Fifteen Classic Game Console Design Mistakes

[coreys429]

I know there are the normal classics of Virtual Boy design and the canned ham Xbox controller but there are others. I thought I would show off this list to everyone else. Also the site is a good site to comb over as well.

http://technologizer.com/2009/08/10/...sign-mistakes/

[swlovinist]

Now you have done it. Heaven forbid that someone points out problems with the Atari Jaguar. I personally thought that the system was perfect and that everyone else got it wrong




On a serious note, most things I agree with.



I would add that Gamecube got it wrong with their "fisher price controller"

[tomaitheous]

I would add that Gamecube got it wrong with their "fisher price controller"

Blasphemy! That controller was pretty damn nice.

[Lerxstnj]

Not all consoles can be as perfect as the Dreamcast!!
Getting ready for the big anniversary next month!!

[Flack]

Did I miss the RROD on the list?

[Baloo]

Did I miss the RROD on the list?

At the very end he mentions it.

And I had a real WTF moment with this part of the article:

"If one wanted to leave a video game system hooked up to a TV set and then be able to watch standard television programming later, one had to manually slide a switch — that provided by the RF switch box — to select between the two signal sources."

What the Fuck is he smoking?

[dr101z]

Dreamcast forever!!

[sancoa]

Not all consoles can be as perfect as the Dreamcast!!
Getting ready for the big anniversary next month!!

Well, the Dreamcast controller with its single analog stick and 6 buttons wasn't exactly perfect at the time it was released. I never understood why Sega gave the controller only 4 face buttons with two triggers.

[Ed Oscuro]

I am often quite critical of articles like these, but this one is not only well-written and acceptably accurate, they also use the "What were they thinking?" line to do just that, demonstrating the methods behind the madness instead of sticking with a solely gamer-centric line of angst. Nice balance there - between pointing out the unloved and explaining it.

Even if I also don't really agree with the Xbox Duke hate, they did a good job on that one.

Not everything is accurate, though (the one that strikes me, although this may be pedantic and open to interpretation, I would point out for the GBA backlight entry most handheld LCD screens aren't actually lit from behind, but from the sides, although the light is disseminated through a layer behind the screen), and some sources and quotes would have gone much farther towards improving the stories. Going back to the GBA for a second, they could have mentioned some launch GBA titles like Castlevania: Circle of the Moon being especially harmed by this limitation. Still, they definitely had the right idea in mind here.

If nothing else, the article is a winner based solely on this line:

"Andre The Giant, were he still alive, would be disgusted."

Yes, Andre has a posse!

[Dangerboy]

The Jaguar's controller is hands down the absolute worst controller ever. *ever*. This is coming from an intellivision owner, too.

I just like how all of Nintendo's ones, sans the NES insertion issue, are essentially Nintendo just being too cheap to go the one extra step.

Personally, they should have included the PSX's original laser too closer to power source issue, as that was just duh-hur.

[sidnotcrazy]

I felt like the author missed the boat. He didn't even mention the Atari 7800 joysticks. Those were packed in the states, and they were terrible. I had hand cramps on top of hand cramps using those. Decent list, but again a lot of his "complaints" were not seen or even able to be addressed at the time. Like the RF switchbox, most tvs had two screws for rabbit ears, so lets just say it was a different time then.

How did the Colecovision skip the list? If the Intellivision controller was unconfortable, the Colecovision had to be the same or worse? I like both controllers, but they do take some getting use to.