A generous friend gave me his original Xbox, and I had honestly forgotten just how freaking enormous the controller is. There’s a reason this legend is known as “The Duke” – it’s an absolute unit! Banana for scale, as is tradition
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I loved those consoles. They were such a big deal, Halo: Combat Evolved was such a big deal.
I liked those huge controllers a lot, but I liked the smaller ones that came out later better.
Ended up using it so long it malfunctioned and to get it to work I had to take the entire top of the console off. Instead of putting CDs in the tray I laid the CDs in the open tray then put a magnet on top to hold it in while it spun. Worked for years more.
I really wish Microsoft would re release this in wireless form. I’ve never had a controller fit more perfectly in my hands.
I want that specific banana
Its been a while since i’ve seen a banana for scale! Great job.
Holy shit that thing is ugly.
And my favorite controller of all time! 😀
I genuinely loved this controller. I’m a big dude with big hands and it always felt so right.
Damn, first time I’ve seen a banana the size of a blue whale.
just use it for some old platformer or for some games in emulators
I always try to play with this type of raritet in some random games on bluestacks because I can do it without troubles
may be some ooooold games from 2011 will be perfect with it
That controller is why I didn’t like xbox back in the day. My dainty hands couldn’t reach the buttons
You should put The Duke next to some Switch Joy cons for comparison. I love the Switch, but damn are those controllers tiny. Hate them.
This controller is what made me a permanent Sony guy lol. I hated it so much, I never bought an Xbox, and stuck with that to this day haha.
Ol big Bertha right there
https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2002/03/25/ursine-adventures#
In all fairness, they quickly realized this was not practical. Almost everyone I knew bought the S controller and moved on. To each their own though.
unless your a gigantic basketball player who needs to special order your cars to fit in them, this controller was completely pointless and dumb and nothing but a show piece… coming from somebody with big hands
This controller was awsome! It avtually fitt into my hands.
https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2001/08/29/you-know-what-they-say
For reference, that’s a Big Mike, not a Cavendish.
I once had a character in a MUCK who was sucked into her television while playing her XBox, Captain N style.
When she came to, she found herself in a strange and magical land and only had the controller she was holding.
She found a log and wrapped the cord around it to make a massive maul. This was her weapon of choice during the whole campaign.
Dang this gave me way more nostalgia than I thought it would
The X-Box was the first console that was basically a PC – hard drive and everything. It was also therefore really big – much bigger than the other consoles. By making a huge controller, they played with scale in the marketing images to make the console look normal sized.
I don’t think they should have worried. It sits under your TV anyway.
Bless you for keeping the old ways.
I always loved those hulking controllers.
Where is the banana to scale the banana?
The black and white button placement was always the oddest thing about this controller to me.
Not that it was huge.
I didn’t mind it.
They used to call me Salad Fingers in college.
If you squint your eyes it looks like a black frisbee
As a woman with tiny hands I genuinely could not use this controller
I hated this controller soooo, much.
I don’t have small hands, but I do have thick fingers, so the slim buttons, the black & white buttons all drove me mad when playing most games. But the dpad on this, the, dpad ruined so many games for me. I had a modded xbox back then so access to loooots of platformers and it was pain.
I mean, it took MS till the XB1’s 2nd revision to get a good dpad on their controllers but it was remarkable just how bad they were with the XB and the 360.
I’m shocked they went back to a disc shape again for the latest dpad though- any word on if that dpad is good or is it jank, again?
I still have my original duke and I loved it so much. Being a grown man when the Xbox came out I have big hands. Now that needs a reboot!
Oh. You mean LITERALLY THE BEST CONTROLLER EVER MADE?
It’s really not the hardest controller to hold, no worse than N64. The real annoying thing to me is the odd placement of the four colored face buttons.
I got the reissue. it’s great for 6 button fighting games.
i got the 20th anniversary duke controller for Christmas. missed the ergonomics of the behemoth
I never heard of it called the duke. We always called it the cheeseburger.
The pelican wireless controller was my favorite. You could also change the input slot at will and mess with people who were split screening
Damn the original Xbox controllers look a lot more like bananas than I thought, what’s on the left?
We always joked that the XBox is delievered with two trucks. One for the console, the second for the controller.