I disagree, I've always thought it was pretty ugly. Too bulbous looking. The new one looks like a "normal" controller, but oversized to accommodate the track pads. Still not a looker, but at least it isn't so bulbous. Also, glossy plastic can smd.

That old thing had just one analogue stick, and like you said, no D-Pad.

The new steam controller has the same layout as the Deck, sacrificing no button or input options.

I lost the dongle to mine. i cry evry tim

Ngl, I also thought of that and think it would be badass. If it were that 90s clear plastic, what colors would you want the most, besides, obviously, that purple? ^.^

https://64.media.tumblr.com/bbc096566ab94bfc0086361c36a506d3/e3609eac53a9b92f-87/s2560x500/df66d6f5fc46433e10f20eeeff8891cc5e74d771.png

Unlike popular console controllers, which have games designed specifically for them, the Steam Controller was created to play games originally made for mouse and keyboard, not a controller.

The goal was to have a single controller that lets you play your entire Steam library. So it has all the buttons and axes expected by XInput-based games, but compared to the other controllers it sacrifices simplicity in favor of flexibility. It has four additional buttons on the back and dual trackpads on the front, which makes it considerably larger.

I think if you had the back buttons act as modifiers changing input layers, you could play a MMORPG with this which requires you to have 20 abilities on hotkeys. I haven't looked into Steam Input in years, though.