Tim 🎮
This week's acquisition. I'm a prolific collector of controllers, but it's rare that I actually want a game console to go with them - this is the second one I've ever bought, and the first was a second-hand MegaDrive in the 90s.
This is the EverCade Atomic Edition, and it's the only way to play the re-make of Duke Nukem 1. I won't have time to properly get into the game for a couple of weeks, but I am going to open it up and check out those gamepads, because of course I am. #retrogaming
Foone🏳️⚧️
@timixretroplays it's just a USB game pad, right?
Time to make a model-m-to-usb-gamepad adapter!
Tim 🎮
In conclusion: the EverCade VS gamepad is hardly an esports-grade tour-de-force, nor is it a high school level essay on the history of PC gaming. Is it the most authentic controller for playing Duke Nukem 1? No - that's a buckling-spring Model M that weighs more than your laptop. But if you're a time-poor millennial who just wants to plug in a box and settle into childhood gaming nostalgia after dinner on a work night? I expect it'll do alright at that. #retrogaming #retrocomputing
Tim 🎮
Those buttons are just a little too close to the edge of the pad for my preference - I like to use (according to this thing's Xbox-like layout) A and B for fire and jump in 2-button games, and had to switch to X and Y because my thumb felt a bit cramped. I don't think I'd enjoy this pad in more complicated games, but in a game whose controls consist of jump and fire and arrow keys, it's fine.
Tim 🎮
Speaking of arrow keys, the D-pad is some kind of SEGA/SNES hybrid, a cross-shape with arrow indents but also a deep bowl in the middle. The material is pretty slick and it's fast enough for quick left-right flicks. It might be a little too hard to be comfortable in longer play sessions, and its eight-directional movement is hardly inspiring (Streets of Rage was a lot of work), but if you want Duke to take just one step out onto a ledge for a precise jump, it's actually really good at that.
Tim 🎮
That becomes clear once you really get into the game. To shoot something that's just above your eyeline, you need to press jump and then fire almost simultaneously. On the Gravis, with its flat, recessed and far-apart buttons, there's practically no way your thumb could accomplish this - but on the EverCade pad, with its goofy domed buttons that are millimetres apart? It's just about doable, and it makes you feel like a wizard when you pull it off several times in a row.
Tim 🎮
For some historical context, I think the best possible controller to use while playing Duke Nukem 1 is: a keyboard. That's what you would have used on the game's release, in July of 1991, unless you convinced your dad to let you try his precious Gravis MK6 when you saw "joystick mode" in the options. The first gamepad for PC wouldn't appear for sale until six months later - this is why you collect joysticks for 2,000 points in the game, and not gamepads.
Tim 🎮
Oh boy, do I ever have some interesting thoughts on this controller. Going to have to take a little while to write this out.
Tim 🎮
(To be clear, what follows is a review of this gamepad while playing the *original* Duke Nukem 1 on a PC. I won't have time to properly get into the EverCade remake for a couple of weeks, but I can't pass up an opportunity to geek out over a new gamepad, so here we go. Please DM or email me if for some inane reason you'd like to quote this review somewhere.)
Tim 🎮
Photo of the back. Not much going on here - you can see how flat it is. Shoulder button ridges like this often get in my way on smaller pads, but this one is vast enough that it's not an issue.
The yellow warning motif and colour are a bit cheesy, but this was made to celebrate a campy old 90s platformer, so that kind of fits.
The important question is: What does it feel like to *play* that old platformer on it? I'll let you know in half an hour or so!
Tim 🎮
Initial impressions: I don't mind it. That's a 3 metre cable, which lines up neatly with the intended loungeroom use, and while it's very lightweight, it feels sturdy and surprisingly wide, making it quite comfortable to hold.
The shoulder buttons are narrow and tough to reach, but feel like tactile switches. The action buttons do not - this is an unusual design choice. (There's no visible screws on the back, I suspect it's just plastic clipped together, so I'm not pulling it apart to look.)
Tim 🎮
@foone I'm not totally sure if it supports USB keyboards to any meaningful level. The hardware compatibility list is full of Xinput stuff specifically, so maybe that's where they focused support - the VS pad shows up as an Xbox 360 controller on Windows and that middle button opens the Xbox overlay.
That probably means the giant Gravis GamePad probably won't work as-is, but I'm pretty sure there's an Xinput implementation for Arduino I could reflash it with!
Foone🏳️⚧️
@timixretroplays right, I mean adapt it to xinput
Tim 🎮
@foone ah yeah, that'd be doable. Reading from PS/2 keyboards is a solved problem, and pushing that input into an Arduino Xinput library should be easy enough. Another project on the pile, I guess.
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