Why didn't America get the gamepad?

[empsolo]

It's not Nintendo's fault that Atari designed its games around wrist cramp inducing joysticks .

 

 

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[Stun Runner 87]

 

Some games are easier with the stick. Scrapyard Dog and the sensitive jumps are easier with the proline, IMO.

I feel Motor Psycho and Pole Position work better with the stick also, especially when shifting from low gear to high gear. On the Euro Game pad controllers, it seems a lot harder to navigate the car or bike.

And as far as old school arcade ports, stickshift. a more arcadelike feel.

 

But as you said, depends on the game as some games play better on pads and vice versa. Rapid fire games like galaga are much better with Europad

Edited November 4, 2016 by Stun Runner 87

[78001987]

Classic arcade games with 4 or 8 direction character movement work better with real joysticks. NES generation platform runners and slow pace rpgs work better with maxi pads.

[Jinks]

Classic arcade games with 4 or 8 direction character movement work better with real joysticks. NES generation platform runners and slow pace rpgs work better with maxi pads.

Yup! Pads suck for any sort or directional movement that needs to be both quick and accurate. I remember playing nes games like rad racer or something and doing the directional can downshift in a corner and slow down and lose time.. Very annoying.

running left and right and jumping with a pad is easy and works. Thus super mario controls work well for nontendo.

[+pboland]

Classic arcade games with 4 or 8 direction character movement work better with real joysticks. NES generation platform runners and slow pace rpgs work better with maxi pads.

I think it is also important to point out that when the NES first hit the market, many people didn't like the pads. I believe that many of the magazines of the time even stated as such. People assume that since the NES was such a big hit that the joy pad was accepted from the beginning as being a superior type of control. Most long time gamers at the time didn't like the the pads. That's why there were so many after market joysticks for the NES. Heck even Nintendo came out with an arcade stick (NES Advantage anyone? Very good controller BTW.)

 

The pad was originally made by Nintendo as a cost saving measure. The majority of people back in the day that thought the NES joypads were the best thing ever was because it was their first game system. They didn't really know anything else. These are the same people who think home video games started with the NES. Once NES became the unstoppable juggernaut (around 1987) everyone started playing with the joypads.

Edited November 4, 2016 by pboland

[DracIsBack]

NES generation platform runners and slow pace rpgs work better with maxi pads.

 

Always stock must have been at a high in the NES era ...

[DracIsBack]

People assume that since the NES was such a big hit that the joy pad was accepted from the beginning as being a superior type of control. Most long time gamers at the time didn't like the the pads. That's why there were so many after market joysticks for the NES. Heck even Nintendo came out with an arcade stick (NES Advantage anyone? Very good controller BTW.)

 

there is a lot of rewritten history about the NES in general. That it was a massive hit right away (it wasn't), that it was the latest tech (it had been out in Japan for several years), that it beat the 7800 to wide market in the USA (it didn't), that it immediately captured 90% of the market (it didn't) etc.

 

No denying it's iconic place in history. Just didn't quite unfold the way it is sometimes remembered.

[+save2600]

Long time gamer and super early adopter of the NES BITD (Gyromite set) and remember liking the cross-directional pad real well. Took to it naturally and right away. The cumbersome blocky-square SMS pad OTOH, that sucked and still sucks IMO. Not very good at discrete direction at all, especially in the heat of the moment.

 

Couldn't stand all the third party NES joysticks BITD. Felt cheap, chinsey and unresponsive most of the time. NES Advantage was a different story (loved that thing) but if they were going for a more arcade like experience, should have had the joystick on the right.

[Osgeld]

i jumped from colecovision to genesis, man I remember playing the coleco so long once that my thumb was almost locked to the button position, and that was the first time I popped a knuckle

 

the nes was very good but those square controllers would dig in during marathons at my friends's houses, but a little pointy spot telling me I have played WAY too long was much better than L shaped thumb-lock, we have it so much better with gamepads starting in the 16 bit era with genesis and snes

 

I honestly cant remember a controller before ... well ok the7800 lol that didnt cause cramps after moderate use, and even those proline joysticks are best served with hacking about an inch off the shaft and adding a ball knob

Edited November 5, 2016 by Osgeld

[+GoldLeader]

 

there is a lot of rewritten history about the NES in general. That it was a massive hit right away (it wasn't), that it was the latest tech (it had been out in Japan for several years), that it beat the 7800 to wide market in the USA (it didn't), that it immediately captured 90% of the market (it didn't) etc.

 

No denying it's iconic place in history. Just didn't quite unfold the way it is sometimes remembered.

 

Or that the NES was everywhere in 1985...Definitely Not! Try '87-'88 .

[Osgeld]

 

Or that the NES was everywhere in 1985...Definitely Not! Try '87-'88 .

 

I was a kid at the time, but I do remember it was a blink tween the NES being the shiz and the genesis being out in some markets (bought mine in late 89) cause I actually went to buy a NES, saw the genesis and said ill wait to save up more cash (dad kicked in half)

Edited November 6, 2016 by Osgeld

[+pboland]

Long time gamer and super early adopter of the NES BITD (Gyromite set) and remember liking the cross-directional pad real well. Took to it naturally and right away. The cumbersome blocky-square SMS pad OTOH, that sucked and still sucks IMO. Not very good at discrete direction at all, especially in the heat of the moment.

 

 

My first real experience (meaning playing more then just a half hour or less) with game pads was the SMS as I got that for X-mas in 86. I choose the SMS over the NES at the time (and I'm glad I did). I actually prefer the SMS pad (yes, the one with the cord coming out the side of the controller) over the NES pad. Most who hate the SMS pad was exposed to it well after they had their NES and therefor it didn't feel right to them. It is all in what you get use to. After I had a little extra money I ended up buying two Sega control sticks. I like the SMS pads for some game and the control sticks for others. To this day the NES pad feels odd to me.

Edited November 6, 2016 by pboland

[Osgeld]

I have to say I dont really like the control stick, and ask my wife, I have joystick fettish. Problem I have with it is the button throw is way too short so its easy to go for left or right and bump up or down, or go for up and down and hit left or right, its like you can fart on the thing to make it actuate

 

I love the design, but its a finicky beast

[+pboland]

 

Or that the NES was everywhere in 1985...Definitely Not! Try '87-'88 .

Most people really didn't even see the NES until X-mas of '86. I remember that X-mas season as a local department store had the Atari 7800, Sega Master System, and NES set up to try out. I tried all three of them and ended up asking for a Sega Master System. I actually liked the Atari 7800 next. I never got that warm fuzzy feeling with the NES that most did. I don't know why, I just didn't.

Edited November 6, 2016 by pboland