More Than Games: PS1 Controllers

Continuing the Playstation 1 focus, today I am going to talk about controllers. Thanks to Nintendo's notorious love of gimmicks when it comes to controllers, the controller collecting market is rather large. It can also be very fun. So let's set aside our game cartridges for a moment and look at another way to collect vintage video games: PS1 Controllers

From Game Collecting with Rick

Short short short history of controllers here. The Playstation was originally going to be a Super Nintendo CD system, similar to Sega CD. It was cancelled and Sony decided to go ahead with it on their own. They did not do much changing to the controller design.

Then Sony decided they needed an analog controller. While many point at the N64 as the reason, it was Sega that first put out its own analog controller, and Sony always saw itself as fighting the Saturn more than the N64.

From Game Collecting with Rick

Here is our first "collectable" controller. Most of you do not know it exists. Look at those analog buttons. They curve INWARD! This was the dual analog controller, and I had one because I needed a player 2 controller and this was only a little more costly. These were larger than any Dualshock released by Sony, and they did not have the shock yet. These are collectable because they are rare AND any Gran Turismo nut loved these controllers. The sticks were higher and the inward curve allowed more slip-free control.

From Game Collecting with Rick

The first gen dualshocks are pretty much how they are today. They were super heavy and felt real sturdy to me. They were small, and that turned some off on these, but the weight made you feel like you had a real controller in your hand.

But enough of history, what about the collecting? Well at this time Namco was the biggest player on the playstation. Tekken was burning up arcades and consoles. Ridge Racer was a huge reason for people to buy a Playstation. They were arguably the reason the Playstation did so well in its early years.

To support their racing games, they created this:

From Game Collecting with Rick

That controller twists in the middle like a steering wheel. It looks awkward, but from reviews I've read it was a wonderful controller. I have not had any personal experience with it, I never even saw one for sale, but it looks like a neat little piece of tech.

From Game Collecting with Rick

This looks like a light gun. For those that weren't around at the time, Light Gun games were HUGE in the arcades. Before Dance Dance Revolution, the gun games were the only thing saving arcades now that fighting games were dying out.

These controllers were lauded for their accuracy compared to other guns of the era, even Namco's earlier guns.