NeGcon PlayStation Controller - Rerez
As a video game developer Namco has produced some of the best video games around. But one really crazy weird thing that they did a lot of back in the ‘90s and even into the early 2000s was make really unique video game controllers. Sometimes one offs that only got used in like one or two games and this is one of them. This is the Namco NeGcon for the PlayStation.
At first glance this just looks like a very strange controller with no real unique features. But at the very center the entire controller completely twists to 135 degrees. This is a very interesting design because up until this point I had never seen any other controller quite like it. It's compatible with a lot of different games but most notably racing games like Toon Grand Prix 2 and even Gran Turismo. But for this review I played one game in particular. Ridge Racer Type 4 which I think works really well with this controller. Now I know the concept of this controller is very weird but there is a reason why they did this. Back when they were designing this controller there really wasn't a lot of analog technology around to be used with D-pads. So the concept of driving a car and turning it left and right but giving pinpoint precision on how much you're actually turning well unless you had a steering wheel in front of you there really wasn't any other way to transmit that to the game. But with the NeGcon controller its analog input is so precise that even a tiny little turn completely changes the car to that exact same specific degree that you are moving it at. That's the kind of stuff and kind of precision that Namco wanted for a lot of their racing games which is really neat.
Compared to original PlayStation controller this one has a couple of key differences. For one all the buttons to the right of the controller, the circle, square, triangle and X well those buttons are gone. Now you have B, A, Roman numeral 1 and Roman numeral 2. B and A are normal buttons but the Roman numeral buttons have a lot of travel. Like they're really, really long and it's kind of interesting because I've never really seen this used in another controller. So if you're playing a racing game by pushing that one button you have a lot more precise input for how much gas you're applying or how much of the brake you're applying. It's cool and I actually wish they did this with more controllers. That same kind of travel is evident in the left and right triggers. Now the D-pad isn't the same PlayStation D-pad you’d be used to. Now it's a shield. The button on this controller that's most peculiar of all though is the lone Start button. For some reason they didn't include a Select button and on a normal PlayStation controller where you'd find L2 and R2 those are also missing. This controller cannot be used with pretty much any other game because well it's missing buttons and most games that were made on the PlayStation made use of everything that was on the controller. This controller was made for racing games and honestly while all these other buttons are really neat that one thing that stands out beyond everything else is the way that you twist it because this makes it one of the most unique controllers I've ever used. Believe it or not this controller isn't even limited to the PlayStation. This also works on certain PlayStation 2 games like Tokyo Road Race, Wipeout Fusion and Ridge Racer 5.
The NeGcon controller is a really cool design. I absolutely love this. The whole concept of turning the controller and twisting it like that made it really fun. There's really not many controllers out there that give you that kind of precise control while driving a car unless you're using an analog stick. But this concept here I think plays a lot better and it’s really fun to race with. The only sad part is because of the limited buttons that they put on this thing. So if you are a big fan of Namco racers and you want to try out a controller that is just going to blow your mind you've got to get the NeGcon .
This controller looks like really interesting! And Thank you for your really cool post
Flexible and very modern ... I made a homemade gameclip instead:
here my post
https://steemit.com/gaming/@cinefilo/home-gamepad
I always wanted one, its such a innovative design! Most of us Hard core racing game enthusiast either don't have the space or the money to spend on a Full Steering wheel with pedals setup. A lot of us are spending money on our actual sports car;)
I used to have one of these. Such an odd controller but after a little practice it was really good. I remember using it a lot with Ridge Racer Type 4.