Meme You Just Have to Share

[avatar! | 1,819]

22 minutes ago, PII said:

 the fire button was nice and springy

WOW! That made me realize how we've come from "fire button" to what - a PS5 controller has 13, 14, buttons? Do we truly need so many buttons?

Interesting article -

https://www.shortlist.com/lists/history-of-the-video-game-controller

I had no idea that the first light gun actually came out in 1972! Also, they include a picture of "Commodore 64 Games System (1990)" controller, which is interesting itself.

Edited December 6, 2022 by avatar!

[Dr. Morbis | 2,090]

32 minutes ago, PII said:

I don't think there was a controller that actually came with the computer but the one in question was, I think, a typical 3rd party joystick and looked more or less just like a 2600 controller except it was actually far superior.  The joystick could be manipulated much more efficiently and the fire button was nice and springy. 

Commodore also made a joystick that was identical to the Atari VCS one except it was white.  I don't know if they made a deal with Atari or just blatantly ripped them off, but that's the one my C64 came with...

4 hours ago, RH said:

Lol, does it also bother anyone else that the 2600 controller is upside down? 

That's one more way to tell the meme was made by a young'un in his twenties who was using google and doesn't really have a clue.

And furthermore, why are modern controllers present?  Like are they targeting all the five-year-olds out there who are going to appreciate the meme because it includes their first console: the Switch?  It should have had all the major pre-NES controllers and then from NES to maybe Xbox360/PS3/Wii era, not shit you can still buy in stores today...

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

47 minutes ago, PII said:

I don't think there was a controller that actually came with the computer but the one in question was, I think, a typical 3rd party joystick and looked more or less just like a 2600 controller except it was actually far superior.  The joystick could be manipulated much more efficiently and the fire button was nice and springy.  Here's a pic.

Neat, I've run into photos of a black cased "premium" Kraft joystick made for the 2600/C64, but not one with that form factor..  While the sticks on those are still incredibly smooth, and the buttons so far from the standard mushiness it's not even funny, they did lack the ability to put one or both axes of the stick into "free float" mode (stick doesn't automatically return to center, stays wherever you left it until moved again) and a second button, features that the "premium" model had.  While all the Kraft sticks I've gotten to experience have felt great, the "premium" one is one of my favorite joysticks of all time and was manufactured for virtually every system available in the 80s.  Can't blame you for wanting to stick this one up on the list.

7 minutes ago, Dr. Morbis said:

Commodore also made a joystick that was identical to the Atari VCS one except it was white.  I don't know if they made a deal with Atari or just blatantly ripped them off, but that's the one my C64 came with...

I was going to mention that one, but with what little time I had at the time of my first reply, I couldn't find it anywhere in Google and skipped it.  I know they look basically just like the Atari XE sticks, but want to say that the C64 name/badging is molded in?  Actually, some more digging turned up this, which I believe is what we're both thinking about, and is shown under the "Joysticks, mice, and paddles" section of the official C64 Wikipedia entry.  No word about licensing the design, though.

Edited December 6, 2022 by darkchylde28

[PII | 1,886]

28 minutes ago, avatar! said:

Also, they include a picture of "Commodore 64 Games System (1990)" controller, which is interesting itself.

Many times I've come into possession of this style of controller and have always opted to get rid of them.  They are almost always really cheaply constructed (although there are exceptions.)  I just can't really imagine using one with any great success unless the game in question would be some sort of flight sim.  I do remember people being rather fascinated with these back in the glory days though....

[Dr. Morbis | 2,090]

11 minutes ago, darkchylde28 said:

I was going to mention that one, but with what little time I had at the time of my first reply, I couldn't find it anywhere in Google and skipped it.  I know they look basically just like the Atari XE sticks, but want to say that the C64 name/badging is molded in?  Actually, some more digging turned up this, which I believe is what we're both thinking about, and is shown under the "Joysticks, mice, and paddles" section of the official C64 Wikipedia entry.  No word about licensing the design, though.

Yeah, mine came with that joystick, and the white paddles too.  There was a game I always played called Lemans, that was so freaking cool with the paddle controller, which, incidentally, also looks to be directly "inspired" by the Atari ones...

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

3 minutes ago, PII said:

Many times I've come into possession of this style of controller and have always opted to get rid of them.  They are almost always really cheaply constructed (although there are exceptions.)  I just can't really imagine using one with any great success unless the game in question would be some sort of flight sim.  I do remember people being rather fascinated with these back in the glory days though....

Really?  Those style of sticks (not the exact one pictured, but others just like it) were basically the bread and butter of my whole family after an upside down dinner plate was added under it for stability, at least when playing stuff on the 2600, lol.  I want to say the ones that we kept and used the longest were the Quickshot II sticks that got manufactured and/or cloned by dozens of different manufacturers, across tons of platforms (including the NES!).

[PII | 1,886]

8 minutes ago, darkchylde28 said:

Really?  Those style of sticks (not the exact one pictured, but others just like it) were basically the bread and butter of my whole family after an upside down dinner plate was added under it for stability, at least when playing stuff on the 2600, lol.  I want to say the ones that we kept and used the longest were the Quickshot II sticks that got manufactured and/or cloned by dozens of different manufacturers, across tons of platforms (including the NES!).

I remember being appalled by that button on top of the quickshot II or perhaps it was some knock off of the qsII or maybe it was just in bad condition.  We may have to agree to disagree on that one for the time being..  But seriously, what kind of games would you want to play with a controller like that over a d-pad or more traditional joystick?  I guess I could see maybe using it for a vertical scrolling shooter in addition to flight sims but what other kind of game could it possibly provide an advantage for?

[RH | 4,922]

1 hour ago, Dr. Morbis said:

And furthermore, why are modern controllers present?  Like are they targeting all the five-year-olds out there who are going to appreciate the meme because it includes their first console: the Switch?  It should have had all the major pre-NES controllers and then from NES to maybe Xbox360/PS3/Wii era, not shit you can still buy in stores today...

For girl friends.  It has to be for the girl friends who the 15 to 20-somethings just converted their ladies into gamers.

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

33 minutes ago, PII said:

I remember being appalled by that button on top of the quickshot II or perhaps it was some knock off of the qsII or maybe it was just in bad condition.  We may have to agree to disagree on that one for the time being..  But seriously, what kind of games would you want to play with a controller like that over a d-pad or more traditional joystick?  I guess I could see maybe using it for a vertical scrolling shooter in addition to flight sims but what other kind of game could it possibly provide an advantage for?

If I had to guess, I'd say you got one of the clones with the tiny circular button on top, as the Quickshot II had a mostly rectangular top button with an ergonomic groove down the middle, making it incredibly comfortable to hold and use.  As for what games?  Did you not play much on the 2600?  Chopper Command, Seaquest, Sky Jinks, Demon Attack, Atlantis, Starmaster, H.E.R.O., just to name a few.  Compared to the default Atari sticks (which were always incredibly stiff, and painful after a while), the Quickshot II was downright luxurious, and the autofire option was fantastic to have handy if it was needed.  It really sounds like you experienced bad knockoffs and/or never anchored the thing so you could really torque on it during fast and furious gameplay.  Sorry that you seem to have had a bad time with them (their clones).  If you were local, I'd offer to fire up my system, attach the old sticks, and load up some games so you could experience the extreme difference between standard sticks of the day (of which your Kraft stick absolutely was not) and the Quickshot II.

[PII | 1,886]

38 minutes ago, darkchylde28 said:

If I had to guess, I'd say you got one of the clones with the tiny circular button on top, as the Quickshot II had a mostly rectangular top button with an ergonomic groove down the middle, making it incredibly comfortable to hold and use.  As for what games?  Did you not play much on the 2600?  Chopper Command, Seaquest, Sky Jinks, Demon Attack, Atlantis, Starmaster, H.E.R.O., just to name a few.  Compared to the default Atari sticks (which were always incredibly stiff, and painful after a while), the Quickshot II was downright luxurious, and the autofire option was fantastic to have handy if it was needed.  It really sounds like you experienced bad knockoffs and/or never anchored the thing so you could really torque on it during fast and furious gameplay.  Sorry that you seem to have had a bad time with them (their clones). 

49 minutes ago, darkchylde28 said:

If you were local, I'd offer to fire up my system, attach the old sticks, and load up some games so you could experience the extreme difference between standard sticks of the day (of which your Kraft stick absolutely was not) and the Quickshot II.

48 minutes ago, darkchylde28 said:

 

I've always thought of the Kraft stick as standard for Commodore, but perhaps that's not  exactly accurate.  As for the games you mentioned, I'm down all the way (pretty much any kind of shooter seems like it would be good with that stick but especially if it's first person) until you got to H.E.R.O.  That's one of my all time favorites.  My ideal for that is a pistol grip w/fire button and joystick on top.  Using a quickshot for that would def. lessen precision...  

Many times I've pondered how cool it would be if myself or someone else here were local....  

[Tulpa | 3,516]

[Dr. Morbis | 2,090]

3 hours ago, PII said:

until you got to H.E.R.O.  That's one of my all time favorites.  My ideal for that is a pistol grip w/fire button and joystick on top.  Using a quickshot for that would def. lessen precision...

Did you ever max H.E.R.O.?  It's my second favourite VCS game after Kaboom.  When you max the score the digits all turn to exclamation points.  I did this with a standard CX-40 many years ago:

 

Edited December 7, 2022 by Dr. Morbis

[PII | 1,886]

2 hours ago, Dr. Morbis said:

Did you ever max H.E.R.O.?  It's my second favourite VCS game after Kaboom.  When you max the score the digits all turn to exclamation points.  I did this with a standard CX-40 many years ago:

 

Affirmative, many times in fact on the Commodore 64.  Somewhere I may even have a pic. with a little note how many levels I made it after the score maxes out and you stop getting extra lives.  IIRC I think I was relatively close to having played 100 levels total.

I haven't done it in a while, but I've been playing it on Colecovision w/the Coleco Controller = much harder.  Everything is faster and though I have grown to love the Coleco controller it has nothing on my favorite pistol grip w/1 fire button.  Getting used to setting dynamite with an extra fire button instead of hitting down took a little doing but has become a fun change.  

I've actually been thinking of playing the 2600 version again too which I only have on a PS1 Disc which means playing with a D-pad which is rough but I was starting to get the hang of it last time I tried...

[RH | 4,922]

7 hours ago, Tulpa said:

Interesting enough, a few years ago he did fill 100% of all wishlists for all teachers.

I mean, maybe he filtered out stuff like Ferraris, but my wife’s aunt was a STEM teacher for a middle school and she got a nice drone and some other nice stuff.  She never expected to have her full wishlist filled, but had various items that were pricey, but could be useful for some classes.  She, and according to her, all teachers across the US had their wishlists filled.

[TDIRunner | 2,744]

3 hours ago, RH said:

Interesting enough, a few years ago he did fill 100% of all wishlists for all teachers.

I mean, maybe he filtered out stuff like Ferraris, but my wife’s aunt was a STEM teacher for a middle school and she got a nice drone and some other nice stuff.  She never expected to have her full wishlist filled, but had various items that were pricey, but could be useful for some classes.  She, and according to her, all teachers across the US had their wishlists filled.

Andy my wife (a teacher) doesn't have an Amazon account....   She just has me order stuff for her.  

[RH | 4,922]

@TDIRunner I miiiiight need to look it up again.  I might have mis-remembered.  It could have been Bezos OR some big/booming Crypto company bought everything in every teacher wishlist.

My memory is getting fuzzy.  I know even back in my day of crypto, certain ICO managers, when they hit it big, would do big donations and such (but nothing like that.)

I'm in a meeting, or I'd google it.  I'm sure it'd be easy to get a definitive answer on, but I know it happened.

[TDIRunner | 2,744]

2 minutes ago, RH said:

@TDIRunner I miiiiight need to look it up again.  I might have mis-remembered.  It could have been Bezos OR some big/booming Crypto company bought everything in every teacher wishlist.

My memory is getting fuzzy.  I know even back in my day of crypto, certain ICO managers, when they hit it big, would do big donations and such (but nothing like that.)

I'm in a meeting, or I'd google it.  I'm sure it'd be easy to get a definitive answer on, but I know it happened.

You don't have to do that.  I'm not concerned whether it happened or not, or who even did it.  I was just joking that my wife would never get her wishlist filled because she doesn't have one.  She is not big on doing anything online that involves payments or transactions.  

Edited December 7, 2022 by TDIRunner

[Tenjikuronin | 1,737]

[Reed Rothchild | 9,549]

2 hours ago, Tenjikuronin said:

This is my life

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

1 hour ago, Reed Rothchild said:

This is my life

Something similar happened to a FB acquaintance not terribly long ago, where the guy's wife told him to decide between two colors from two different brands, he did, and she stubbornly demanded the other one.  Turns out, they're literally the exact same color, as both brands were manufactured by the same company and just had their own names for the same color.    The guy only figured it out after the fact when he contacted both companies when trying to track down an exact color match for an old computer system and somebody high enough up in the support chain spilled the beans.

[RH | 4,922]

I will say, it's shocking how many tones of white there are.  Yes, the uh... lady of the house can have a stronger opinion, but we bought a couple half-gallons for testing walls.  The sun move from the front of our house to the back, so the sunlight shifts from being direct to ambient in our living room.

It seems like such a small thing, but we made a choice on a color we're glad with but it also took buying 3-4 test pints and painting squares to come to a consensus.

But yes, some can obsess about subtleties to a point where there is no difference.  I've seen that too.

[Tenjikuronin | 1,737]

[TDIRunner | 2,744]

I used to manage a paint department for a small hardware store years ago when I was still in school.  Mixing colors was pretty fun, but yes, the variation in color is all but infinite.  

Oddly enough, when I sold paint, I found that most customers had a harder time deciding on the sheen than the color itself.  

.......or colour as some might say.

 

[Tenjikuronin | 1,737]

[JamesRobot | 5,806]

6 minutes ago, Tenjikuronin said:

Pterodactyl mammoth high deep