Alucard 11189 said:
The way we accessed the joystock was that we almost completely ignored the D-pad. I don't know why they didn't dispense of the D-pad altogether and just have the joy stick.
They didn't know it back then. Remember the Playstation and Saturn launched with no analogstick whatsoever, so they build the N64 controller as full 2D dpad controller with an additional analog stick instead of the other way around. Given how shitty Dpads on analog controllers are (Xbox360, Gamecube, etc.) it might have made sense at the time. Of course, looking back it was the wrong decision, as only very few games ever used the Dpad and almost everything focused on the analogstick.
That said, I still don't find the N64 controller very unconfortable, as 2D Dpad controller it is pretty damn good and even in the 3D analogstick position it's not a big problem. With my now adult hands I of course would have liked the grip things to be a little further apart, but its not that big a deal. Playstation2 controller still is far worse when it comes to analogsticks. Also one really cool feature of the N64 controller was that you could use it single handed, so you could use two of them for single player games, Perfect Dark with Dual Analog was pretty awesome. Also part of the N64 controller is still alive today, sort of, the Wii Nunchuck is essentially the central port of the N64 controller with a few minor upgrades.
Anyway, back to topic: Most uncomfortable controller for me is the keyboard. It was never build for gaming, lacks essential features such as analog buttons/sticks, runs into problems when you press to many buttons at once and has a idiotic button layout that is inherited from mechanical typewriters on top of all that. It of course doesn't help that every game has a slightly different layout that either requires relearning or remapping each time.
