Times are a-changin', plus controller weirdness

Starting today, I'm switching the focus of this blog from just the Retro Duo to retro gaming in general. The main reason for this is that getting the Retro Duo really rekindled my love of old 8 and 16-bit era games, and yesterday I got a hold of a cheap used Sega Mega Drive. (That's a Sega Genesis, for those of you of the North American persuasion.) So, I'm going to start writing a bit about that system too, and any others I might pick up in the future. So, for starters, here's a weird object that came with my new black beauty:



Looks quite straightforward, doesn't it? Has all the buttons you'd expect from a six button MD controller, as well as slow motion (on the back) and turbo and autofire for all buttons. But there's something strange about it...

Have you noticed it yet? The D-pad is rotated 45 degrees to the right. And no, it's not just cosmetic, to press up you actually have to press up and right. It's really a damn shame, because the other buttons on the controller are really good and responsive. I guess the rationale was to make it a bit more ergonomic, but since every other video game controller since the NES have had controllers where straight up meant up, this is really hard to play with. I'm gonna give it a try though, I guess you can get used to it.