How did this game controller work?

  • Want to keep track of this thread?
    Accounts can bookmark posts, watch threads for updates, and jump back to where you stopped reading.
    Create account
Rome's rightful successor

Rome's rightful successor

Holy, Roman, and an Empire
True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
Joined
Apr 28, 2021
Magnavox-Odyssey-Controller-FL.jpg
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Put it on a table, use the right knob to move up and down and the left knob to move left and right. The little knob on the left knob had a purpose, I just forgot what it was.

This controller was for the Magnavox Odyssey, and nearly all of it’s 13(?) games were different versions of glowing dots on the screen. It’s still clunky but it works better than you’d think it would.

@Shamefur Dispray I’m pretty sure the Odyssey controllers were hardwired to the system, so you didn’t plug them in.
 
Upvote 1 Downvote
StickFruit said:
Put it on a table, use the right knob to move up and down and the left knob to move left and right. The little knob on the left knob had a purpose, I just forgot what it was.

This controller was for the Magnavox Odyssey, and nearly all of it’s 13(?) games were different versions of glowing dots on the screen. It’s still clunky but it works better than you’d think it would.

@Shamefur Dispray I’m pretty sure the Odyssey controllers were hardwired to the system, so you didn’t plug them in.
Click to expand...
So it work like an Etch A Sketch?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Rome's rightful successor said:
So it work like an Etch A Sketch?
Click to expand...
Not even that sophisticated. The only graphics it was capable of rendering were two glowing dots. Games were played using translucent sheets you would stick to your TV screen in lieu of rendered visuals. That and a hearty dose of imagination. The AVGN made a video on the system, I’d recommend that if you’re curious.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
StickFruit said:
Put it on a table, use the right knob to move up and down and the left knob to move left and right. The little knob on the left knob had a purpose, I just forgot what it was.
Click to expand...

It's marked "English" so I presume it's something to do with the pinball definition of "English" which is slightly nudging the machine with your body to slightly change the direction of the ball but not jolting it enough to make the pinball machine lock up into "tilt" mode.

Translated into that controller, "English" probably just means slightly nudging the cursor.

ADDENDUM: No, Google, I'm not looking for the definition of "pinball" in English, I'm looking for the definition of "English" in pinball.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
To rephrase what others have said, I think you may be overestimating the extent and capabilities of first generation console games. In context, the games on the Atari 2600 that dudes wrote in a few weeks are pretty remarkable. IIRC, even Atari had no idea what their underpaid overworked young labor would squeeze out of that thing.

In a lot of ways, because they essentially had no first party at the start, Sony was the first console manufacturer to design with "you know, we should help people make games for this" in mind rather than making hardware just for their own games. In retrospect, it seems obvious with what Sega did with the Genesis but it wasn't the norm and that was more a byproduct of Sega wanting to port their arcade titles cheaply.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
AirdropShitposts said:
To rephrase what others have said, I think you may be overestimating the extent and capabilities of first generation console games. In context, the games on the Atari 2600 that dudes wrote in a few weeks are pretty remarkable. IIRC, even Atari had no idea what their underpaid overworked young labor would squeeze out of that thing.

In a lot of ways, because they essentially had no first party at the start, Sony was the first console manufacturer to design with "you know, we should help people make games for this" in mind rather than making hardware just for their own games. In retrospect, it seems obvious with what Sega did with the Genesis but it wasn't the norm and that was more a byproduct of Sega wanting to port their arcade titles cheaply.
Click to expand...
The Atari 2600 had so much 3rd party garbage it nearly killed the video game industry for several years. That's part of why nintendo went hard in the other direction with their consoles and made third party developers go through intense licensing requirements and sign fairly extreme exclusivity deals to release games on their consoles back then. That was also part of why Sega and other consoles at the time didn't have a lot of third party games, a lot of developers were locked into making games for nintendo consoles because of the deals they signed with nintendo.

By the time sony came along with the playstation the video game industry had matured a bunch and was larger compared to the 2600 days. There were more high quality third party developers and a lot of ones that had previously been exclusive to nintendo told nintendo to fuck off with their cartridge bullshit with the 64 and switched to developing for the playstation. Sony making things as easy as possible for third party developers was pretty much the best thing they could have done given everything else going on at the time.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom