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Two d-pads, one analog stick, three triggers and two face buttons? What were they smoking in Kyoto in the early 90s 
I have only seen a Nintendo 64 in real life like twice back in the 90s so I have no clue what all these buttons do in most games.
Thanks to recent developments I went and downloaded every Nintendo emulator I could. I was surprised to see how fractured Nintendo 64 emulation seems to still be on PC. I was expecting there to be a Duckstation, PCSX2 or Dolphin equivalent but no, there seems to be no clear winner, and two of the bigger ones are closed source and use plugins like it's 2005, and one doesn't even come with a GUI by default
For cultural reference, Sony and Sega tried to do 3D with a D-Pad. Nintendo would show everybody why analog sticks mattered.
Yeah, they were trying to make something that could play with the d-pad or an analog stick before the dualshock. It's not an awful design, but there aren't too many popular games that use the d-pad so it seems goofy in retrospect.
I can only think of that Tetris game that uses the dpad. It felt so weird to hold the controller by both arms instead of the right arm and the uh dongle
There was also Pokemon Puzzle League and this weird Japan-only 6-button fighter that used the "left and right handle" controls.
The most uncommon thing was a game that used "left and center handles" - I can only think of Sin and Punishment