516: Celebrating the Best (and Worst) Video Game Controllers - The Retro Hour EP516
The Retro Hour (Retro Gaming Podcast)
The Retro Hour
4.9 • 558 Ratings
🗓️ 30 January 2026
⏱️ 108 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week on The Retro Hour, we’re getting hands-on with the unsung heroes of gaming: video game controllers! We’re joined by Christian Wenk, author of Trigger Happy, a stunning visual celebration of over 200 iconic (and sometimes downright bizarre) controllers from gaming history. From mushy Commodore joysticks to the ergonomic oddities of the N64 and beyond, Christian shares the nostalgic stories, design quirks, and sheer passion that fuelled his epic project.
Trigger Happy: https://tinyurl.com/2s4nyfpc
Contents:
00:00 - The Week's Retro News Stories
59:11 - Christian Wenk Interview
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Show notes
PS3 Mod Breaks Limits: https://tinyurl.com/339xt3ky
Escape 2049 Hits Mega Drive: https://tinyurl.com/5n7n7npe
Atari ST Mini Teased: https://tinyurl.com/3af6pxhx
Yakuza Arcade Game Ported: https://tinyurl.com/dzx7neps
Atari Hotel Scaled Down: https://tinyurl.com/3j9atphj
New Saturn Console Successor: https://tinyurl.com/3nzbfn78
Artist Makes Wi-Fi Visible: https://youtu.be/moBCOEiqiPs
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Coming up on this week's show, a new mod gives the PlayStation 3 a huge performance upgrade. |
| 0:06.2 | An impressive looking new game has come to the Mega Drive. |
| 0:08.9 | And we go inside the world of video game controllers with Christian Wen. |
| 0:28.0 | And the Retro Hour podcast is brought to you every Friday with our sponsor and our good friends at Bitmap Books. |
| 0:31.2 | Now, of course, today we're going to be going inside the world of one of their recent books, |
| 0:36.7 | the incredible Trigger Happy, a visual celebration of video game controllers. |
| 0:39.9 | Now, this massive book weighs in almost 400 pages and celebrates more than 200 incredible controllers from Christian's personal collection and with more |
| 0:47.5 | than 500 gorgeous photos in this book as well. A real deep dive into the history of video game |
| 0:52.9 | controllers, their design and their |
| 0:54.9 | ability to transform who we are and what we're capable of. You can order your copy right now |
| 0:59.2 | and check up the rest of their retro gaming collection at bitmapbooks.com. |
| 1:04.7 | Hello and welcome to the Retro Hour podcast episode number 516, your weekly dose of retro gaming and technology news with me, |
| 1:12.3 | Dan Wood, me Ravi Abbott, and me Joe Phipps. And great to be joining us for this week's show, |
| 1:17.5 | the podcast that lands every single Friday, and of course brings you up to speed on all the big |
| 1:21.6 | happenings in the wonderful world of retro gaming and technology, whether you're like, you know, |
| 1:26.2 | an 80s kid, maybe drip play in the, you know, the spectrum |
| 1:28.7 | and the Commonwealth 64, maybe the 90s, there's more, your jam, maybe a Sega Saturn or a PlayStation |
| 1:34.9 | or maybe spent all your time down the arcades. |
| 1:37.3 | This is a podcast for you. |
| 1:38.3 | We cover it all on this show and welcome on guests onto the podcast every single week. |
| 1:44.0 | Now, this week we're going to be exploring the world of video game controllers. Now, I remember we actually did an entire patrons podcast. We did one called the After Hourses for our patrons. Well, I think we did like our top five controllers of all time. And I've got a feeling if I ask you guys now, it'd probably be a completely different answer to when we did that like two or three years ago. It just changed quite a bit. I mean, |
| 2:04.8 | anything that comes to mind for you, Joe, if I'd say, you know, and I'm putting you on the spot |
... |
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