3DO d-pad underrated?

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Virtual Audio QSound
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3DO d-pad underrated?

Post by Virtual Audio QSound » Sat Apr 23, 2011 3:55 pm

I'm surprised people never talk about 3DO's exceptional pad. If only the rest of the buttons didn't feel awkward on Street Fighter the controller would have been perfect. The d-pad is solid yet 3DO is never credited for it's robust performance. I feel 3DO's pad is comparable to the Saturn's or Genesis. What do you guys say?
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Post by Rust » Sat Apr 23, 2011 5:09 pm

In its day it was a great controller. I seem to recall that the rim around the two halves of the controller had a penchant for developing a nasty case of toe jam if not cleaned regularly, but the appearance was attractive and it was teen-proof. I'm also pretty keen on the daisy chain multi-player system it used.

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Post by Lemmi » Sat Apr 23, 2011 6:39 pm

well i dislike those controllers and only use quality Goldstar 3do pads
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Post by 3DO Experience » Sun Apr 24, 2011 2:23 am

I like the original Panasonic controllers from the FZ-1. The FZ-10s feel too skimpy, the Goldstar/Sanyo ones look ugly to me.

As for other systems Saturn's were nice. It's thoughtful to have thebsholder buttons be able to be pressed from two directions.
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Post by Virtual Audio QSound » Sun Apr 24, 2011 2:46 am

3DO Experience wrote:I like the original Panasonic controllers from the FZ-1. The FZ-10s feel too skimpy, the Goldstar/Sanyo ones look ugly to me.

As for other systems Saturn's were nice. It's thoughtful to have thebsholder buttons be able to be pressed from two directions.
Never held an FZ-01 pad in my hands before... guess I'll look it up on the Internet to check it out.

EDIT: Wait a sec, were those the pads that look just like the FZ-10 only START and the button beside it were rectangular? The controller was a little hefty wasn't it? I believe I do own and have played one of those after all, it came with my modded 3DO.
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Post by 3DO Experience » Sun Apr 24, 2011 5:34 am

The start and select buttons were moved down and made circular and they reduced the thickness. The extention port looks cheaper too. It's the FZ-JP2X.
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Post by Jones » Sun Apr 24, 2011 9:12 am

My first 3DO I ever had was a Goldstar, bought at eBay.
It arrived broken (so I got the right impression of those
Goldstar machines straight away from the very beginning ;) ),
but I still have the pad and use it with my NTSC FZ-1.
Though I also have 2 Panasonic controllers.

Funny somehow - it seems like all the quality the Goldstar 3DO
unit is missing was put into the pad by Goldstar.
They just had a different priority focus. :)

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Post by 3DO Experience » Sun Apr 24, 2011 5:39 pm

I never cared for the VCR look of the Goldstar. I only have one because a friend bought it and then he gave it to me for x-mas. He bought two FZ-1s and both didn't work right out of the box. So he bought the Goldstar and it never let him down. It still works good, just don't bother playing a homebrew or any other CD-R LOL.
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Post by Austin » Sun Apr 24, 2011 9:26 pm

The FZ-10 pads are up there with my favorite controllers. The floating d-pad is firm, accurate and it hits diagonals easily when you want. The buttons also feel good and I really like whatever material they used for the plastic. It has an interesting texture that you don't find on any other controller out there. I only wish it had a fighting-style six-button layout, but that's my only gripe with it. Other than that, it works great for 98% of the 3DO library.

@3doexperience: I may have asked this before, but weren't there accuracy issues on the FZ-1 d-pad? I could be wrong, but I thought that's what I've heard. I still haven't tried one for myself, but would like to.

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Post by 3DO Experience » Mon Apr 25, 2011 12:52 am

I knew this would come up at some point. Many people complain that the controllers were screwed too tight and the diagonals were an issue if you didn't loosen them but I bought my unit early on & got additional controllers as well and I've never had a single problem with them. It must have something to do with the production run. And yes, the texture to the GS controllers are nice.
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Post by Mobius » Mon Apr 25, 2011 5:40 am

Blech, the original controllers I have that came with the FZ-1 are too stiff, even after loosening them. The smaller version is nice, though.

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Post by avanteproject » Sat Apr 30, 2011 11:44 pm

I've only used the Goldstar controller but I think it's pretty cool. I think the D-Pad could be better though.
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Post by oldskool » Fri May 13, 2011 4:39 am

I think the D-Pad on the 3DO is ok for most games. For SFII I think it's atrocious. The Goldstar pad is even worse for SFII even though it does appear at first to be a nice pad. I honestly think the 3DO controllers kind of suck. I wish I still had my SNES adapter that I had back in the day. That fixed my only gripe with the 3DO - the control.
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Post by knightintosh » Thu May 26, 2011 5:27 pm

As a teen I only ever had 2 FZ-10 controllers and was initially disappointed that they didn't have the earphone sockets, which I thought - alongside the daisy-chaining - was a brilliant addition. However, I did read at the time that there appeared to be a problem with diagonals with the original pad (I think it was EDGE that erroneously stated it didn't "do" diagonals at all) and I loved my FZ-10 controllers.

When the 3DOs I bought off eBay arrived yesterday (yey!) it was my first chance to try out the bigger Panasonic pad and I have to say the d-pad does seem a bit stiff in that department, but as I thought I do think the earphone socket is neat. I haven't played a game with it yet, but even though I still prefer the smaller pad I have to say the bigger one surprisingly doesn't feel unwieldly and is very comfortable. I can see it being used no problems with certain games.

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Post by Vance » Thu May 26, 2011 6:56 pm

I can confirm that the controllers were problematic on diagonals, though I don't know details. Our rental unit at olde Game World? A horrible machine to play Street Fighter II on. Forget special moves.

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Post by knightintosh » Thu May 26, 2011 7:39 pm

Strange. There was a friend of mine had a FZ-10 with Street Fighter. He was a huge SF nut back then and he loved the 3DO version, never said anything about the controller being unsuitable. But then again, each to their own I guess, and they brought out arcade sticks for fighting games on 3DO anyway didn't they? So they must've known they would work better with the sticks.

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Post by Dryden » Thu May 26, 2011 8:12 pm

3DwhO wrote:Strange. There was a friend of mine had a FZ-10 with Street Fighter. He was a huge SF nut back then and he loved the 3DO version, never said anything about the controller being unsuitable. But then again, each to their own I guess, and they brought out arcade sticks for fighting games on 3DO anyway didn't they? So they must've known they would work better with the sticks.
Panasonic did their own digital joystick (FZ-JS1) though I don't recall ever seeing it hit retail in the US. All the ones I've seen were imported from Japan.

Capcom also had their own 6-button controller for the 3DO that was available through a mail-in program with SSFII Turbo.

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Post by knightintosh » Thu May 26, 2011 8:32 pm

Dryden wrote:Capcom also had their own 6-button controller for the 3DO that was available through a mail-in program with SSFII Turbo.
I've got Samurai Shodown with the machines I purchased so when I get around to trying it I'll see how the pads get on :) if not, then I may start crusing eBay again but this time for an arcade stick!

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Post by Lemmi » Fri May 27, 2011 12:59 am

3DwhO wrote:
Dryden wrote:Capcom also had their own 6-button controller for the 3DO that was available through a mail-in program with SSFII Turbo.
I've got Samurai Shodown with the machines I purchased so when I get around to trying it I'll see how the pads get on :) if not, then I may start crusing eBay again but this time for an arcade stick!
you could look for something like this, which is very heavy :)


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Post by Austin » Fri May 27, 2011 1:41 am

3DwhO wrote:I've got Samurai Shodown with the machines I purchased so when I get around to trying it I'll see how the pads get on :) if not, then I may start crusing eBay again but this time for an arcade stick!
Unfortunately it doesn't pop up very often.. :(

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Post by knightintosh » Fri May 27, 2011 8:24 am

Cheers Lemmi! :) And Austin, I've only very rarely seen them pop up (been randomly searching 3DO stuff for the best part of a year, only last week was actually able to go ahead and buy my machines) so yeah I'm sure once they do they'll sell for a huge amount too!!

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