Weird Madcatz-device

BIOS, Controllers, Memory Cards, Serial I/O, Parallel I/O, etc.
Post Reply
User avatar
DD-Indeed
Extreme PSXDEV User
Extreme PSXDEV User
Posts: 165
Joined: Jun 07, 2014
I am a: Average DIY-guy
PlayStation Model: SCPH-5502

Weird Madcatz-device

Post by DD-Indeed » May 3rd, 2016, 8:41 pm

Greetings, haven't been here for some time! :) Found this thing today from recycle shop, somewhat odd and rare Madcatz Wrist Rumble-thingy:


Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image


At first, I didn't know, that what the heck it was, but it looked interesting, so I bought it, was only 1 $. Turned out, that this thing was manufactured for the players, that had original, non-Dual Shock controllers and wanted to have some rumble in the Dual Shock-ready games (Basically, absolutely useless thing, as back then, you could just buy proper Dual Shock-controller, propably for similar amount of money...) It uses AAA-batteries as power source and is plugged between controller and the console. At first I thought, that it was either some sort of indicator or receiver for something. :D

User avatar
Shadow
Verified
Admin / PSXDEV
Admin / PSXDEV
Posts: 2670
Joined: Dec 31, 2012
PlayStation Model: H2000/5502
Discord: Shadow^PSXDEV

Post by Shadow » May 3rd, 2016, 8:57 pm

Interesting concept. It makes sense why they made it though. I remember DUAL-SHOCK controllers were about $50 AUD at the time, so if they sold this thing for $20, I guess people would have been suckered into buying it.

A cool thing is since it's not using the power load from the PSX itself and instead uses batteries, you could (in theory) wire up quite a few of these in series for some real rumble action. That could be fun :P

Apart from that, the quality looks quite impressive. "Mad Catz" at the time used to have some pretty good things as a 3rd party accessories company. I still have their 'PlayStation Steering Wheel' which is pretty well built.
Development Console: SCPH-5502 with 8MB RAM, MM3 Modchip, PAL 60 Colour Modification (for NTSC), PSIO Switch Board, DB-9 breakout headers for both RGB and Serial output and an Xplorer with CAETLA 0.34.

PlayStation Development PC: Windows 98 SE, Pentium 3 at 400MHz, 128MB SDRAM, DTL-H2000, DTL-H2010, DTL-H201A, DTL-S2020 (with 4GB SCSI-2 HDD), 21" Sony G420, CD-R burner, 3.25" and 5.25" Floppy Diskette Drives, ZIP 100 Diskette Drive and an IBM Model M keyboard.

User avatar
DD-Indeed
Extreme PSXDEV User
Extreme PSXDEV User
Posts: 165
Joined: Jun 07, 2014
I am a: Average DIY-guy
PlayStation Model: SCPH-5502

Post by DD-Indeed » May 3rd, 2016, 9:05 pm

Well if the price difference was 20 to 50 $, then it would have been serious contender for some players. Only trouble is of course the wire, that might disturb the playing. :)

But yea, having like 4 of those around you would bring some really serious fun for the gaming, so much immersion haha :D Two for the wrists and two for your chest, wow!

User avatar
DD-Indeed
Extreme PSXDEV User
Extreme PSXDEV User
Posts: 165
Joined: Jun 07, 2014
I am a: Average DIY-guy
PlayStation Model: SCPH-5502

Post by DD-Indeed » October 15th, 2017, 3:18 am

Sorry to bump this up but I found the true purpose of this device.

Back in the 90's, Mad Catz released some wheels for PS1, specifically designed to work with multiple different games and had a force feedback in them with rumble. However, after they had released those into the market, they started to receive feedback from people, that some games didn't have the rumble feature with the wheel, especially Gran Turismo games. Mad Catz quickly realized this themselves as well after some bugtesting and offered this device for the people free of charge, if you just fill up this form alongside receipt of the product purchase and sended that to them with a letter. This device was hooked up to the wheel itself, hence why the attach strip of it is so small to be used in the wrist. Very interesting scenario from back in the day. :)

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests