Gaming Confessions & Blasphemy

Oh man, the Intellivision controller. We have it so good these days. I think no one's mentioned the best part, which was the crappy overlays you had to insert over the phone-pad number buttons so you could tell what each button was supposed to do. And of course that made it harder to actually push the buttons.

5200 Controller anyone? More like, does anyone have a 5200 controller that works?

About 20 years ago, I tried to start a 5200 game and realized that the main contacts that start a game must have oxidized or something. The non-centering joystick and mushy buttons were what I hated.

A long time ago, one of the pivot arms on that were attached to the potentiometer came loose and I had to superglue it back one I figured out the correct orientation.

To this date, my original 5200 is still kept in the original box.

P.S. I was awesome at Intellivision Major League Baseball. The controller was perfect for that game.

Demyx wrote:

I think no one's mentioned the best part, which was the crappy overlays you had to insert over the phone-pad number buttons so you could tell what each button was supposed to do. And of course that made it harder to actually push the buttons.

Yeah, the overlays made keypad pushing difficult, but it also opened up a world of gameplay complexity that just blew my young pre-Apple/PC owning mind.

Imagine going from a single button input on Atari sticks to a complex variety of commands as found in titles like Utopia and Treasure of Tarmin.

IMAGE(http://www.atariage.com/forums/uploads/post-7743-1152466416_thumb.png)IMAGE(http://www.tomheroes.com/images3/tarmin2.JPG)

It was nothing short of revolutionary back in '81.

It was revolutionary, but I think that complexity was lost on my kindergarten-aged mind. I pretty much stuck to Frogger.

A view of my TV room right now:

IMAGE(http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s149/MilkmanDanimal/0c808f23-fede-4a49-bcbb-7e4a6ed30453.jpg)

The purple binder is full of the plastic card protector sheets, filled with overlays for the games (the Intellivision manuals I have are barely visible in the foreground). On the couch is the Colecovision, plus you can see one Super Action controller. The top purple bin has all my other Colecovision/Intellivision accessories (more controllers, the awesome Coleco driving controller, the Intellivoice) plus games, the lower purple bin is my 2600/7800 bin with systems/a few of my controllers/games. I never had a 5200 that worked, which is a shame, because I actually have a big old 5200 trackball controller I got years ago at a flea market.

I got the Intellivision out a week or so ago when we had people over, and the other dad and I wanted to escape the mom talk in the kitchen. I kicked his ass in MLB baseball (which is surprisingly good) and NFL football (which is mind-bogglingly awful).

That's an impressive haul!

You need to organize all that goodness though.

Here's how I did mine.

IMAGE(http://gentlemint.com/media/images/2012/05/17/c41cb47c.jpg:large.505x650_q85.jpg)

Spoiler:

Lies.

Aaron D. wrote:

That's an impressive haul!

You need to organize all that goodness though.

Tempted to show a picture as to why I don't have an impressive organizational system for my old games (I have far more than that), but she'd probably get mad if I stuck her picture up here.

Seriously, I'd love to do that some day, but it's just not worth the marital discord. We have a tacit agreement that I'm allowed to be as geeky as I like, as long as she gets to decorate the house the way she likes. It works reasonably well.

Really, the only problem I had with the Intellivision controller was the side buttons. Ergonomics on them was just horrid. Too small, way too thin, too much resistance.

The inserts were clever. But if they got bent or twisted, it could be bad. The disc wasn't great, but you got used to it.

McIrishJihad wrote:
Dakuna wrote:

Morrigan eh? Hmm.

Morrigan eh?

Almost 2 pages without rehashing Morrigan.

I didn't care for Journey (PSN) and would like to formally request my 2 hours back.

Okay, I love my PS3 controllers, however, while fighting the Guardian in DkS expansion, I had issues with my thumbs sliding off the convex tops. This is rarely a problem in any other game, but I will (finally) concede there could be a design improvement on the tops of the sticks (my controller is also very old and the texture is nearly worn off). I like the reduced tension compared to Xbox controllers, makes it much easier to be precise in pretty much any game, and the sticks are much more reliable when pushing them in for the L3 and R3 functions. Someone upthread mentioned that xbox sticks have issues with input, and I have noticed that a great deal. Most 'worked in' 360 controllers I have used often have to be manually reset to neutral or they will continue to give input when you want them to stop. I have never seen a PS3 do this, with the exception of the one I spilled pop on

Dakuna wrote:

Okay, I love my PS3 controllers, however, while fighting the Guardian in DkS expansion, I had issues with my thumbs sliding off the convex tops. This is rarely a problem in any other game, but I will (finally) concede there could be a design improvement on the tops of the sticks (my controller is also very old and the texture is nearly worn off). I like the reduced tension compared to Xbox controllers, makes it much easier to be precise in pretty much any game, and the sticks are much more reliable when pushing them in for the L3 and R3 functions. Someone upthread mentioned that xbox sticks have issues with input, and I have noticed that a great deal. Most 'worked in' 360 controllers I have used often have to be manually reset to neutral or they will continue to give input when you want them to stop. I have never seen a PS3 do this, with the exception of the one I spilled pop on :)

My experience is the opposite. Without enough resistance I find it harder to be precise. Its the same thing with my force feedback wheel. When I unplug it, and the resistance goes away, racing gets so much harder.

As for the durability I have 4 PS3 and 6 360 controllers and both sets have fared equally well. 1 of each has had a little wandering stick problem but is fixed just by snapping it back and forth a couple times. The 360 has slightly thicker and tougher plastics though so it can take a little more of a beating from a friend that isn't faring so well in a local COD match. Come to think of it, most first party controllers have been pretty good to me for all consoles. It's those 3rd party Madcatz and other POS controllers that tend to break after a couple months.

After dealing with gamer guilt for years, I'm ready to admit: I like playing games with strategy guides

UMOarsman wrote:

After dealing with gamer guilt for years, I'm ready to admit: I like playing games with strategy guides

Yes! Totally this! I am a strat guide whore, mostly because I no longer have the time or patience to figure out where every little collectable or side mission is. I'll spend a fair amount of time searching, but when I start to feel the frustration kicking in, out comes the guide!

Good call!

I'm of two, possibly three minds about the strategy guide issue. On the one hand, I've found that I enjoy many games much, much more if I let go of the idea of getting a perfectly play-through. All those collectibles and secrets and stuff will still be there on my second play-through, if it turns out I like the game enough to justify one. So on that level, having a strategy guide open next to me while I play just encourages me to get all completionist and perfectionist and sucks the fun right out of playing.

On the other hand, I've learned to not feel guilty about consulting a guide when I get stuck. GameFAQs is my friend when I'm not having fun any more because I'm just plain not progressing.

And on Zaphod Beebelbrox's third hand, when I'm playing a game where it's possible to totally screw yourself over by specing your character or some kind of skill tree or base build wrong (a la X-Com, many RPGs), I tend to have a lot more fun if I just go ahead and consult a guide to figure out what the optimum build is rather than figure it out with a bunch of restarts and trial-and-error.

I've no problems going to a guide if the game is incapable of communicating what I need to do, provides poor facilities to learn it, put pieces of a puzzle together, or if I'm just having a brainfart, etc. By default I don't want to be led by the nose, but gentle nudges in the right direction.

Back in my WoW days, there was an addon that directed you, step by step, on leveling from 1-80. It made the game zen-like, and my enjoyment rose significantly. I don't do this in every game, but as a recent example, I looked up optimum build configurations for Anno 2070 production chains. I'm much more interested in building the city than finding the right build patterns myself.

UMOarsman wrote:

After dealing with gamer guilt for years, I'm ready to admit: I like playing games with strategy guides

Anyone who plays a Final Fantasy game to completion and says they don't use a guide is lying or a savant. Prima takes up a good portion of my bookshelf. Except for FFIX. Give me the whole guide, not a $30 reference to a website.

Although I don't play with strategy guides, I have been known to pull out a walkthrough on occasion. The lastest example is Tales of Monkey Island. Which was fun, really, I enjoyed the humor in the dialog, the quirky, lovable characters, but some of the puzzles were really, really convoluted. I don't remember Monkey Island being this hard when I was younger! (and if you bring up the chicken with the pulley, I will deny its existence)

Count me as another who liked those obscenely huge original XBOX controllers. I felt like a man's man with than thing in my hands.

THAC0 is an attack rating. Plate Armor being a defensive armament, it has Armor Class or "AC," not THAC0.

I was over in the Torment: Tides of Numenera thread, and a new confession just occurred to me.
The first time I played Bladur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn, I thought you needed to have high Armor Class... Yup. Took about a couple of hours before I noticed that plate mail had a lower AC than leather, and "oh that's odd, that can't be right"...

Edit: Corrected to avoid excessive shame and embarrassment.

Clearly, I need to start drinking coffee. I meant Armor Class, not THAC0. Here's another gaming confession for you: Thirteen years of RPG playing, and I still can't get my stats straight!

Eleima wrote:

Clearly, I need to start drinking coffee. I meant Armor Class, not THAC0. Here's another gaming confession for you: Thirteen years of RPG playing, and I still can't get my stats straight! :D

In your defense: DnD v2 was needlessly obtuse.

dejanzie wrote:
Eleima wrote:

Clearly, I need to start drinking coffee. I meant Armor Class, not THAC0. Here's another gaming confession for you: Thirteen years of RPG playing, and I still can't get my stats straight! :D

In your defense: DnD v2 was needlessly obtuse.

Also sadly lacking in Assassins and Cavaliers.

Speaking of not being able to get through a game without a strategy guide...

I've started Baldur's Gate several times and can never get past the first city... Not even with a guide. I have been tempted to boot it up again and just cheat my way through to see the story, but I really want to play it legit. I just, can't.

JillSammich wrote:

Speaking of not being able to get through a game without a strategy guide...

I've started Baldur's Gate several times and can never get past the first city... Not even with a guide. I have been tempted to boot it up again and just cheat my way through to see the story, but I really want to play it legit. I just, can't.

This. Very much this.

UMOarsman wrote:
JillSammich wrote:

Speaking of not being able to get through a game without a strategy guide...

I've started Baldur's Gate several times and can never get past the first city... Not even with a guide. I have been tempted to boot it up again and just cheat my way through to see the story, but I really want to play it legit. I just, can't.

This. Very much this.

Honestly? Just skip to BG2. It's got a better story, better characterization & better engine.

Tanglebones wrote:
UMOarsman wrote:
JillSammich wrote:

Speaking of not being able to get through a game without a strategy guide...

I've started Baldur's Gate several times and can never get past the first city... Not even with a guide. I have been tempted to boot it up again and just cheat my way through to see the story, but I really want to play it legit. I just, can't.

This. Very much this.

Honestly? Just skip to BG2. It's got a better story, better characterization & better engine.

Word, or Icewind Dale/Icewind Dale 2.

I think 90 percent of these D & D computer games stems from not really knowing or understanding the D & D rule set. You have an incredibly complex character sheet, a hodge podge set of dungeons, and a learning curve like free climbing the Grand Canyon from the river to the top.

I have never finished Buldur's Gate 2.

But I have an excuse: I made it all the way to a certain cave full of undead near the end of the game and lost my save file. Never got around to playing through almost the entirety of the game a second time.