use on them were worthless, They drain batteries so quickly that it's not worth replacing them. Worst of all, the capacity was completely pathetic; 200 blocks of 128KB, same as was insufficient on the PS1 4 years prior. Except that's not the full capacity - there are actually 241 usable blocks, with the surplus being arbitrarily disabled.
All in all, it seems like the Dreamcast controller and its VMUs were more about novelty than functionality.
>>3271372
kys
>>3271372
>Ports of shooters such as Quake or Half Life suffered massively
Quake 3 had the best controls out of any console fps game...
It worked fine for the games available.
My only complaint about the controller is the triggers, they really hurt my fingers after very little play time in racing games. This isn't a problem when the game allows remapping to the buttons but most of them dont.
>>3271383
I agree with you but you're still a shitty poster and so am I for replying to this
>>3271410
Yeah the Dreamcast keyboard and mouse were great for shooters. The controller was not.
Shut your fucking mouth you piece of shit maggot
>>3271372
I like the controller ergonomically for the most part, but the dpad was ridiculously uncomfortable, it's especially egregious when compared to the fantastic Saturn Dpad. I am almost certain that if the console had continued they would have released a dual analogue pad.
They already had memory cards available that removed the screen and were much larger, they used a switch on the back so it was essentially multimple MU's in one. I should also point out that quake 3 and UT fully supported the Dreamcast Mouse and Keyboard, and ran on the same servers as the PC version.
Sega really did overemphasize peripherals though, I think that overrelying on consumers needing to buy specialty controllers is a very valid complaint.
>>3271372
Sega you have to understand was bleeding money as a company. They had so little left in the ways of Research and Development and they were putting all their cards into making a fast, fun system that was easy to program for with a few new "next generation" ideas, like the VMU - a portable gameplaying memory card with a screen - and the online gaming modem right out of the box. Sega at the time was innovating, and they decided to create a brand new simple to use controller. The only console that had come before the Dreamcast which came STANDARD at release with an analog stick controller was the N64, and Sega assuredly saw what they did with their controller and what they had done with their 3D Control Stick on the Saturn and took the next logical step, which was creating the Dreamcast controller.
They wanted it to be brand new, no more bean shape like the Genesis and Saturn, and they wanted it to be easy to hold, comfortable to hold and most of all easy to use. I believe they realized that hardcore fighting games were not what the majority of their fans were playing, so the six button controller was an afterthought. They were trying to make a controller suitable to a lot of unique games and they did it. The Xbox controller was literally the Dreamcast controller in shape and feel while adding the second analog stick.
For what it was, at the time, the controller worked well and it offered some innovations that other controllers simply hadn't had, like the dual triggers located in a more comfortable finger position than, say, the PS1 Dualshocks.
The only major design flaw was the cord. The cord came out of the bottom and you had to jury rig it through a slot on the back that damages the cord and cuts into the soft plastic around the cord. They could have worked a way to run the cable through the top if they had put more time into it.
The Saturn 3D Control Pad launched in 1996, the Dualshock launched in 1998, which was the same year the Dreamcast launched in Japan.
No controller had dual analog sticks before that.
The Dreamcast was releasing what was normal at the time for 3D gaming.
Well at least you can say the Dreamcast hardware was better designed than the PS2, which while certainly more powerful was bizarrely designed and had weaknesses that shouldn't have existed
>>3271795
The Dreamcast hardware was also considerably weaker.
>>3271795
I think the more apt comparison is the Saturn.
>>3271805
Not to the point of being a different generation. About the same as the difference between PS2 and gamecube/xbox (keeping in mind that the PS2 had shit-tons more investing into maximizing its output).
>>3271372
>The Dreamcast controller and memory card were bad.
>>3271372
Most autistic thread I've seen in a while. Nice job, stupid.
>>3271372
>lack of buttons
Hardly mattered at the time.
Biggest flaw with the DC controller was its shitty D-Pad considering how many arcade ports it had. Being the successor to the Saturn, which had the best console D-Pad, didn't help.
>the complete lack of a second analog stick means that the Dreamcast games weren't fucking shitty wedged-in 3d for the sake of 3d games or fucking FPS controllers on fucking console
DC had a KB+Mouse for a reason. Nobody wanted to play Q3 or UT on a controller.
>>3271424
how are they any different from any other controller's triggers? they're not. you got some weak fingers.
>>3271372
>The Dreamcast controller and memory card were bad.
Stopped reading right there.
>>3271701
The dual shock came out 1998 but the dual analog came out 1997
>>3273485
*BBBBBBEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
p.s.
[Spoiler]beep[/spoiler]
>>3271383
for real
nerds these days can't just stfu and play the god damn games
Dreamcast was probably the only console where I greatly preferred using third party controllers over the first party offering.
marukon is copied.
>cable comes out the bottom
Literally why?
Yea, I know there's the little dimple thing on the back to hold it up, but why the fuck didn't they just design it to come out the top to begin with?
It also really needed a second analog stick.
>>3273945
>Took two dozen posts for someone to point this out
4chan
>>3271372
Were there any good third-party Dreamcast controllers?
>>3273945
Please tell me I can use the left controller on the Dreamcast.
>>3274758
Well, it's a Saturn controller. So no.
>>3274064
The DC controller is just an absolutely awful controller all-round.
>>3274758
You can get a Saturn to Dreamcast converter, so probably.
>>3273945
Was there any official explanation as to why they left out the CZ buttons from the Dreamcast controller?
>>3274850
I can't quote this, but the plus-shaped face buttons were probably popularized due to the Playstation. Nintendo even had a bit of a six-button deal with the n64's AB+C buttons, but dropped it to four with the Gamecube. Same deal with the Xbox.
I'd argue it's because six-button layouts are easier to use on arcade sticks.
>>3274907
Yeah, that sounds... Unnecessary.
>>3274850
Official explanation:
The 6 face buttons seemed overwhelming for consumers. To make it more userfriendly, they dropped the face buttons to 4.
Source is an interview in an issue of sega sat mag.
By consumers i guess they mean parents.
Sega had the controller woth the most face buttons on it. They wanted the dc controller to appeal to everyone sobthey droppped two buttons.
>playing Shenmue
>Squeezing left trigger is hurting my left pointer finger
>play Crazy Taxi
>squeezing triggers is hurting both my pointer fingers
Fuck.
>>3271372
I remember rubbing my thumb raw from playing too much TXR2. That thumbstick was terrible.
However, I got a kick out of MDK2 - movement with the face buttons has always been an interesting way of getting around only having one thumbstick - and it worked well.
