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I got one of the free promotional Controller + Chrome Cast Ultra "Premier Edition" bundles they were seeding to YouTube Premium customers out of sheer curiosity

I got one of the free promotional Controller + Chrome Cast Ultra "Premier Edition" bundles they were seeding to YouTube Premium customers out of sheer curiosity. I tried it for the free month, and hadn't taken the controller out of its box since (I do get a fair amount of use out of the Chromecast). The whole system is a _staggering_ technological achievement of (unnecessary) complexity getting a pile of devices closely synchronized over the network with ... absolutely no realistic use case. I just dug the controller out, it does work wired as a USB-C HID1.1 Gamepad device (18D1:9400). 2 analog sticks, 2 analog triggers, 15 buttons (including pressed/not pressed for the analog triggers), and an analog alias for the D-Pad (just returns min/max when pressed). Doesn't look like the 3.5mm headphone jack does anything when connected via USB, I'm not seeing a bonus audio device or anything. It doesn't look like it presents as a normal Bluetooth controller (by testing or by the docs https://support.google.com/stadia/answer/9338851?hl=en https://support.google.com/stadia/answer/9338851?hl=en ), I think the weird hybrid WiFi for comms/Bluetooth for pairing thing they did would require some hacking and/or published specs to use it wirelessly with anything other than a Stadia setup - or for Google to politely release a firmware update to enable normal BT controller behavior since they imply it's possible. They are apparently pretty nasty to get apart ( https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Google_Stadia_Controller https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Google_Stadia_Controller ) for physical tampering, though there is a fairly substantial computer system in it http://en.techinfodepot.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Google_Stadia_(H2B) http://en.techinfodepot.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Google_Stadia_(H2... . It's actually a pretty comfortable controller, but it just became an amusing collectors item so I think mine will continue to sit in its box.

icelancer 4y ago
It's a great controller, you're right! Very comfortable and my goto on emulators. I also looked into the weird WiFi/Bluetooth hybrid protocol stack. It's really impressive, and as far as I know, not jailbroken. Also massively overengineered. They tried really hard with Stadia, at least at the hardware and streaming level. It's just that no one wanted it. They are before their time; PS Plus and GeForce Go are seeing adoption for streaming games. I bet it'll be popular in 3-5 years, maybe sooner. It's just that Google isn't a reliable carrier for this service, and they don't have enough patience.

icelancer 4y ago

It's a great controller, you're right! Very comfortable and my goto on emulators. I also looked into the weird WiFi/Bluetooth hybrid protocol stack. It's really impressive, and as far as I know, not jailbroken. Also massively overengineered. They tried really hard with Stadia, at least at the hardware and streaming level. It's just that no one wanted it. They are before their time; PS Plus and GeForce Go are seeing adoption for streaming games. I bet it'll be popular in 3-5 years, maybe sooner. It's just that Google isn't a reliable carrier for this service, and they don't have enough patience.