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[Papa_Wisdom]

Gaffers what are your best (or obscure) add ons or controllers you can remember or own(ed)

These are probably mine.

Dreamcast karaoke unit (although not usable outside of Japan it looks cool as hell)

Twin stick controllers for virtual on (saturn and Dreamcast) only real way to play these games.

Game gear TV tuner spent many a car journey trying to get a decent pic only for the batteries to die on me!

PS1 Jogcon controller, as far as I remember the central circular bit was motorised, or something similar. Was a great way to experience rr4

 

[RoboFu]

The CD add-ons at the time were mindlblowing to me.

 

[willothedog]

Steel Battalion FTW

 

[Papa_Wisdom]

Steel Battalion FTW

Ooh good one I forgot about that, had it and stupidly traded it in at gamestation for £50

 

[Three]

best add on for me were these:
Had a chipped PS2 so this was amazing

This for DK64 and Revolt:

And my switch before the switch

 

[diffusionx]

Mad Catz TE fightsticks for SF4 - really hard to overstate how awesome these things were, for such an awesome game, and what an upgrade over sticks in prior gens

Yea we didn't have to use AA batteries for our ancient handhelds. I had one of these. Actually I had two because my cat chewed through the wire of the first one while I was playing it. I miss that little lady.

This controller actually was awesome for this game

 

[F31 Leopard]

It let you play region locked games.

 

[CGNoire]

Gun-Com

 

[Three]

Gun-Com

Remember this? I really wanted one as a kid. I even had the cartridge but not the scope.

 

[Andrew Evenstar]

anything made by mad catz / happy dogz

 

[FoxMcChief]

 

[gt86]

The CD add-ons at the time were mindlblowing to me.

My friend had the turbo grafx-cd growing up, iirc we played a lot of Y's with redbook audio

 

[Codes 208]

Its time for the weekly controller thread already?

 

[FrankWza]

The DualShock 4 back button attachment is an incredible add on accessory. Perfectly placed. Good clicks. I wish Sony would make a DualSense version that you can add to both the standard and the Edge.

 

[Zannegan]

The 8-bitdo Ultimate controller is great on Switch, like a Pro controller but with back buttons and hall effect sensors, so no drift. They go on sale from time to time too, so you can get them for about the same price.

The DualShock 4 back button attachment is an incredible add on accessory. Perfectly placed. Good clicks. I wish Sony would make a DualSense version that you can add to both the standard and the Edge.

I wish back buttons were just standard across all controllers. It adds almost nothing to the manufacturing cost yet does so much for the user experience. Plus, devs won't really start taking advantage of the feature until it is standard.

I had high hopes before the PS5/XSX were shown off, but alas. I doubt Nintendo will be the first, but they're nuts, so who knows? Their next controller could well be ALL back buttons leaving the face a smooth, unintimidating touch surface.

 

[rabbity-thing]

Mad Catz TE fightsticks for SF4 - really hard to overstate how awesome these things were, for such an awesome game, and what an upgrade over sticks in prior gens

Amen, brother. Mad Catz absolutely changed the way a ton of us played fighting games on console. Before the TE, fightsticks were uncommon and rarely did a good job of providing an authentic arcade experience. Years later, that original TE is still one of the most solidly designed fightsticks ever produced.

 

[MrA]

odyssey 2 rifle,

Cassette Vision Lightgun is pretty awesome too

 

[nowhat]

Tokyo Thrift: The Rez Trance Vibrator is gaming's most intense peripheral

The Verge is about technology and how it makes us feel. Founded in 2011, we offer our audience everything from breaking news to reviews to award-winning features and investigations, on our site, in video, and in podcasts.

www.theverge.com

 

[ZoukGalaxy]

 

[Davevil]

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Hands-down:

 

[cireza]

The CD add-ons at the time were mindlblowing to me.

This. I love with a passion CD add-ons for 8/16 bits consoles. Mega-CD is my favorite one (I was playing some Jaguar XJ220 yesterday !).

The feature set it brought us is quite fascinating in retrospective, and this is true as well with the PCE and even the Neo Geo CD (these godlike soundtracks for KoF99, Last Blade games etc...).

 

[keraj37]

The best add on I ever had.

 

[Majormaxxx]

 

[FrankWza]

wish back buttons were just standard across all controllers. It adds almost nothing to the manufacturing cost yet does so much for the user experience. Plus, devs won't really start taking advantage of the feature until it is standard.

I had high hopes before the PS5/XSX were shown off, but alas. I doubt Nintendo will be the first, but they're nuts, so who knows? Their next controller could well be ALL back buttons leaving the face a smooth, unintimidating touch surface.

I don't know that they need to be standard in order for devs to take advantage. They're just extra buttons that take the place of face buttons. Unless you mean adding more inputs? But I do agree they should be standard and I think they will be next gen. "pro" controller will add features and probably be even more modular.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

What in tarnation??

 

[Happosai]

The CD add-ons at the time were mindlblowing to me.

These came to mind. They were stupid expense though. Sega tried making a portable version too which had an advert to go portable (in a car). Sega's was nowhere nearly as out there as Turbografix, NeoGeo or others in 4th-gen. Sad part is that most who missed out on them during those gens probably expected the prices to drop slightly during the 5th; never happened to my knowledge. They're still expensive...and more so.

 

[Solidus_T]

Amen, brother. Mad Catz absolutely changed the way a ton of us played fighting games on console. Before the TE, fightsticks were uncommon and rarely did a good job of providing an authentic arcade experience. Years later, that original TE is still one of the most solidly designed fightsticks ever produced.

Arcade sticks (that is what they are actually called) were widely available before MadCatz released their line and introduced the marketing term 'fightstick'. Hori released a ton of arcade sticks for PS1 and 2, both the normal versions and then the Hori Real Arcade Pro 1 and 2, which featured Sanwa buttons and JLF, with a proper Sega Astro/Blast layout. These were easy to get at your local video game store.
Namco also released several arcade sticks with the release of Tekken games for PS1, PS2 and PS3. There was a Hori Real Arcade Pro Tekken 5 edition, as well as Namco arcade sticks that also had a Noir layout like their own arcade cabinets.
Sega also released arcade sticks for the Saturn and Dreamcast and eventually the PS3 when they stopped making consoles. The Virtua Stick High Grade is one of the best.

EDIT: I prefer Japanese style arcade panels, but I should also mention that you could actually get American style arcade sticks before MadCatz from sellers like MAS systems (RIP to the founders) or Capcoms very own anniversary arcade stick which actually used Happ/IL knockoff parts. It came with the anniversary collection on PS2 and Xbox in 2004 if you wanted that version. Now finding one of these is incredibly difficult.

 

[Papa_Wisdom]

These came to mind. They were stupid expense though. Sega tried making a portable version too which had an advert to go portable (in a car). Sega's was nowhere nearly as out there as Turbografix, NeoGeo or others in 4th-gen. Sad part is that most who missed out on them during those gens probably expected the prices to drop slightly during the 5th; never happened to my knowledge. They're still expensive...and more so.

Always regretted selling my mega drive mega cd 32x combo and sega Saturn. I was checking eBay prices yesterday and holy shit.

 

[consoul]

Satellaview

 

[Happosai]

Always regretted selling my mega drive mega cd 32x combo and sega Saturn. I was checking eBay prices yesterday and holy shit.

I don't regret selling the 32x (which I never got working). I know many mock the idea but I would have taken the Neptune one gen after its intended launch (which never happened either way). Not an add-on but I do regret selling my Saturn a few years ago as well as a Nomad which was still in box. Main reason for selling was the retro consoles were just not getting played enough at that time. You may not find one cheap 'working' but learn some basic electronic engineering and you can refurb a broken one.

Add-on I least regret selling was the Gameboy camera. I got it when it launched but the nostalgia never held to it. I'll go a step further and throw the GB player for GC in there too. I brought it with me when I moved abroad in 2016 but the launch disc was lost in transport. It sits useless now but wasn't that great to begin with.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

One of my personal favorite add-ons is the GameBoy Player for the Gamecube. Great item, still have mine.

 

[killatopak]

used it until it literally cannot work anymore.

 

[SleepySlippy]

The CD add-ons at the time were mindlblowing to me.

Just wait until the next console generation, they will be mind-blowing again.