Mad Catz Tried Making the Ultimate FPS Controller: Panther XL from 1997

Checking out the odd Panther XL by Mad Catz! While they largely made goofy third party game console controllers, they also made goofy PC hardware. Like this trackball and flight stick fused together supposedly creating the ultimate FPS input device, backed up by radical 1990s John Romero magazine ads. Prime LGR Oddware indeed!

● LGR links:

● An archive of the Panther XL CD-ROM here:

● All background music licensed from:

00:00 An Oddware Introduction
00:38 The Panther XL
02:56 FPgaming 'Assassin 3D' stuff
03:40 Mad Catz sure was a company
04:47 Advertising and John Romero
05:39 The cult following is real
06:38 Unboxing the device
08:41 Plugged in and setting it up
11:01 Jedi Knight Dark Forces II
13:59 Turok Dinosaur Hunter
15:54 Unreal Tournament 1999
18:27 Control Center and Quake II
20:12 Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator
21:48 A3D Mouse Emulation mode
22:21 Solitaire and SimCity 2000
23:28 DOS support, Commander Keen 4
24:31 Duke Nukem 3D of course
27:54 Y'know, I almost like it! Almost.

#LGR #retro #gaming #controller #oddware

[Ciakuz]

I love how it says "Duke Forever" on the supported games list.

[seoulpurpose]

I need a time machine to tell my childhood self "Don't worry about not owning the cool things you see in magazine ads. Someday you'll get to enjoy them vicariously through your favourite YouTuber"

[HebaruSan]

Ahh, the late 90s fall-to-death animation where the character plummets hundreds of feet, comes to a stop on his or her feet, and slowly collapses as if they've passed out. Classic!

[Zlotac]

I have 2 in my basement, waiting for a usb conversion for quite some time now. Played for YEARS UT99 on one. I still swear this is and always will be the best controler i have ever used in my life. Also keep in mind when this was released, keyboards had 3 key limit and were, as today, digital, so no minor movement. The trackball was the biggest selling point because you could keep the sensitivity reallyyy low and just yolo it to a side to make a 180, but still have precise movement when aiming. Thanks for the video, this reminded me i have to bump the guy doing conversions to have one on USB and enjoy the good ol days again.

[DOSStorm]

I wish wacky joystick content like this was more prevalent on YouTube retro tech channels. We had so many interesting control devices in the mid 90s and early 2000s.

[Checkerlol]

Oh man, LGRs video are my feel-good-space...these jazz tunes, soothing voice and the well researched, super interesting contents on a Saturday morning with a fresh cup of coffe just gives me a positive goosebumps.
LGR, you've come a long way since you started and with those steps of improvement that you have with every single video you built this awesome Saturday morning space, that noone and nothing can penetrate. I'd sincerely thank you for your highly appreciated work!

[cabreca]

The Panther trackball with a joystick was awesome. As a lefty, it was a great FPS gaming setup. It was just load a game and start playing. No need to rebind for left hand controls.

[Deadguyforreal]

I had the Dreamcast version, and it was amazing for Quake 3.

[effievision]

Had one and played so many hours of Descent / Descent 2 with it! Perfect pairing, was a joy~

[TehSmokeyMan]

Well, this is a great example of how a good product can seem clunky when we change our controls usage in-game😄
You struggling with it reminds me of about every time I play an old game with non-standard control schemes (switching between newer and older RTS games for example)

[KalebKronic]

Friend of mine back in 2001 or so praised the hell out of the PantherXL that he had before we met. When he got another, he paid way to much for one off ebay. Then broke it within a week heh.

My fave old school PC controller was the 3Dfx Hammerheadfx. Loved that thing back in the day.

[BlobVanDam]

Oh cool, it's my two least favourite PC inputs stuck together! As a lefty, I hate joysticks being in the right hand as it is, and having the left/right hand controls flipped from modern controls by default just makes that even worse. But I love seeing all of these crazy attempts at controllers.

[CommodoreFan]

You're not alone as even though I'm left handed I've always used my trackballs and mice with my right hand. So this would be really odd for me as well.

[pandacongolais]

Definitely odd !
Makes me remember a specific LAN Party. We saw a friend setting up his PC and connecting a Wingman something.
What ? He intends to play Duke with that ? Ah ah ah, we will destroy him !
We all got destroyed at a level we never encountered before and after ! Can't imagine the training behind ...

[MagnifiedGiant]

I still have a few of these. It was actually awesome for Quake back in the day. It was supposed to come out for Xbox but never saw the light of day.

[tsufordman]

The saving grace to this would be whether or not you can fully swap those directional functions in the settings.

[rustkitty]

Two niche but standard controllers merged into an odd combination. This reminds me of a time when I built a 'Mech controller for my brother by combining a Thrustmaster joystick for main controls, a mechanic numpad for additional keys and a USB hub to keep the wiring inside in a single painted sheet metal enclosure. You can make all kinds of weird controller combos if you have a specific use-case in mind. Not sure why you'd make a new controller for FPS games in general though - nothing beats k&m in that arena.

[brothercannon]

Finally!
I still have both Panther XL and Panther DC controllers. The PXL I bought came with the standard release of Half-Life. I think you can still get the PC version modded to optical, USB, and have the wiring harness replaced. PC games that support analog movement will take advantage of the joystick. I played through Mechwarrior 3 on one of these. I found it a more intuitive way of moving one direction and aiming/looking another. I remember getting the software setup being a pain and I had to muck around with DLLs to get it to work.
I played hundreds of hours in UT with this controller.

[KAPTKipper]

Using IPA to treat the sticky rubber helps. Takes a few applications. Not a 100% option but it does help on some of the devices I've used it on

[adamsfusion]

It surprises me that Mad Catz went from concept to production, and at no point did anybody think to flip the trackball to the right side.