Transcript

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to the next bookmark episode of the Gaming Backlog Book club.

Every once in a while, life responsibilities overtake the time that would otherwise be used to advance far enough in the week’s segment of the book club season to actually complete it and have the conversation we want.

So in those moments, we’ve decided to put a bookmark in the game for just long enough to touch on other topics related to our shared loved hobby of playing video games and discussing them.

This week we’ll be talking about video game accessories, which used to be called peripherals as well back in the day.

But we’re not talking here about things like console covers, storage, like external or internal hard drives or other things like that. We want to talk about the things that actually affect moment to moment gameplay, not just increase your frame rate or reduce lag.

So I’m curious how many from my list. You’ll guess Alex.

But before that, throw out any that come to mind immediately.

[00:00:58] Speaker B: Okay. So any video game accessories or peripherals that I have used or can think of that I’ve played with. First one that comes to mind because I use them every day. Thumbsticks.

I’m not sure that’s on your list.

[00:01:10] Speaker A: It’s like a big one. The attachable thumbsticks.

[00:01:12] Speaker B: Yes, the attachable. Yes, the attachable thumbsticks usually like Controller Freak or.

[00:01:17] Speaker A: I think it’s. I think it’s somebody. Is it Control Freak? Control Freak. Control Freak with a K and a double E.

Which I think are the ones that we found first. I know we saw them at Best Buy, a handful of them and started trying them out and.

[00:01:33] Speaker B: Yep.

[00:01:35] Speaker A: And I mean it’s just kind of. It makes it taller. I think it’s good for people with large hands. It also gives you. I mean, either they’re marketing it well or I just kind of fell for the placebo or it actually works, but it does. I do feel like I have more control over aim in shooters and more like finite control of small movements.

[00:01:56] Speaker B: Yeah. I mainly use them for first person shooters. So that’s.

[00:02:03] Speaker A: Do you remove them for other games?

[00:02:10] Speaker B: No, actually, I don’t think I do. No. But I will say I mainly use them. So I don’t use them on.

So like mainly my first person. Like first single player games are on PlayStation and I don’t use them for that. It’s usually just for Xbox, which is more my multiplayer games. And I use it for all my multiplayer games, mainly first person shooters. But any other multiplayer I don’t take. So I don’t take Them off my Xbox controller.

[00:02:35] Speaker A: Interesting.

[00:02:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I don’t use them on PlayStation.

[00:02:38] Speaker A: You don’t use them on PlayStation controller. So you use the stock PlayStation controller?

[00:02:41] Speaker B: Yeah, I use the stock whatever. DualSense Edge.

[00:02:43] Speaker A: Well, so we’ll chat about the dual sense edge soon. But the.

Do you.

For the dualsense edge, are you using the stock PS5 thumbstick or did you swap one out? Because it comes with a couple other options.

I.

[00:02:56] Speaker B: It’s the stock. I did not swap them out.

[00:02:59] Speaker A: Interesting.

[00:03:00] Speaker B: Yeah, huh.

[00:03:02] Speaker A: Well, as someone who does not play with an Xbox and doesn’t really play multiplayer games all that much, I just use the thumbsticks pretty much all the time on PlayStation. I even have some for the Switch which I don’t play shooters.

[00:03:14] Speaker B: I use them on Switch. I use it on the Switch because

[00:03:17] Speaker A: the Switch ones are especially the joy cons are.

[00:03:19] Speaker B: So they are tiny slip tiny and slippery. They are quite slippery. So yeah, I use the. I use like a thumbstick type thing.

[00:03:26] Speaker A: That makes sense and it makes sense that they’re, you know, primarily used for shooters in general. First person shooters especially, I think you know, even for a long time. I like. I think the first ones I got were Overwatch themed ones and they have obviously the tie in deals with a bunch of different games and series because there were a number of different Call of Duty versions of them and I’m sure there are plenty, plenty more that they’ve developed through the years. Do you still use a Control Freak brand?

[00:03:57] Speaker B: Yes, I do. Yeah. They’re still. They’re like. They’re. They’re Call of Duty like Modern Warfare 2 remaster ones or whatever that I’ve been using for forever. I bought like three or four pairs of them.

[00:04:11] Speaker A: So I like them through a couple.

[00:04:13] Speaker B: Yeah, they were. Yeah, they were the ones like I really got comfortable using. So.

[00:04:18] Speaker A: And because they’re sort of silicone or rubberized or something, they. They do rub off with enough sort of either force or use or sweat or whatever else.

Yeah, I know that. Especially if you’re kind of forceful with it. If also the one thing I don’t love about these thumbsticks attachments is that they.

The little feet I guess that attach to the thing sometimes don’t connect super well or go over the lip of the bottom of the thumbstick, the default thumbstick well enough so that they. If you push too hard it kind of goes flying which will get you killed in the first version shooter. But.

But they are very useful. I think.

I.

The other thing that’s nice right about especially The Control Freak ones is they’ve experimented with a ton of different shapes.

So they’ve created convex, concave, different kind of little grippy things for your thumbs while you’re there.

Yeah, it’s hard. I like checking out their website. Probably paints the picture better, but it’s.

I do feel like I lose grip on the thumbstick less by using these.

[00:05:32] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:05:33] Speaker A: The other thing though is I did try at some point. I. And I’m pretty much. Except for the ones that still have those Control frequents. I started using this brand Satisfy, which I found the brand for something for the Switch, which we’ll talk about in a sec too.

[00:05:52] Speaker B: But

[00:05:54] Speaker A: they started making thumbsticks at some point and so I decided to try them out. They come in like this little metal case and it comes with five of them actually.

So it has.

It has two different heights of two versions. So it has two heights of just the standard kind of Joy Con, which is one that’s more close to the actual thumbstick itself. One that’s a little bit higher.

It has another one that has basically, I guess one quarter of the thumbstick itself actually kind of slants or slopes down so it’s.

Your thumb can kind of rest on it more comfortably instead of being kind of pointing down into the middle of it.

And my favorite one, especially for shooters is one that actually swivels and spins 360, so you can actually just kind of spin it around. But I find that super useful for me at least to kind of really fine tune my aiming.

[00:06:46] Speaker B: Interesting.

[00:06:46] Speaker A: Okay, so if you haven’t tried those, I would try. It’s too bad you can’t get it by itself because it’s very useful.

[00:06:54] Speaker B: But.

[00:06:54] Speaker A: Yeah, without needing the rest. But I would, I would suggest trying it or you know, you can come over and try one of mine before you commit.

[00:07:04] Speaker B: Yeah, I might have to. Yeah. Look into this. I have tried some of the regular satisfy ones, not some of the higher up ones, just like regular ones. I think those. Actually I think the brand I have on my switch too right now is Satisfy.

[00:07:19] Speaker A: Yeah, that might make sense.

[00:07:21] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:07:23] Speaker A: What other types of accessories can you think of or remember?

[00:07:27] Speaker B: So I can think of a few now, but one that I don’t think you’ve used, but I have and I’ve only used it for one specific game are these, which are also made by Control Freak, are the precision rings.

[00:07:43] Speaker A: Oh, I do remember seeing them on their website. They kind of like slot over the outside of the.

[00:07:49] Speaker B: Yeah. And they come in like a soft, medium and firm. So like, makes it harder to move

[00:07:56] Speaker A: the stick, and it basically, it reduces the distance you can travel with the stick itself.

[00:08:00] Speaker B: Right? Yeah.

[00:08:02] Speaker A: And you like those?

[00:08:03] Speaker B: I do. I use for one game, only one game. And it is. The game specifically is MLB the Show.

Because when you’re online, playing online or whatever, because you have a.

Like a pci, it’s called a pci, and you’re moving it within the strike zone, it kind of stops you from potentially. Not stops you, but it kind of helps you not just flick the stick because you’re obviously trying to track the ball when it’s coming, the pitch coming.

So it gives it less of a chance to just like, if you just move the stick and it just flicks the PCI down and you completely swing and miss because your PCI is beneath the ball. So it gives you a little more stability and accuracy. And it’s definitely.

It definitely improved my game and will be the show. My hitting specifically, is what you’re using it for.

[00:08:55] Speaker A: Okay.

[00:08:56] Speaker B: So, yeah, those are something.

[00:08:57] Speaker A: I’d be curious to see that in action.

[00:09:01] Speaker B: Yeah. Because you can’t move it. It’s just. Basically helps prevent you from just as you’re moving your PCI down just. And trying to do it quickly because, I mean, the ball. Some pitchers were thrown over a hundred.

You’re just trying to, like, you flick it down to try and get the hit at the right time. But this kind of gives you a little more accuracy of not staying out, like in the out for not going out of the strike zone as much.

So, yeah, it’s gives you, as they say, more precision, basically.

So, yeah, it’s.

It’s pretty good.

[00:09:34] Speaker A: They’re pretty good. Yeah. Baseball’s not my thing, so I won’t be playing that game. But. But, you know, I. I wasn’t always curious. I thought it was probably for shooters too, but maybe people do.

[00:09:45] Speaker B: But I. Yeah, I only use it specifically for it.

[00:09:49] Speaker A: So do you have a controller that you just always use for that or do you put them on and off?

[00:09:53] Speaker B: I just take them on and off. It’s on a. Yeah. On another dual center. It’s just taking off.

[00:09:59] Speaker A: Nice.

[00:09:59] Speaker B: Nice. So. Yep.

Something else I can think of. Let’s see.

Trying to think specifically.

I mean, I don’t know. I don’t know if overall the dualsense edge was on your list. Like. Oh, like pro controllers.

[00:10:16] Speaker A: Yeah.

[00:10:17] Speaker B: The thought of pro controller.

[00:10:19] Speaker A: That’s the way to describe it. Right. You know, I personally have the dualsense edge as the one and only pro controller, but pro Controllers in general are on my list. You know, any kind of.

I don’t know. I think one of them is even called Elite, but like a controller that goes controller beyond the standard bells and whistles of the controller that comes packaged with your console with replaceable thumbsticks, potentially replaceable triggers or adjustable triggers.

D pads. I know the first time I ever tried one was when we were playing Co Op Couch, Co Op Cuphead and you gave me one of your controllers, which is an Xbox.

I don’t know what brand that is.

[00:10:59] Speaker B: The Xbox. It was the Elite and whatever they’re

[00:11:02] Speaker A: on, which I really love because I don’t like the standard. I think it’s the standard Xbox D pad that has the kind of semicircle although. Or the circle all the way underneath it, like floating beneath it. So I’d rather just have a standard, like D, like cross D pad.

And so I like that you can just literally pull the magnet off and put a new one on.

[00:11:23] Speaker B: Yep. Yeah, that’s one of the nice things. Yeah. So that’s why. Yeah, I use my Xbox Elite controller series two on.

Yeah. Every day for Xbox. For games. Yeah.

[00:11:35] Speaker A: And you use your DualSense Edge for most games as well?

[00:11:38] Speaker B: Yeah, I use it for all games. I have not since I’ve been using my DualSense Edge, I don’t think I’ve gone back to a DualSense, a regular controller.

So, yeah, I love the Edge. I think it’s the same with the Elite control. It’s the extra grip that you have. They each have like extra grips on like the handle, which feels nice. They’re a bit heavier.

[00:11:58] Speaker A: It doesn’t. It definitely feels. It feels heavier in your hand and more. I don’t care about it feeling premium or anything like that, but it feels more solid there. So like, I feel like I have a better.

And it’s. This is probably a placebo effect too. What. It feels like you have more control over what you’re doing.

[00:12:14] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:12:16] Speaker A: And yeah, I mean, I think there’s. There’s.

I guess there’s. Obviously all of the Pro controllers typically have those either paddles. And I’ll use the Edge as my comparison point here because that’s the one I have.

Like, you can swap out the. From a more of a paddle thing that actually goes flush with the body of the controller. There’s another one that’s kind of like these more clicky type things that stick out or protrude a little bit more, which I use the ladder.

[00:12:43] Speaker B: Yeah, I use the ladder too. I love those Things I don’t.

[00:12:45] Speaker A: They’re great.

I have. You know what actually for PS4 they released the back button.

[00:12:52] Speaker B: I do remember that.

[00:12:53] Speaker A: Which has like this giant kind of circular screen. It’s very clunky. And the way to switch the buttons that it used that each of too. But it is in the paddle format. So I used it actually for a while playing Overwatch on PS4.

[00:13:06] Speaker B: Okay.

[00:13:08] Speaker A: And it works, you know quite well. But it’s not a simple like interface like it is on. On the DualSense edge.

[00:13:15] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:13:16] Speaker A: And I prefer the sort of the clickier half circles that stick out. I also use the. It has a three point stopper on the L2 and R2 triggers. So you can actually like shorten your.

The amount of distance you need to travel in order to actually click it. Which you can do it digitally as well. But I like doing it physically because.

And I don’t. I haven’t really used it for shooters but I used it a lot when I was playing Demon Souls and when I was playing Sekiro which instead of having to like.

No, because pairing I think is on L1 but for just attacking. Attacking with R2 or using whatever the.

The thing with L2 like it’s just super responsive that way where if I have to pull the trigger all the way down I just feel like I’m wasting time and usually get hit.

[00:14:08] Speaker B: And you need those like extra half seconds if not short even in Souls games.

[00:14:13] Speaker A: And then the. Yes.

The edge also comes with different thumbsticks that you can swap out. I think there’s just two varying heights of the standard one. And there’s also like basically a PS3 controller format kind of knob that’s a lot stickier I want to say.

[00:14:31] Speaker B: Oh yeah, that I didn’t put.

[00:14:33] Speaker A: Because I use a thumbstick. You know one of the satisfy thumbsticks on the left side. I swapped just the right side to that version. Just. I don’t know why but I feel like I get bit more control with it.

For you know Cyberpunk which are playing now. I swapped it out and put on the regular one and then added the. The spinning thumbstick.

But yeah, I’m a huge fan of these pro controllers. I’m really glad that the actual brands that make the console are making their own versions now instead of just these aftermarket ones.

[00:15:04] Speaker B: True.

Yeah, true. I did have. I had a third party one for PS4.

It was an Astro one and it was actually really good. It’s what I actually used to play all of the Horizon Zero dawn first Horizon game with and it was really good.

I still have it.

I don’t know actually. I wonder if it connects to PS5. I haven’t tried it since obviously I got the DualSense Edge. Yeah.

But that one’s really good. And then I have the Switch. I have the Switch Pro control. The Switch 2 Pro controller.

[00:15:39] Speaker A: Oh yes, yes. Which doesn’t come with like the cool extra features. It’s just better. Way, way better than using a, a Joy Con in any configuration except handheld. Right. I also have. I just have Switch 1 Pro controller, but use it for Switch 2 as well. And it is.

[00:15:58] Speaker B: Yeah, the Switch 2 has buttons.

[00:16:00] Speaker A: I think the Switch 2. I think the Switch Pro. The Switch 2 Pro controller has back buttons.

[00:16:05] Speaker B: Yes, it has back buttons on it.

[00:16:06] Speaker A: Yeah, I don’t think I knew that. I thought they just added the chat button and that was it.

[00:16:10] Speaker B: Nope, it has back buttons.

[00:16:12] Speaker A: Okay, well, there you go.

I’m not convinced yet. But you know, because the other ones still work.

[00:16:17] Speaker B: But yeah, no, it’s very nice feeling. I will say Nintendo’s like they’re compared to usually the regular controllers. Definitely the Joy Cons are the Pro controllers just feel so nice.

[00:16:28] Speaker A: It feels so good. Honestly, I think the while it doesn’t come prepackaged, you have to buy it separately because it compares to the DualSense and the other one, whatever the X +1 is called now I do think the Switch Pro controller feels the best in the hand compared to the default controller.

[00:16:47] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:16:49] Speaker A: So yeah, hey, good on you Nintendo.

Maybe I’ll have to try out this Switch 2 Pro controller.

Yeah, I think related to controllers as well. So for the Switch 1 they still haven’t released one for Switch 2, which I’m really kind of antsy about because I like playing 2D games with a D Pad. So there’s this Hori brand left Joy Con.

Mine is Zelda themed. I think there was also a Mario themed one which basically it does not function at all disconnected. It doesn’t have an internal battery or anything. It literally just plugs in to your handheld of your Switch one.

And you know it has a legitimate D pad which okay, you. Because of the whole concept of removing your Joy Cons and playing multiplayer in person for the Switch, I understand why they didn’t do that.

And they have, you know, your D pad is essentially the four different buttons that you would use as face buttons. But I need my D pad to play 2D. So I’m a huge, huge fan of this thing and we’ll buy one immediately once they release one for Switch 2 because.

[00:18:07] Speaker B: Yeah, I was actually just looking at Hori’s website for Switch 2. They only have, like, actual controllers. Not. I know what you’re talking about.

[00:18:14] Speaker A: So it’s not helpful for me. Yeah, not for handheld, because obviously, like, the actual, like, the Pro controller does the job. I don’t need a brand, you know, even though it’s licensed and connected to Nintendo, I don’t need that. I just need the one that goes attached. So I actually got. I don’t know what brand it was, to be honest, but I got these like this, like, D Pad sticker thing that goes over the Joy Con left buttons as a D pad for the Switch 2, but it’s a giant D pad and you’re still. It’s. It just kind of facilitates the clicking, but it’s still a little bit slow compared to a real D pad.

[00:18:54] Speaker B: Okay, yeah, that makes sense.

[00:18:59] Speaker A: And then I guess, sort of even going even further on the whole controller side of things.

I know you had one, at least in the Switch one era, but I think I’ve had one both in one and two. Is the Satisfye switchgrip.

[00:19:14] Speaker B: Yes.

[00:19:14] Speaker A: Which may not be the official name for it, but, you know, I’ve become somewhat of a brand loyalist to Satisfy, I guess, because.

Huge, huge fan of that. I know there’s a variety of ways to make your Switch feel more comfortable in your hands because they. But this one in particular, the Satisfye one, the left side of the grip is sort of normal, but the right side is a little bit wider and a bit of an angle. So that because of the placement of the buttons on the right side of the Joy Con, it makes it more comfortable to both use the thumbstick and use the buttons.

Do you still use one of those too?

[00:19:52] Speaker B: I do, yeah. In handheld mode, yes. When I’m playing handheld, I will say I don’t use it as much as the Switch one one I had because

[00:20:01] Speaker A: it is a little bit larger. The Switch 2.

[00:20:02] Speaker B: Since the Switch 2, it is a little bit more comfortable. Like the Switch 1, you play like 30 minutes or whatever just with my

[00:20:11] Speaker A: hand cramped, just like.

[00:20:12] Speaker B: Yeah. So the Switch 2, I can actually play a little longer because it’s obviously a bit bigger, but. Yes. But the Satisfy grip, I do have one and I do usually put it on. It’s. It’s very comfortable.

[00:20:21] Speaker A: The nice thing too is, and I may have done this in the later generations of the grip for the Switch 1, but the Switch 2 version actually can dock into your Switch Dock. Switch 2 Dock, because they Readjusted the like form factor of it. So it’s.

I just. I just dock it in. It’s on the sort of the TV stand instead of the other one. I had to pull it off and then plug it back in.

[00:20:44] Speaker B: Totally forgotten. Got that. And you know what? I’m gonna do that now. I also didn’t do that because where I had my switch to originally I didn’t have room.

[00:20:54] Speaker A: Yeah, that’s reasonable.

[00:20:55] Speaker B: Yeah, now I have room actually for that where I have. I moved my Switch 2 so I’m actually gonna probably after this I’m gonna go put the satisfy switch.

I’ll just dock it, redock it. Yeah, that’s a good idea.

[00:21:09] Speaker A: It’s a solid choice.

So another one that is a major throwback.

But do you recall something called the Game Shark?

[00:21:23] Speaker B: I do, yeah. I definitely recall the Game Sharks.

[00:21:26] Speaker A: I do not know if you had one. I did not have one, but I knew a couple people that did.

[00:21:31] Speaker B: Same here. I never had one, but I know friends that had friends had one.

[00:21:36] Speaker A: And it’s something that I think in some iterations like had its own screen or at least would just, you know, you’d plug it into your console. And I think that was like the generation of maybe N64, maybe even before that. There probably was a version for sure. Some version of a Game Boy that lets you input a bunch of onboard cheat codes.

[00:21:58] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:21:59] Speaker A: And you basically just select them from a menu and then you. It ports them into the game. Which I don’t thinking back on it, I need to do some more research on that because I don’t know how it actually worked. But um. I was always such like. Such a. It was essentially like the modding of the day.

[00:22:14] Speaker B: Mm.

Yeah, I definitely remember. Okay. I definitely remember a friend using it on N64, but definitely used it on some N64 games and maybe some PS2 games.

Yeah, I think PS2 as well.

[00:22:34] Speaker A: Yep, that sounds about right.

[00:22:36] Speaker B: It was on PS1, but I don’t recall like using it though. But I remember friends using on PS2 and 64.

[00:22:43] Speaker A: But I mean I think it had. And it had cheats for a ton of different games. It’s not like you had to buy a separate one for each game. So it’s, you know, it seems like a pretty solid investment if you wanted to go beyond the limits of whatever the devs created.

[00:22:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I’m trying to remember what was like I think for PlayStation it was for a fighting game. It might have been for Grand Theft Auto as well.

[00:23:04] Speaker A: We might have used It I wouldn’t be surprised. It was Grand Theft Auto for sure because they had a lot of cheats that you can do without that. And I’m sure I remember in Grand

[00:23:10] Speaker B: Theft Auto 3 There was a cheat where you could just get infinite like rocket launcher ammo. So I just stand on top of a building and get like five stars and then just rpg.

[00:23:24] Speaker A: I mean honestly that’s like. That is the whole reason to play grand the dotto back.

[00:23:30] Speaker B: It really was.

[00:23:31] Speaker A: Still haven’t finished any of those stories.

[00:23:33] Speaker B: Nope, it was just that.

[00:23:35] Speaker A: But yeah, just create chaos and then. And then hit some jumps in a fast car and then call it a day every time.

[00:23:42] Speaker B: That’s kind of really what it was.

[00:23:46] Speaker A: Yeah. If anyone did have a game shark and used them growing up, then let us know because I am curious to hear other funny stories about what you could pull off with those.

Next up on my list is fight sticks for fighting games.

I currently have one with like an actual joystick which is more something that I use for beat em ups actually to simulate the arcade which is cool but I just also I haven’t actually had a chance to use it yet. Was this Razer Kitsune leverless fight stick. Which is funny to call it that because it doesn’t actually have a stick, it’s just a bunch of buttons and use buttons for the directionals as well.

I’m very curious to see how it works because it’s going to require some rewiring of the brain to actually be able to have any control over it. But fight sticks are awesome. Like it’s one of the.

Even if you’re better at playing a fighting game with a controller, it’s just so fun to relive those arcade days. And I mean you and I are a little bit younger than the generation of people who only had arcades as a gaming option.

But obviously they were at movie theaters and birthday parties and all those other kinds of kids activity places. So if we played a ton of arcade stuff and fighting games and our second season Ninja Turtles, like all those beat em ups were using in the arcade. It’s just so fun to do that at home.

[00:25:27] Speaker B: Shout out to Nickel City.

Loved Nickel Cities. I don’t know if you ever did those, but I had one.

[00:25:32] Speaker A: I don’t think I knew of one.

[00:25:33] Speaker B: There was a place called like Nickel City around here where yeah, you’d literally go in and get some change and like my parents would drop me off with some friends, just go and play arcade games throughout like the whole day. It was so Fun.

[00:25:46] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, bowling alleys, like burger pub, things that kids were allowed in. Like there were so many places that had arcade games. It’s just in the 90s especially you couldn’t.

[00:25:57] Speaker B: Yeah. Now you gotta find like a barcade.

[00:25:59] Speaker A: Yeah. It’s literally almost only in barcades.

And an occasional movie theater that hasn’t updated far enough to remove it.

[00:26:07] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, true.

[00:26:08] Speaker A: They’re usually empty though.

Good times.

And I know you have one coming on the way, right?

[00:26:19] Speaker B: I do. I pre ordered the, the official Sony one that they came out with which

[00:26:27] Speaker A: I forget the name of but I can’t remember. It looks cool.

People are, you know, the die hard hardcore fighting game. People are, you know, a little skeptical of it because it can be wireless and most of the time that gives you the tiniest bit of latency that bothers them. But I think for our purposes it’ll be just fine.

[00:26:46] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I think it would be. It’s called the. Oh, Flex Strike. Flex Strike Wireless fight stick.

[00:26:52] Speaker A: Odd name. I mean it looks great. Like the white and black coloring.

[00:26:55] Speaker B: Yeah, it looks really nice.

[00:26:56] Speaker A: So excited to joystick itself.

[00:26:58] Speaker B: Looks cool. I don’t think it arrives until closer to the end of this year so once it does well I’ll be excited to use it.

[00:27:06] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. We might have to throw a fighting game into our backlog here.

[00:27:11] Speaker B: Definitely.

[00:27:15] Speaker A: I suppose just going down that kind of rabbit hole of very specialized types of controllers.

Steering wheels and pedals.

[00:27:23] Speaker B: Mm.

Yeah, I was gonna bring these up.

[00:27:26] Speaker A: I’ve never owned one but I’ve tried them. I mean obviously it’s this similar to the whole arcade idea.

[00:27:31] Speaker B: Right.

[00:27:31] Speaker A: There were a lot of like I, you know, remember playing Cruisin USA and in those same arcades or like now. Oh Dave and Busters. I forgot about that, like that kind of environment. There’s a lot of racing games that you sit down and actually have a shifter and a steering wheel and a pedal and.

And it’s just, it’s. I know people that have done that with Gran Turismo. I remember actually reading a story a number of years ago of someone, someone in Japan whose dad was a taxi driver for his entire career but couldn’t drive anymore and had to retire.

But loved driving. Just straight up loved driving. I think was gifted a PlayStation with either Gran Turismo or some other game and a full on steering wheel and pedal set and the guy would just sit there at home all day just driving around having a great time.

[00:28:25] Speaker B: Yeah, that would be.

Yeah, I have a.

I’ve wanted one because I play the Forza Horizon games a lot. And whenever, like, the new one comes out and I was like, oh, I want to get one. I just don’t have the room to put.

[00:28:39] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Like, where you’re gonna leave it. Like, that’s the kind of thing that you would want to have just a spot for it for, you know, at least a couple months while you’re playing a specific game and then put it away. Not, like, have to put it into, you know, a TV case and then pull it back out every time you feel like playing it. That would make me just. I’d be too lazy to do it.

[00:29:01] Speaker B: No, yeah, no, and I totally get that. I just. Yeah, I didn’t even get one. I’d love to, but I just play Forza with that. But I would love to try, like, an actual steering wheel with pedals.

[00:29:12] Speaker A: Yeah.

[00:29:13] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:29:13] Speaker A: Seems fun.

Yeah, I guess it was like you have having to keep going to Dave and Buster’s instead, or I guess we can get into our real cars. But that’s another story altogether because you can’t just put your pedal to the floor and zoom off.

[00:29:29] Speaker B: Can’t do what? No I can do in Forza Horizon.

[00:29:34] Speaker A: Considering the last couple, what do you think is going to be the next one that I’m going to say?

[00:29:39] Speaker B: I don’t know, but I’m just going to say this one randomly because I actually just bought one and I thought

[00:29:45] Speaker A: you’re actually going to hit it.

[00:29:46] Speaker B: I actually thought it would work with a game that I’m playing. I play, but it doesn’t.

[00:29:53] Speaker A: Oh, no.

[00:29:54] Speaker B: But it is compatible with some other games that I have installed. So I actually just got a Flight stick.

[00:29:59] Speaker A: This is actually the next one on my list. You guessed it. Without even trying.

[00:30:03] Speaker B: So, yeah, I actually just bought like a. For my Xbox, like an actual Flight stick that has like the stick and then like a thruster off on the side itself. And I was going to use it for Battlefield 6 because they came out with a Top Gun collab, but it’s not compatible with that.

[00:30:19] Speaker A: So that was your place doing Ace Combat and Microsoft Flight Simulator.

[00:30:23] Speaker B: I just bought. Yeah, so I have Microsoft Flight Simulator because it’s on Game Pass. So I have Game Pass. But I did just buy because they had it on sale, and it’s also doing crossover with Top gun Ace Combat 7. They had like the ultimate edition on sale from 100 bucks down to 20. So me and a friend bought that.

[00:30:41] Speaker A: So we’re going to try. But you just received it for free a number of months ago from PlayStation. So you.

[00:30:47] Speaker B: I know, but I played all my multiplayer mainly on Xbox, so I will.

[00:30:53] Speaker A: Suit yourself. But I’m very curious to hear how your experience goes with a flight stable, because that seems super fun. Like, I think I wanted to do it. Actually, you know what? I think it was on VR, but I want to say you can use it also with the game that didn’t really get much fanfare when it released, called Star Wars Squadrons, which is all flying.

[00:31:13] Speaker B: It is also. Yes, it is compatible that I’ve played that game with just a controller. And actually we might both.

My other friend who bought one as well, we both have that game. So we might go back because we were looking at the list and try it.

[00:31:26] Speaker A: Compatible. You should have.

[00:31:27] Speaker B: It was. It was very.

It’s very sensitive on my controller, so I kind of want to try it on the flight stick to see what

[00:31:34] Speaker A: it is, the way. The way it’s meant to be played, really.

[00:31:37] Speaker B: So I’ll probably go back and try that.

I will say I didn’t have a flight stick, but I had a joystick like that back in the day. Way back in the day. Because I used to play mech assault

[00:31:48] Speaker A: on PC and you played it with that.

[00:31:50] Speaker B: Mm. So to move your mech around and shoot. I had a joystick and it was

[00:31:54] Speaker A: a lot of fun. Yeah, I was. I played one of those too, but I did not play with a joystick. I didn’t have one, but I. I had one of those sort of flight style joysticks. You’re talking about the ones that have like three buttons on them maybe. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. A friend of mine had one and we played. And I don’t remember the actual name of it, but like in that moment I was like my purest Star wars moment. And there was this really sweet Star wars game that had a lot of flying. And I think you could fly the Millennium Falcon using that thing, like through a really narrow passageway. And it wasn’t recreating the moments from the movie, but it was. It had some very cool kind of flying sequences that I wish I could remember to just to like nostalgia trip over it. But I. That’s the one experience I truly had using one of these flight stick type things.

[00:32:43] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I tried. Yeah. I took Microsoft because my dad wanted to try with mechanism. It was fun in big mechs, like just moving it, moving it around and then using it to shoot machine guns or your missiles that you had in your mechs. It was fun. Those are the.

[00:32:57] Speaker A: Yeah.

[00:32:57] Speaker B: Mech assault back in the day. Was really good game.

[00:33:00] Speaker A: So there was. I don’t know if it actually was a chain or not or whether you would even heard of it.

[00:33:03] Speaker B: But,

[00:33:06] Speaker A: you know, in the. In the Bay Area there was a place called Magic Edge which, you know, was used for like birthday parties mostly or like essentially like a laser tag type type event space. And it had maybe like somewhere between like 8 and 12 pods or like that. You sit in essentially a cockpit for a magic. For a. Sorry, a Top Gun type experience.

And it pulls us. You sit like it actually closes in on you. It has the speakers all around and it has a big kind of screen in front of you and it has an actual flight stick, but it also like rocks and moves around physically while you’re in it. So you kind of get like a simulated flight experience.

Oh, that’s cool. I think that’s the other flight joystick thing I’m thinking of because I know I’ve like had a hand on one of those before.

Yeah, Bygone era. So many great things are gone there.

[00:34:06] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:34:09] Speaker A: All right. I’ve down to the last two on my list. Did you. I’m assuming you did, considering the series that you’re a fan of. Did you have a Game Boy Link Cable?

A game Link Cable?

[00:34:21] Speaker B: Yeah, I did. Like, I had.

Yes. For. Yeah, for Pokemon.

[00:34:25] Speaker A: Yeah, for Pokemon.

[00:34:27] Speaker B: Yeah. When they first came out, it had

[00:34:28] Speaker A: more uses, but really that was the only one anyone used it for.

[00:34:31] Speaker B: Yeah, for cheating.

[00:34:33] Speaker A: I think they might have invented it for that. And there is a really cool Zelda game, isn’t there? Flashback.

Oh, you’re right. You know, it might be used for. Or what’s it called? Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons. I don’t recall if it was actually used there, but I thought it was.

[00:34:53] Speaker B: It was like there’s like Legend of Zelda, not Triforce Heroes.

[00:34:57] Speaker A: Oh, no. Yeah.

Or is there one that has four

[00:34:59] Speaker B: in it or something?

[00:35:00] Speaker A: Yeah, it’s called Triforce Heroes. Is three. The one with four. I think there was like an offshoot of Link to the Past but with four characters.

Yes, that makes sense.

But there’s a cool. If you look on YouTube for the game Link Cable commercial, it has Pokemon like crossing over a tightrope between apartments kind of thing.

[00:35:23] Speaker B: Such an iconic commercial.

[00:35:25] Speaker A: Iconic TV commercial back when it wasn’t all just algorithm based, but. Yes. I mean, just all the time. Which essentially is just a USB cable.

[00:35:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I can specifically. I remember that.

I also remember. Yeah. Because I remember using it on like Game Boy Advance. Game Boy advance sp or also the Original Game Boy color.

And then I can also remember the gamecube one that you could link your Game Boy advance or Game Boy Advance SP to your gamecube.

[00:36:01] Speaker A: I did not have that, but I know about it. Did you have one of those?

You could almost control certain things from your.

[00:36:08] Speaker B: Um, yeah, there was like, Pokemon Coliseum that I think worked with it, maybe, and Pokemon xd.

Yeah, a couple of other Pokemon. There are other games too, but I think mainly for me it was Pokemon.

[00:36:18] Speaker A: But yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, plenty of fun stuff. Honestly, there’s just. I wouldn’t necessarily call it innovation, but fun applications of really good kind of. Everyone’s just trying things out back then.

The last one on my list, which I. I’d probably call it an infamous accessory.

Still useful, but infamous. Not because of the application of it itself, but the reason for needing it in the first place is the Game Boy Curly light, which I think was primarily for the Game Boy advance, because the original launch, Game Boy advance was. Was so dim and didn’t have a backlight of any kind. Same with the Game Boy. But you would plug this. Did you have one of these?

[00:37:06] Speaker B: Yes.

[00:37:07] Speaker A: It plugs in and it kind of. It looks like a little worm that just spirals upwards and it has a little light that pops over the screen.

But the screen was so dark that you would just see, essentially reflection if you’re playing it nice. Your reflection of the light in the screen and not much of the game you’re playing.

[00:37:24] Speaker B: Yeah, I had that. I also had, I think for like a Game Boy color, I had like the glass, the plastic, like, glass that you’d stick over the screen and then you could put the glass over it, which was a light and magnifier.

[00:37:37] Speaker A: Oh, the magnifying glass. Yeah. You know, I didn’t. Yeah, I remember that. Actually, now that you mentioned it, I

[00:37:42] Speaker B: had that as well.

Yeah, I definitely had that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I definitely had that.

[00:37:49] Speaker A: I also feel like back in the day there were a lot of those kind of other controllers, like Mad Cats with a Z. Do you remember that? Brands?

[00:37:56] Speaker B: Yep.

[00:37:56] Speaker A: Like that. I think I had a. I don’t know even. I don’t think we even bought it. Like, it ended up staying over from some friend that left. It had some gamecube version of it and it was just like, massive compared to the regular GameCube controller.

[00:38:09] Speaker B: But, yeah, no, they definitely were. You could always tell which ones were the third party.

[00:38:13] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, it just like. I think it was, you know, bright green and fluorescent and had these, like, rubberized grips and all that too.

Um, but yeah, so that kind of covers it. Like, obviously there’s a lot of other accessories that you can get now for a console, you know, cases for Switch and for other handheld PCs and all that kind of thing.

[00:38:34] Speaker B: But like, I definitely had cases back in the day for like my Game Boy advance that could hold all your accessories and the.

[00:38:39] Speaker A: Right, right.

[00:38:40] Speaker B: The light, the games, everything. I do remember, I do remember that.

[00:38:45] Speaker A: And you know, even one that I’m remembering now, which I always, whenever I try to look it up, the way that I search for it, it pops up with a SEGA game gear which I didn’t have. What I did have was something called the SEGA Nomad, which.

[00:39:00] Speaker B: Oh, you had the se. You had the Nomad, which literally let you.

[00:39:04] Speaker A: It literally. You literally plug in the regular old.

[00:39:07] Speaker B: It was a handheld Genesis.

[00:39:08] Speaker A: It was a handheld Genesis, which I think on it now, I don’t know how they pulled that off, but you literally just plugged in your standard right out of the box SEGA Genesis game into this SEGA Nomad and it played exactly the same.

So I had one of those. And whenever I look it up, it always tries to tell me like, you know, portable SEGA Genesis thing. It tries to show you the game gear which has different games.

[00:39:32] Speaker B: Nope, it is the Sega. Yeah.

[00:39:33] Speaker A: Different form factor. But yeah, the Nomad was sweet. It, you know, thinking back on it, you know, playing Sonic, Sonic 2 on the go in the car, how good the battery life was.

[00:39:44] Speaker B: But I think they were terrible for

[00:39:46] Speaker A: the things, most likely.

But the.

And obviously everything was like with AA batteries back then too.

[00:39:52] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:39:53] Speaker A: But it is kind of wild that they were able to pull off full scale at home console games in a handheld factor way before the Switch did.

[00:40:03] Speaker B: Oh yeah.

[00:40:07] Speaker A: Another one that’s not really an accessory. It’s more like a console. If you think about it. Like you didn’t even have to own a SEGA Genesis, you could just own the Nomad.

[00:40:15] Speaker B: The Nomad, yeah. So another accessory which you didn’t have, but I just want to touch about quickly was because there was a rage back in late 90s, early 2000s, the portable screens.

[00:40:28] Speaker A: It’s like there was the one. I didn’t have one, but I know there was also like an actual version of the PS1 that. The PS1 that actually came with.

[00:40:36] Speaker B: So I had one for GameCube 100%. I remember having one specifically for my GameCube when I’d take it to friends houses or on a. Like I could take it on a road trip and I could yeah, definitely have one for GameCube. I didn’t have one, but I tried one on a PS2.

I remember that. Yeah, those were. And then I did. I definitely tried the. The PS one.

[00:41:03] Speaker A: Yeah, those. Those were the days, you know.

And now they all have their own handheld version of something.

[00:41:11] Speaker B: Yeah, GameCube 1 was kind of cool and I. I don’t think I had that version. I think there was one.

[00:41:18] Speaker A: Is risky because you have it. Was it actually like propped up and attached to the GameCube itself?

[00:41:24] Speaker B: Yeah. So it like holds down onto the top.

[00:41:26] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like anything disc based I worry about because you just. Someone accidentally stands up from the floor most likely and gives it a slight nudge and you scratch the disc. The mini disc.

[00:41:36] Speaker B: Yeah, no, it like attached, I think to the back and then it would just fold down to be flat on the top of your GameCube and then you could take it up and I think there might have been one. I don’t think I mind it. I think mine had on the side walls the speakers. But I think there might have been one that had speakers that folded out to make it a little wider camera. But yeah, they were just. I don’t know. I just remember them being a big thing back in the day for take on road trips or over. To help go over your friend’s house. Yeah, yeah. Wow.

[00:42:09] Speaker A: You know, if. If only that was necessary now.

[00:42:13] Speaker B: Yeah. Actually another one. Yeah, just last. Lastly, because this will be the last one I can think of is because it started probably on. I think Nintendo might have one, maybe Super Nintendo. But I specifically remember PS2, PS1, the multitaps.

[00:42:29] Speaker A: Yeah.

[00:42:29] Speaker B: So you could do more than. So you could get up to four players at least.

[00:42:32] Speaker A: You can get four. Yeah, four. Four players in some multiplayer games. Yep. Yeah, totally recall that.

[00:42:36] Speaker B: Multitap. Yeah, I definitely remember having multitaps and having friends over and using those.

[00:42:41] Speaker A: Well, now you’re going down. Got me down a rabbit hole. Because then there’s. You know, you can’t forget about the package in with Star Fox 64, there’s the Rumble Pak.

[00:42:49] Speaker B: The Rumble pack.

[00:42:49] Speaker A: Yeah. Which gave your onboard controller vibration for the first time ever. And then there was. I don’t remember. Was it from Majora’s Mask, maybe that came with the memory stick that you actually plugged in where the Rumble Pack goes.

[00:43:01] Speaker B: Oh yeah, you could do that.

[00:43:03] Speaker A: Basically just allowed more game to be played or something like that. I forget which game actually came with it to make the memory.

[00:43:10] Speaker B: The N64 used to have the expansion. Remember the Expansion.

[00:43:14] Speaker A: That’s what I’m talking about. Yeah, it is the. It just keeps fitting a little bit better.

[00:43:18] Speaker B: Yeah.

And there’s. Go ahead, go ahead. No, I was going to say Pokemon Stadium had the one where you then put the. Your Pokemon cartridge in the back.

[00:43:26] Speaker A: Yes. That was sweet too. I mean, it’s good because the controller, the N64 controller is so wacky that you have to make use of that slot in the back. The gigantic slot in the back.

[00:43:38] Speaker B: Yeah. You could use it for. Yeah. Memory cards.

[00:43:40] Speaker A: The Pokemon cards. Rumble pack. The Rumble pack, yeah.

Put your GameCube cartridge. No game Boy cartridge in there.

And then there’s of course, like. I suppose it doesn’t affect your moment to moment gameplay quite so much, but it affects your ability to save and continue where you were.

All Those memory cards, PS1, PS2 and GameCube all had them. I still have some.

[00:44:05] Speaker B: I still have some I’ve actually bought sometimes randomly. If I see them at like flea markets or a little random stuff, I just buy them randomly. And one day, because I have like a PS2, I’ll just like put in a PS1. I’ll plug them in to see what people’s saves are. They’ll just. Other people have erased them.

[00:44:22] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.

[00:44:24] Speaker B: I. When I go like, when you go back to like play on like a retro console, it’s so weird to then think going back to. You have to save on the memory stick. It was so easy back then.

[00:44:36] Speaker A: It was so easy, you know, you didn’t have to log into anything and download a file or any of that. Like, it was. It was honestly very cool because a group of three friends would do like sleepovers, rotating around each other’s houses throughout the years, and you would, you know, one. It was kind of one of those funny situations where one kid would wake up super early, just naturally at like 6am I would wake up kind of somewhere in the middle and the other one would sleep in really late. And so I’d always wake up and the guy that woke up early would just, you know, throw his memory stick in there and be playing like Final Fantasy, whatever the game of the moment was, whichever, mostly Final Fantasy, whichever one he was making progress through in that moment. And I’d be like, oh, shit, I should like, not look at this because you’re farther than I am.

[00:45:25] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:45:26] Speaker A: And either walk out of the room or he’d just turn it off and I’d start playing where I was and get tips on that.

Yeah. But it’s like really cool to just be Able to plug it in, play, get to the next save point, unplug it, go back home, you just continue where you were.

[00:45:39] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:45:39] Speaker A: And obviously it’s possible now, but you

[00:45:42] Speaker B: know, the coolest one was the VMU for Dreamcast. By far the VMU was.

[00:45:47] Speaker A: I don’t know what that is. I didn’t have a Dreamcast. What is that?

[00:45:50] Speaker B: The VMU was the memory card. So you.

It was a video.

I don’t know if it’s called Video Memory Unit or whatever. So you plug it into the top of the Dreamcast controller and you know the Dreamcast controller has a little window. So the VMU had like a little.

Little video window.

[00:46:05] Speaker A: Oh, okay.

[00:46:06] Speaker B: So if you’re playing a game, sometimes it pop up the specific character in the game on the little video screen.

[00:46:10] Speaker A: That’s cool.

[00:46:11] Speaker B: Or like other little things. But it’s what you would. It was the memory card is what you’d save then your game to.

[00:46:18] Speaker A: Huh?

[00:46:19] Speaker B: Yeah.

Dreamcast was great.

[00:46:22] Speaker A: Yeah. I really think there’s like major must haves for me on that console, but I would like to try one one day just for fun.

[00:46:32] Speaker B: It was fun.

[00:46:33] Speaker A: Do you still. I know you collect a handful of retro consoles. Do you have one?

[00:46:36] Speaker B: I do have a Dreamcast. I do have a Dreamcast. A Gamecube and I said a PS2 and I have a PS1. I’ve had a. Actually, I think the PS1. Yeah. And then I have all like the handhelds. Some of the handhelds are mine from when I was younger.

[00:46:52] Speaker A: Hard to beat that.

[00:46:53] Speaker B: Yeah. So.

[00:46:55] Speaker A: Huh. Very cool.

[00:46:57] Speaker B: Yep.

[00:46:58] Speaker A: Well, it’s been both a walk down memory lane and a fun look at the current slate of options available to gamers to maximize their experience in their own way through the use of physical accessories.

We’re curious what you think, listeners, are accessories like these just capitalism thriving well beyond its sell by date? Or do they really enhance the way we play? Let us know on Discord.

[00:47:20] Speaker B: Also let us know on Discord if you can think of any other, like modern ones or retro ones that we didn’t get to today that we didn’t touch.

[00:47:30] Speaker A: Yeah, super curious. I’m sure in other parts of the world too, there were other accessories that we’d never even heard of, which I’d be really curious about.

[00:47:39] Speaker B: I’m sure Japan had so many accessories that never came over here when we used. Must have though.

[00:47:49] Speaker A: And as always, if you’re looking for something else to listen to, check out our current season of the gaming backlog book club, which is covering Cyberpunk 2077 or one of our previous game seasons. And hang on for our next bookmark episode about some other interesting topics related to the video game world that aren’t just about the latest news and reviews.

[00:48:09] Speaker B: Yep. Thanks everyone for listening. Hope you guys enjoyed.

If you want to follow along and discuss our playthrough of many of games on the Gaming Backlog Book Club Podcast, please give us a follow on your podcast platform of choice. Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Pandora, Amazon Music or Pocketcasts, as well as our Discord and Instagram under the same name. Thanks.