In 1998/99, the Dreamcast easily had the best pad in both layout and comfort. The Saturn had the best for fighters, PSX was only decent before implementing the dual analog sticks, and the N64 was just wack. Once the Dreamcast ushered in the new generation, the brilliance of the controller sent forth shockwaves that can still be felt to this day. Barring Sony, every normal controller follows the design established by Sega, with the tradition of replicating it beginning with the first Xbox. It should come as no surprise that I adore that pad, and cannot even fathom playing Sonic Adventure without it or a successor to it. Ideally everyone would experience it for the first time on the original hardware, but that surely isn't always practical or even an option. Emulating it playing on steam with a 360 controller provides a close enough experience, especially with mods on the steam version to bring it back in line with the DC release. I stopped following it, but should those Retro-bit DC pads ever see the light of day, then those would most definitely become my preferred way to play SA/2 on pc.
The dreamcast original if you want the original experience, plus the dreamcast dlc. The game cube version if you want rewards for your emblems. or the pc version if you want mods.
Ironically none of the DLC is on the wiki despite me whining for someone to do it for some years now.
I despise the Dreamcast controller in its entirety: the bulky handles, the protrusion in the back that makes it hard for me to grip, the unreliable and slippery analog stick, the blistery small D-pad, the awkward start button... Because of the controller, the load times, and the sometimes-inconsistent 30 FPS, I can't recommend the Dreamcast original over a restoration-mod PC version that has all the benefits of the DX version with its flaws minimized.
I mean, unless the one you're using is just crippled in some way like a 360 d-pad, I would not say many games are particularly dependent on what kind of controller you use. I'm playing just about everything I can with a third party switch pro controller right now, because I like shoving gyro aim into whatever I can. But hey, I'm the opposite of a purist in just about every way, so maybe that's just me.
What I don't understand is why, after making the perfect controller, Nintendo keeps trying to poorly emulate the Xbox controllers. The Gamecube controller was probably the most comfortable intuitive controller ever. Nintendo keeps bringing it back, but only out of concession to smash bros players. What are we going to do once Sakurai stops making new smash bros games?
I wish I could agree with this 1000x. Even today, the GameCube controller fits into my hands as though it was designed and molded for them. It's so comfortable. It's a damn shame that the ones I have had their sticks wear out to shit years ago.
I think some of it was on Sonic-cult. I know it can be found somewhere. I even still have some of it on a dreamcast memory card for later use! (no screen)
hahahah I was old enough to have the original PSX and PSX controllers in my family, and playing 3D games on the D-pad was pain people give it shit and I don't know why. The A button being huge was always great, especially for games that rightly bound common actions to it, like shooting in Metroid Prime. The triggers had a good half-action there too.
The GameCube controller's buttons have always felt difficult to use, the original Xbox's controller was far too large, the Dreamcast's cable being on the bottom was an insanely stupid decision that ruins the rest of the controller. The only good controller of that generation is the PS2's, because it took the PlayStation's - which worked - and didn't fuck with it much.
While I agree that the GC controller gripped nicely and had a generally sensible design, I was never fond of the odd button sizing, weak d-pad, and the issue of buttons/triggers jamming. Not the biggest issues ever, but aside from Smash it wasn't an ideal pad for fighters in my experience. The DC pad and Xbox controller S were absolutely perfect for fighters, although I will concede that the cord of the DC pad did irritate me at times. I still wouldn't rank the GC above DC, but its controller was fairly well suited for playing Sonic Adventure DX and 2: Battle, as well as other platformers.
I just played SA1 with SADX mod installer, and boy it was a trip reliving the good and the bad of this game (jesus I didn't remember the bad being so bad). Sorry for the dumb question, but is there a level select in this game? I don't like the hub world and I don't like most of the levels. If not, is there a mod for that?
Yeah, you just go to Trial mode (the second option on the main menu), and you can play anything you've unlocked.
I adore the Gamecube controller, but only for Smash. It's nice and comfortable, but it isn't great for my hand size. But the the polygonal joystick sides (my brain just dropped a word) are a dream, and I wish more controllers had something like it. Nowadays the Xbox Series controller is my favorite. Fits nicely in my hand, joysticks are responsive, the only real qualm is the D-Pad, which is middling not great, but everything else is great in my opinion. The Dreamcast controller was alright. I've used worse, I've used better, but the shoulder triggers were nice.
Has anyone ever developed a simple hack for SA1 DC that could allow for skipping cutscenes with a button press? The inability to skip cutscenes would literally be the only reason I could think of to play anything but the DC original. Lighting and collision detection are far better on the DC version.
I picked up my original Dreamcast and plugged in Sonic Adventure literally the other day and I now feel terrible that I had lumped this game in as a "3D Sonic Title". It's so much more than that. This really is the perfect candidate for a remaster and let that be the definitive way to play.
That's the difficult thing - as discussed in this topic, Sega has badly botched remaster after remaster of this game. A new remaster starting from the Dreamcast version has some potential, but it's likely they would take the latest "remaster" and further degrade it, making another crappy port of a crappy port of a [etc]
The DC pad's triggers make my fingers hurt after a play session, and that's no hyperbole. Word. Purists can put the DC version on a pedestal all they want, I find it hard to go back to it after experiencing SADX in 60FPS.
