Random: This Prototype Sega Mega Drive Controller Is Giving Us Serious Wii Nunchuk Vibes

Good thing that it was only a prototype because it looks hideous.

@JuiceMan_V I quite like it tbh. I would have really enjoyed this back in 1991-1994 during my peak Genesis playing days.

Couple tweaks and it would be perfect

That looks like it would be a little uncomfortable to use. If the grips were shorter and were closer to the buttons, it would probably be better to use. It’s cool to see this either way. SEGA tends to make some interesting controllers, like the Saturn’s 3D controller.

It's clunky and resembles Scalextric controllers, but it's only a prototype. It's really interesting to see that designers were thinking about a player's hand positioning whilst holding a controller way back then!

Man, that d-pad looks awful!

They look like giant earbuds lol.

The one connector, two controllers approach reminds me of Atari 2600 Paddles (it's also the same connector).

Beeg wii nunchuk

In context of its day, this thing looks really great. I always loved that about the Wii controllers. For a console that was so "casual" focused, the long games were so comfortable to play with my arms by my sides rather than in a claw grip all the time.

There's some weirdly removed-from-time statements in the article and the comments here.

I will say that the (clearly not final) connector seems to have helped shape the controllers to the point that the raised area seems too far lifted up from the grip. So, your thumbs would be resting on a non-ergonomic ridge.

The d-pad is basically what they thought they could do back then with the Nintendo design patented. It does have some protrusions to help you feel where diagonal is that looks like they might get uncomfortable.

The extra button in a very separate place would be very welcome. I don't know the timing of this, but I'm betting Street Fighter 2 ruined any chance of this releasing. Gotta have that 6-button grid layout, which is horrible for most other games.

Instead of earbuds it reminded me of the Atari 2600 paddles first — and they kind of had triggers depending on how you held it. Guess I have been around for awhile.

@RudyC3 Ninja'd me! Glad I'm not alone.

I would use it for the Sega Genesis Mini. 😁

One of my favorite things about the Wii, and joycons, is being able to be more relaxed by each hand being independent. One hand can be behind my head and the other on my side. So I would of liked a controller like this back in the day.

I get vibes when people talk about vibes. I like using the over used word "vibes" because I'm a stupid millennial.

If I remember correctly there was talk in the Sega magazines during the heyday about Sega bringing some Japanese arcade titles to the west and these were rumored to be the market popular lifestyle games that Japan likes. This could have been a planned accessory controller to use these.

As an aside I purchased a Japanese casino style game many years ago from a retailer who had a skid of these. These used tokens as payment/payout and what is what I liked about it is the Ninja warlord details it has. Based on how long you play, how much you win and the frequency it plays a storyline on the screen.

I'd try it.

The Genesis/MD controller is something I dig out of nostalgia, not comfort. The first model's buttons were just too darn big. The SNES pad was way comfier

Well sega basically invented the modern shape controller with the Dreamcast, so they nailed it eventually. Only lacked a second stick.

The wii trained me to use independent controllers and its my favorite way to play the switch nowadays with one joycon in each hand

You’d be surprised how far into the future Sega was thinking. Execution was their entire problem. Their modern problems are a different discussion entirely though.

If it was a motion controller, I could see the appeal. But as a traditional game pad, not so much.

They did release the Activator, which I heard had quite some execution issues (and it had become too much of a collector item for me to get one to try myself), so we have to wonder if this was one of several cases of Sega having the idea but not being able to work out technical flaws.
(like they also had an unreleased VR visor in development, in the days when VR was seen as a huge thing. That of course being the fad which led to the Virtual Boy's release. That, being when Nintendo should have seen when even "let's try all sorts of weird ideas" Sega said No Thank You to it before. )

@aaronsullivan yeah playing with hands separated I’m was one of my biggest draws with the Wii I remember playing Twilight Princess for hours with one arm draped across the back of my chair and the other in a somewhat “normal” gaming position it was great.

Looks like SEGA Is copying old stuff once again.

More like the Virtual Boy (mentioned in the article) than the Wii but whatever.

I'm actually really like the design but I am wondering what purpose the split design actually offers? Also curious what the trigger does and if it's the same as one of the extra buttons on the 6 button controller? Either way it's an interesting thing and at the time people were really trying out different ideas. Some third party controllers of the 90s were bizarre to say the least.

Genuinely looks like a nice design for it's time. Would love to have triedit out.

I've often seen claims that something like this and the Wii Remote/Nunchuck would allow left handed players to hold the controllers in the opposite order. But.. does ANYONE actually do that? I'm left handed. So are my older brother and father. A number of my friends. None of us ever wanted to hold them in the non-standard way because we'd been controlling the directional pad with our left hands and the input buttons with our rights for decades.

This isn't like writing or using a fork. It's not a dominant hand issue. The input button side isn't the dominant side of a controller. Swapping them wouldn't offer superior control, it would just be.. unfamiliar.

I used to like being able to hold my hand to either side but man it made me a sloppy gamer when I'd do it. Nothing like gripping an object with both hands to make you more focused on the correlation between direction and buttons.

@TurboTEF

You might like it, but that controller wouldn't even be practical with my 90's goggle on in any shape or form.

Granted, some people like things just because it's "different" not because it's useful.

@KingMike Virtuaboy was meant to be colour before Nintendo President Yamuchi came in with his gun and shot up the office in rage1. He also went on to screw over N64 with carts.

@Deltath Right handed people have no clue lol.

If applying totally stupid logic the journalist here uses - the fact is the industry standard design suits left handed gamers more naturally than right handers for player control on the left, the journalist on here is a simp 😂😂😂

I kinda wish they'd done more with that design back in the day.

Gavin Lane, look up the Competition Pro Manix Twin controller for Sega Master System - predates the Mega Drive design and actually made it to retail in Europe.

@liveswired Reminds of one of the other strange cases of a game applying a quick "left-hand" option.
Secret of Mana for the SNES had a button mapping menu, and with it one option was to support holding the controller upside-down. (I'm guessing by inverting all D-Pad, and maybe ABXY inputs.)
I have never and I'm going to guess probably not many people, left or right handed, used that option.

I personally think this is part of the battle between Sega of America and Sega of Japan.

It is meant to be bundled in a single unit or separated so you could either play as a single pad or as two independent sticks.

The issue about the buttons being backwards if you play with a right-handed stick would not have been a problem if you would have followed the sake of America's original philosophy where every game to be okayed had to have buttons remappable so instead of having your index finger on the a you have your index finger on the sea and just map it backwards CBA not ABC.

However there are some games like Side Arms and Tutankham where specific left fire and right fire buttons are used, and forcing a reversal of ABC to CBA would not be good in that case.

Also Street Fighter would not have ruined it. All you needed was a six button arrangements on one of those paddles and you had ambidexterity.

The mission stick kind of has that ambidextrous philosophy.

Ever wonder why the Genesis controller finally ended up like a kidney bean? Depending on which national division contributed to which item, If Sega of Japan insisted on the kidney bean design, then they make inversion impossible where you could rotate the controller 180° and remap.

The problem with second generation controllers weren't the fact that they were ambidextrous, but the fact that there was arm asymmetry and using a claw grip.

I think I designed a new quasi-vewlix joystick arrangement that's ambidextrous. When I sent it to Hori USA, they said they love the design but they severely doubt the main Japanese headquarters would allow it.

That plus a whole bunch of previous events in my life leads me to believe that there is a Japanese Jingoistic Joystick Jihad. It may have started when Team USA won big tournaments during the pre crash on Japanese game machines. And they linked it to the fact that the American distributors often had Ambi controllers. Even if that was not originally intended, arcade owners were repurposing old cabinets to retrofit newer games...They like the Ambi style controller, because the more customers you satisfy, the better your business goes.

This is consistent with how the difference between Nintendo of America and Sega of America treated my letter about where can I find a right-handed fight stick for Street Fighter. Nintendo just said just learn to play the normal way. Sega actually help me find a company who makes custom joysticks back in the '90s when even the 90s fighting game Community wouldn't touch fighting game joysticks for the home because it's "Ew! the home version".

I benefited from the experience. And probably shows that Sega of America was simpatico with me, as opposed to Nintendo who is towing the company line.

The fact that the only ambidextrous joysticks I've seen in the world that could be described as "fight sticks" by today's standards come from Beeshu, makes me think Street Fighter was a game invented as a weapon against Beeshu. I mean if Sega of Japan was willing to sabotage Sega of America on some of these things then national pride really does trump the money.