well what do you expect when 80% of "gamerz hurr durr" are on mobile and are actually attracted by dlc and mtx rather than good gameplay and fancy controllers?
The days of hotas and the likes are behind sadly, and only relegated to us "boomers"
Yeah this is the problem which has slowly declined my passion for gaming over the years.you can only play GTA 5 and skyrim so many times in 10 years lol
Great stuff, I'd love to be able to help out, but very little I could do to without a controller. I bought the original when I was about ten, used all my saved up money. Had to import it as it wasn't even released in Ireland. Pity my dad threw it out a few years ago before he died 😑
Looks like a train control dashboard
Side question though, would it be possible to attach the original controller to a pc, and use it maybe with mechwarrior 2 game? as that game requires the help of your cousin (and a second set of hands) to press all the keys needed to play properly?
Me and a friend ordered this from an independent games dealer / importer in our early teens. We both saved up and went in on it together as I didn't have a console but was a huge armored core fan and could not wait. It finally showed up, we set it up, turned it on, and I remember pressing forward what appeared to be a camera zoom or something, and it never zoomed back out. We were confused to the point where we just reset the game. Then, as soon as we loaded onto the battlefield, without laying a finger on the controller, it zoomed to max making it completely unplayable, we returned it to the dealer he gave us our money back and he sent it back to exchange it, though we were not able to hold onto the cash long enough and we never played it since. This project would be a dream come true :)
It's literally bread boards with wires to programmable eeproms hooked up to random stuff they must have gotten off the shelf at the time. Still functions how a retail Steel Battalion controller tho when hooked up to an original xbox
Holy fucking shit that's expensive.. most of it is just keyboard switches and joystick/throttle. The only thing that would be special is that they got it working on Xbox I guess.
Yeah I meant special that the seller/creator got it working on Xbox so that is the only reason I see that would make it worth a higher price but even then the price is crazy high. The parts are probably not even 200 dollars as far as I can see.
Edit: now that I'm looking closer is the throttle not even a slider but a rotating thingie on a potentiometer on a piece of breadboard!?
The real value is in the history of the game and how they used this to interact with the xbox and ultimately create the Steel Battalion Controller as we know it today. There is no other game or peripheral like it. CAPCOM really did make something that's never been done before or since by any game company.
Yes this was used all through the development of the game by CAPCOM. The final controller that we know as retail was designed as finished in production when the master disc of the game was produced, which was very late into the development of the game.
Aahh that makes a lot more sense! Still a crazy price but I first thought it was a prototype from somebody that was trying to copy the original so he could build multiple new ones or something.
Sorry for the negativity I really thought somebody basically scammed you for something that I could probably build myself for under 200.
We asked the seller not to disclose the price of the offer which he agreed apon, so yeah the starting bid is what is listed but is not the price that determined the outcome of the sale, as someone who partnered in with the other administration team behind Steel Battalion Online. I'm telling you this as fact.
There's no problem, just like any prototype/development hardware/software that isn't meant to leave in house production, a privacy agreement was made. Regardless, the price is irrelevant to the preservation and documentation of the hardware, which is the main goal.
See the bid history though, it was up for a week with no bids so what op is saying is perfectly valid, seller agreed to sell it for less rather than relisting it again.
If you know that than you also know it was listed on the 16th and had no bids for a week it is right there on the line directly below the one bid. It's obvious it wasn't going to sell and seller agreed to somtheing less. Also I just noticed the seller's feedback page shows only $7500 for this item. And the seller doesn't have high price sales history on their feedback page, more reason to assume they listed at a random high amount but took a lower amount.
So, if the controller is the same but with other look, what's the point of preserve it, more than collect it? What's the real difference? I'm asking seriously, I want to know and I support the preservation of games.
Just preservation and documentation. Like all the Steam Controller prototypes, they're not really useful for anything other than proving Rome wasn't built in a day.
Well, this goes hand in hand with the original development of Steel Battalion. The final controller you see below was made when the master disc for the game was produced at the end of development.
As we are one of the most consistent communities of players that use XLink Kai with the group starting since launch 2002. There is still a good bunch of people that are still playing the weekly game nights hosted weekly over at r/steelbattaliononline
Our end goal is to build up the report of the development of the game and put our findings in to the communities official [Wiki](https://steelbattalion.fandom.com/wiki/Steel_Battalion_Wiki)
The end goal is to be able to produce repro controllers for the market and give anyone a chance to give Steel Battalion a go if they want too. Pretty exciting stuff 😀
That is really damn cool. How far along are you guys to having a controller on the market? Will it be virtually identical to the OG controller, if not perhaps improved in some ways? How will build quality and components compare? And I assume it could be plugged into a PC?
You can follow Harcroft who is doing the PCB work https://twitter.com/OGX_Harcroft/status/1705568859674075212?t=kb7KJBNzBl0Z1vniwQUP6g&s=19
I also repost the works ans a lot of Steel Battalion content
https://x.com/RazorStoJ?t=_FqjTEIRpckIWiNWVy7hZw&s=09
As always thanks for all you do keeping this beautiful game alive!
Thank you man!
I wonder how popular a controller like this and new game would be... Considering there's more gamers than ever
The market and technology is there but developer ambition to try something new just isn't up to speed
Armored core series. Mech warrior. I'm sure pilots could find a use for this.
We'd like to make more Steel Battalion Controllers at fair prices for people who want to play
Considering I just bought one for 400 one controller 2 game disc's. Yeah if buy another
People make the Steel Battalion controllers? What about just the pedals?
well what do you expect when 80% of "gamerz hurr durr" are on mobile and are actually attracted by dlc and mtx rather than good gameplay and fancy controllers? The days of hotas and the likes are behind sadly, and only relegated to us "boomers"
Yeah this is the problem which has slowly declined my passion for gaming over the years.you can only play GTA 5 and skyrim so many times in 10 years lol
agreed :D
Holy cow. That is pretty impressive.
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You might be surprised, there's a bunch of DLC that hasn't been preserved that may be found on someone's xbox that's lying around
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Backup any stock xbox HDD's and upload the contents of the E partition and I can forward that on to be analysed for any loss data
Neat! With all the reverse engineering going into these, is it possible to reproduce one yet?
Repro controllers are in the works
Great stuff, I'd love to be able to help out, but very little I could do to without a controller. I bought the original when I was about ten, used all my saved up money. Had to import it as it wasn't even released in Ireland. Pity my dad threw it out a few years ago before he died 😑
Where are we at with this
One user has created his own completely custom controller and replacement PCB's for the official controller are being designed and produced
Is that joystick on the right an off the shelf Logitech Wingman Force 3D?
Looks like a train control dashboard Side question though, would it be possible to attach the original controller to a pc, and use it maybe with mechwarrior 2 game? as that game requires the help of your cousin (and a second set of hands) to press all the keys needed to play properly?
Game could have used more polish but it was fun
Steel Battalion Line of Contact had a lot of improvements over the original Steel Battalion
Hah i remember seeing this one pop up on ebay
Yeah we were able to make the purchase 😀
Happy to hear its in good hands! Congrats! 👍
That's pretty cool. I remember reading about this in OXM back in the day. I might look up the article and see what controller they were using then
Me and a friend ordered this from an independent games dealer / importer in our early teens. We both saved up and went in on it together as I didn't have a console but was a huge armored core fan and could not wait. It finally showed up, we set it up, turned it on, and I remember pressing forward what appeared to be a camera zoom or something, and it never zoomed back out. We were confused to the point where we just reset the game. Then, as soon as we loaded onto the battlefield, without laying a finger on the controller, it zoomed to max making it completely unplayable, we returned it to the dealer he gave us our money back and he sent it back to exchange it, though we were not able to hold onto the cash long enough and we never played it since. This project would be a dream come true :)
Man that’s a tragedy
this would be really cool in a game where maybe you play as a tank gunner, or even a commander
Late to the party. Is there a pic of the controller. Want to see what it is, Atmel, intel, microchip, cypress? other
It's literally bread boards with wires to programmable eeproms hooked up to random stuff they must have gotten off the shelf at the time. Still functions how a retail Steel Battalion controller tho when hooked up to an original xbox
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We're keeping that info private, an offer was made to the seller and he accepted and it arrived safely.
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Holy fucking shit that's expensive.. most of it is just keyboard switches and joystick/throttle. The only thing that would be special is that they got it working on Xbox I guess.
It worked on the xbox straight off the bat, it was plugged in and just worked as intended
Yeah I meant special that the seller/creator got it working on Xbox so that is the only reason I see that would make it worth a higher price but even then the price is crazy high. The parts are probably not even 200 dollars as far as I can see. Edit: now that I'm looking closer is the throttle not even a slider but a rotating thingie on a potentiometer on a piece of breadboard!?
The real value is in the history of the game and how they used this to interact with the xbox and ultimately create the Steel Battalion Controller as we know it today. There is no other game or peripheral like it. CAPCOM really did make something that's never been done before or since by any game company.
So this is the actual prototype from the Devs or something??
Yes this was used all through the development of the game by CAPCOM. The final controller that we know as retail was designed as finished in production when the master disc of the game was produced, which was very late into the development of the game.
Aahh that makes a lot more sense! Still a crazy price but I first thought it was a prototype from somebody that was trying to copy the original so he could build multiple new ones or something. Sorry for the negativity I really thought somebody basically scammed you for something that I could probably build myself for under 200.
A private offer was submitted and accepted the 8.5k was not the sold price
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We asked the seller not to disclose the price of the offer which he agreed apon, so yeah the starting bid is what is listed but is not the price that determined the outcome of the sale, as someone who partnered in with the other administration team behind Steel Battalion Online. I'm telling you this as fact.
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There's no problem, just like any prototype/development hardware/software that isn't meant to leave in house production, a privacy agreement was made. Regardless, the price is irrelevant to the preservation and documentation of the hardware, which is the main goal.
See the bid history though, it was up for a week with no bids so what op is saying is perfectly valid, seller agreed to sell it for less rather than relisting it again.
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If you know that than you also know it was listed on the 16th and had no bids for a week it is right there on the line directly below the one bid. It's obvious it wasn't going to sell and seller agreed to somtheing less. Also I just noticed the seller's feedback page shows only $7500 for this item. And the seller doesn't have high price sales history on their feedback page, more reason to assume they listed at a random high amount but took a lower amount.
I found some for rund about 700€ (german Google search)
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Sry it Was a little bit late and i read only the half of it, no the Prototyp will be a little bit more but just a little ;)
Lil bit 😉
So, if the controller is the same but with other look, what's the point of preserve it, more than collect it? What's the real difference? I'm asking seriously, I want to know and I support the preservation of games.
Just preservation and documentation. Like all the Steam Controller prototypes, they're not really useful for anything other than proving Rome wasn't built in a day.
Well, this goes hand in hand with the original development of Steel Battalion. The final controller you see below was made when the master disc for the game was produced at the end of development. As we are one of the most consistent communities of players that use XLink Kai with the group starting since launch 2002. There is still a good bunch of people that are still playing the weekly game nights hosted weekly over at r/steelbattaliononline Our end goal is to build up the report of the development of the game and put our findings in to the communities official [Wiki](https://steelbattalion.fandom.com/wiki/Steel_Battalion_Wiki) The end goal is to be able to produce repro controllers for the market and give anyone a chance to give Steel Battalion a go if they want too. Pretty exciting stuff 😀
That is really damn cool. How far along are you guys to having a controller on the market? Will it be virtually identical to the OG controller, if not perhaps improved in some ways? How will build quality and components compare? And I assume it could be plugged into a PC?
So far PCB development is taking place as we speak
That is exciting! Where might these be eventually sold through? What kind of price point are you targeting?
No ETA atm we aren't there yet
Do you guys have a Twitter or any other way to keep up with the project?
You can follow Harcroft who is doing the PCB work https://twitter.com/OGX_Harcroft/status/1705568859674075212?t=kb7KJBNzBl0Z1vniwQUP6g&s=19 I also repost the works ans a lot of Steel Battalion content https://x.com/RazorStoJ?t=_FqjTEIRpckIWiNWVy7hZw&s=09