The Saturn (and by extension, the MD 6-button) d-pad is by far one of the best for fighting games. So much so that MadCatz copied the "floating" design almost identically for their Street Fighter V controllers. All 8 directions feel very "definite", and there is a certain amount of throw to the movement that makes it feel somewhere between traditional d-pads and a thumbstick. It was a crying shame they didn't continue using the design on the DC.
As long as they come through with their promise on build quality this is an awesome thing. Sega must be aware of how popular the Saturn controller is so are finally doing something about it, it seems.
Well, I will have to invest in some of these controllers. Namely the USB Saturn and Dreamcast controllers.
Ultimately, between this, Sonic Mania and Sega Forever - this strikes me as Sega finally recognising and doing something about its legacy. Sonic Mania was a return to nineties-era Sonic, Sega Forever is an effort to get all their legacy titles everywhere and this move with the controllers is recognition that Sega's legacy consoles were super popular and still are to a certain extent, so Sega are now making efforts on the hardware front too. I know that the Saturn controllers, particularly the SLS variants, have been massively popular for years, yet mostly widely unavailable. So I guess this is Sega finally realising that. Still in for a Genesis and Saturn pad, as they'd both be wonderful for 2D games. Just hope Retro-bit come through with that quality promise and these are released in Europe.
Okay, now that I do have the 8bito SF30 Pro, and discovered how friggn' good it is, I really want 'modernized' versions of these controllers - I mean, it wouldn't be hard to do so with the Dreamcast controller (just add the extra stick and bumpers), and the SF30 Pro managed it for the SNES controller without changing the controller itself significantly. I mean, it's good to have options, right?
I want this too. The twin sticks and extra bumpers should also send signals to the Dreamcast hardware that it is a twin stick controller for use with Virtual On.
Only tangentally related, but how's the D-Pad on your SF30Pro? I bought their NES30Pro a couple years back and was horribly let down by the D-Pad, doesn't read diagonals properly and it always gives false inputs. It's too bad because it's great in every other aspect, but that flaw makes it almost useless.
Mine works perfectly fine, no problems from what I can see. Some people are claiming their diagonals are fucked, though, so it might be a manufacturing issue with some d-pads. Seems to be the luck of the draw right now, much like with the Switch Pro Controller.
It is interesting to note that if one programs for the Dreamcast then one knows that the Dreamcast controller port and design allow's it register 2 analog stick's, 6 face buttons and two triggers. So the dreamcast was designed with all this in mind however if there was a controller that had these features then it has yet to be seen yet. The issue people have to remember is that they have to stick to the original design fairly closely as it will run into compatibility issues, like the Vmu. People are now asking for them to make a huge memory card however it is restricted to less than 32MB due to the VMU having everything in 16 bits. The ZIP drive would have allowed for up to 100mb or more but the way that would have worked was that a piece of software would have to have been made to support it and would work more like a transfer station. You can see the issues of the larger sized memory cars with the fact that if you enable the extra 40 blocks on the vmu lots of games simply refuse to read it or give a write error
Well, it's a USB controller. Surely they can stuff a bit more into the internals to provide extra compatibility while still allowing for modern features, it's not like they have to stick to the original specs, especially since the Dreamcast controller is, well, fairly big in terms of volume compared to other controllers.
Remember all of this (outside of the USB controllers) is compatible with the real hardware. I.e the Bluetooth and regular controller
Considering how other bluetooth retro receivers work, it might be possible that some of these controllers might be interchangeable, e.g. Dreamcast receiver, Saturn pad. The 8bitdo ones work like that, where you can even use PS3 controllers for SNES if you want - I can't see why this wouldn't be a possibility, technology wise besides the obvious lack of buttons. It'd be a neat way of getting decent fightpads for the Dreamcast!
Sega Saturn pad + potential Sonic Mania 2 = Heaven. Also, that Dreamcast pad would be so, so amazing for Shenmue 3. As for the Megadrive pad, it'd be awesome just for re-playing the Classic Sonic games.
Kind of late to the party, I hadn't noticed there were Bluetooth dongles to be made available as well. I'm a big fan of 8Bitdo since I first got my NES30 Pro. Lately I've been playing all my SNES games with a retro receiver and the new SF30 Pro, which feels exactly like a SNES controller with Dual Shock capability. Assuming the Retro-bit dongles work similarly with any Bluetooth-compatible controller, and I see no reason to assume they shouldn't, this is going to be fucking dope. I'm getting a Genesis/Megadrive BT dongle and a controller to go with it as soon as I possibly can. Hell, maybe I'll pick a set up for my Dreamcast too, that'll give me an excuse to fix up the internal VGA mod I botched years ago.
Is this even happening anymore? It seems weird that there's zero information about when these might come out, etc.
On Feb 16th @RetroBitGaming tweeted: "Expected to release in late 2018! More details will be released as production becomes more finalized so stay tuned!" https://twitter.com/RetroBitGaming/status/964660200157270016
Seeing pristine Genesis packaging isn't just nostalgia, but like 12oz of the shit shot straight into my eyeballs via syringe