As a nostalgia binging retro gamer, things I’ve yet to revisit in my life become few and far between….
Alright, 18 months later… I had forgotten this thread and was about to make a new one called “here’s your controller, bro”…
tapevulture Both of the N64 contollers in your post are called Superpad. And yes I am very familiar with all the crappy N64 controllers we had. But the bottom, boomerang shaped one is the InterAct superpad….
This is a post about the sequel to the N64 InterAct Superpad– The Gamecube InterAct Superpad.
The year is 2001. I am 10 years old. PS2, Xbox, Gamecube hype is peaking. Everything is black. Everything is black. Everything is black. Deep black. Jet Black. Slightly Greenish Black. Electroniques Botique had a special Gamecube bundle deal where you choose two launch games and get a free controller. I got pikmin and luigi’s mansion, because smash bros. wasn’t out yet.
The bundle came with an InterAct Superpad. This controller fills me with unique memories and feelings; the severe blackness of that year.
Even the control stick is black.
My memories of this pad drove me nuts for years. I remembered the bean-shaped B button. When I saw the prototype gamecube controller for the first time, it reminded me that I had a controller like that. Was it the prototype all along?
Well now that I finally found it, I can assume that InterAct had designed their controller when the gamecube was first shown in prototype form. By the time smash released, I remember playing as black marth and thinking how cool it is that he matched my controller and jet black gamecube. The black stick is a nice touch. The upper bulk of the controller and fat c-stick matches marths shoulder pads and directional aerial attacks. That was the day I realized the true coolness potential of absolute black.
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/InfiniteAmpleJanenschia-max-1mb.gif
(pretend marth is at Final Destination. It was surprisingly hard finding proper black marth images on google) He’s glossy, nothing cooler. His design would never be this cool again.
The hard-wired rumble off/on switch is a thoughtful feature that I’ve never seen on a controller again. Basically everything about this pad is pretty great aside for the d-pad, which sill may be better than the weirdly tiny oem gamecube d-pad. For everything that the Madcatz microcon was, this was the opposite. It makes the OEM gamecube controller seem like the little brother controller by comparison. Maximalism, fully rubberized sticks, good in the hands, radial buttons, eight foot long cable, and one of the only gamecube controllers that beefed up the c-stick to proportion with all the other dual analog controllers. It’s the Xbox Duke controller of Gamecube controllers. To the point where thinking about Xbox launch nostalgia had me thinking of this gamecube pad. Because I never found it until now, it is cemented in my mind as the xbox launch window gamecube controller. It’s big, and black. We still had high hopes for the gamecube to be the edgy adult-oriented nintendo system. It was jet black, after all.
There are quite a few on ebay for less than $20 shipped. I don’t need it taking up space in my life though. Someone here should order it though. Good luck finding a better deal. It also comes in indigo and clear.