Kadve
Member
3d was taking the world of PC gaming by storm in the mid to late 90s thanks to games like Quake and Descent, but how the hell where you supposed to control these newfangled things? With your Mouse and Keyboard? or maybe your Controller or Joystick? Well then you clearly had no imagination, unlike most of these companies (who lets be honest here, might have had a bit to much at times). So lets laugh and bask in the ridiculousness that was you non-standard gaming peripherals from this time period with a selection. And if you know any other good ones, feel free to post.
(I noticed btw after making my last article that image heavy posts made on computers might not look to good when viewed on mobile. Apologies in advance if it looks weird)
(note 2: i also know consoles had their own weird set of peripherals made by booth third and first party. But i didn't grow up with those so they aren't included here)
Released in 1995. SpaceTeks 6 axis Space(ball) might have been a proven hit when it came to CAD and similar users. But for gaming it kinda sucked and it didn't suppleant anything. The device itself was also poorly put together to save costs and became uncomfortable to use very quickly.
Still has a cult following though and you can get Modern versions of the original Spaceball
In 1994, Logitech had also tried to use the Spaceball technology (or their own version of it at least) for a gaming peripheral. But as a mouse rather than a controller.
While the device was certainly more comfortable than the Spaceorb. The problem was again that what worked in theory didn't really work in practice as it was unreliable, fiddly, had a very step learning curve and in the end, kinda pointless. The haptic feedback was also more annoying than anything.
(more below, had to split the post early for some reason)
(I noticed btw after making my last article that image heavy posts made on computers might not look to good when viewed on mobile. Apologies in advance if it looks weird)
(note 2: i also know consoles had their own weird set of peripherals made by booth third and first party. But i didn't grow up with those so they aren't included here)
SpaceTec SpaceOrb 360
Released in 1995. SpaceTeks 6 axis Space(ball) might have been a proven hit when it came to CAD and similar users. But for gaming it kinda sucked and it didn't suppleant anything. The device itself was also poorly put together to save costs and became uncomfortable to use very quickly.
Still has a cult following though and you can get Modern versions of the original Spaceball
Logitech Cyberman
In 1994, Logitech had also tried to use the Spaceball technology (or their own version of it at least) for a gaming peripheral. But as a mouse rather than a controller.
While the device was certainly more comfortable than the Spaceorb. The problem was again that what worked in theory didn't really work in practice as it was unreliable, fiddly, had a very step learning curve and in the end, kinda pointless. The haptic feedback was also more annoying than anything.
(more below, had to split the post early for some reason)
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