2 years ago

I've been working on making my own retro gaming controller from scratch. It's been taking months so far. Finally got to a point where the initial design is finished!

More info in the article about what I'm actually trying to do with it:


I'm currently 3D resin printing some prototypes that I'll hopefully be able to put together into a usable controller. I've been doing a lot of quick prints along the way.

My goal was to take features from all my favorite controllers and mash them up into something that I would love to use to play retro games with.

My favorite old-school controller is the japanese sega saturn one, so it takes a lot of design cues from that.

It has:

  • It's completely wireless through bluetooth. I may look into developing a custom 2.4ghz protocol in future, but bluetooth allows it to connect to most newer devices seemlessly.

  • 6 main buttons.

  • A sega-style dpad: basically a rocker that can hit diagonals really well but can also give immediate and precise input for the direction buttons.

  • Two full-size analog sticks. The same ones in a PS/Xbox controller, not the small Switch ones. They also press in for two extra buttons.

  • Bumper style L and R buttons. I think the bumpers make more sense for retro gaming with immediate digital input rather than the analog triggers that are used in modern games.

  • Start/select buttons with my own "angry eyebrow" design.

  • 1.3" monochrome OLED screen.

  • Haptic vibration. Instead of the large rotating mass ones in older controllers. This allows more interesting kinds of vibration feedback similar to newer controllers.

  • USBC battery charging.

I'll be posting more as I continue working on it! I have a lot of plans for it. Hopefully I'll have something to show if the pieces join together properly!

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Retro games
Arts n' Crafts Creations
3D Art 3dprinting
Gaming creative
Trash Pit CROS Pit
Retro & Homebrew Games Misc.
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