Favourite Controller

thelordofcheese

Wow, lets see.....

The Good:

Gamecube: - great design, except for the Z-button, which is more than a bit finnicky. everything else is great, esp the giant A button, which i find makes finding the other buttons easier, as you think of them relative to the A button

Dreamcast Joypad - An evolution of the Saturn analogue pad, it's by far one on my favourite joypads. The analogue stick was great, and i never really felt the top-heavyness most people cite. Also the VMU was a great wee thing.

N64 - I dunno about others, but for ages this was the pinnacle of joypads. Unfortunatly, the analogue stick tends to go more than a bit wonky after a while.

Saturn joypads - both the regular and and analogue ones [not the american ones, those were designed only to cause pain]. I think Retro pointed out the standard ones were great for 2D beat 'em ups, and the analogue one was better than the dualshock Ps1 pads.

Snes Joypad - 'nuff said.

The bad:

Original Xbox controlers: like wrestling a grizzlybear. Just not useable for any lenght of time. the S version was slightly better.

The Ps controlers. Never really got the big deal about these, the sticks themselves have far to much travel, and the dual shoulder buttons always seemed a bit gimmicky.

The PSP analogue stick:
seriously, whos' idea was this. get them out here so i can kick them.

The ugly:

The Nes and Master system joypads. were they trying to cripple me?

jesus_thats_gre

jaggeh wrote:

is your real name gigantor? it is isnt it

Lol.. Weird thing is, I don't have big hands at all. They are quite gay tbh.

ambro25

Bar none.

Only recently acquired, brought back all those happy arcade memories absolutely intact, which my retro-period didn't achieve. Moreover plays Zinc Soul Calibur and MAME Tekken 2 to bloody perfection - I feel like slotting in €uros into the PC (and let's not forget all those PC-only schmups or any arcadey title on N64/PS1 emus).

Next up is the original Gameboy's D-Pad. To my mind, the pinnacle of human gamer/machineinterface with Tetris.

Third is the controller of choice, bar none, for any FPS: good ole 101 keys and the mouse.

Trailing ex-aequo at fourth, with a very honourable mention for both, are the Dreamcast's and the Gamecube's.

and fifth is the PS1 Analogue (the grey one, 1st gen - never liked rumble at all).

A few more, not too far removed from the spirit of the thread...

Worst ever: ex-aequo Supervision D-Pad, 3DO and CDi
Sturdiest ever: CBS Colecovision
Coolest ever: Namco G-CON 45 (when it first came out with TC on PS1)

My €0,02

EDIT: Naturally, on re-reading the thread and checking that it's for (game) controllers, not just joypads, I would like to add the keyboard and mouse. So "slotted" into my personal ranking above.

johnny_ultimate

Have we got this far without mention of the wonderful clicking sound the GC triggers make when pressed?
Something oddly great about it...

Vyse

I knew that it would re-surface

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gamesgear/0,39029441,49290548-1,00.htm

CiDeRmAn

Gods, they really stretched themselves there with that list.
Honestly, that Atari stick was hopeless, I know, i have a couple, nasty to hold for too long, they get greasy and uncomfortable.
The Snes pad is good as is the 360 pad but thats that, the PS2 pad is not even as good as the PS1 Dualshock, its analog buttons were rubbish.

Reflecting I think that the best and worst pads were both on the PS1 and made by the same company,
Namco.
The produced my favorite pad of all time, NeGcon, the greatest racing controller ever! Just twist to steer, twist a little, hell, twist a lot, simple elastic resistace provides all the feedback needed, also has real analogue buttons, both on the face and as shoulder buttons, and had all this years before anyone else. Wipeout and RidgeRacer shouldn't be played with anything else!

And the worst, the JoGcon,
Oh dear, this had the potential to be great and in the end just tried to destroy any nerve or muscle control I have with my thumbs.
An oversized pad with a disc in the centre, the disc with a hollow for your thumb, there it would turn the wheel clockwise, or for extra fun, anticlockwise, also providing real actual force feedback from a cunningly hidden ELECTRIC MOTOR! Except that it just made your hands get very very tired, try playing RR4 on it and you'll see what I mean, an awful device, that I still have to show just how terrible and plain broken controller design can be.

The Steel Batallion controller is mighty fine though, pity I can't use it on the 360, ho hum.

monument

My Microsoft wireless optical mouse with five buttons along with a keyboard using the directional keys and a few more like shift, ctrl etc (no w, a whatever I'm from the country, thus inbred etc).

On console my fav has changed from the old large Xbox controller to the wireless 360 one.

tman

In terms of comfort, the 360 and Wii controllers are absolutely perfect. both slot into your hands nicely and are perfect for extended bouts of gaming... the 360 just hedges it, though. jumping around like a spaz is fun for a while, but at the end of the day there's nothing like vegging out with a good controller in your hand.
The original xbox (S and supersized) were both utter ****e, I never got along with either of them.
Dual shocks are muck as well, as was the original PS1 controller... if you're going to make the dpad dominant, at least make it comfortable to use!

If I had to make any kind of a list, they'd be in this order;
360 Wireless
Keyboard & Mouse (Logitech G5 ftw!)
Gamecube
Wii
Snes (purely for the fact that 1 original controller outlasted 4 third party controllers!)

/edit
hehe, guess that I'm all about "serious man gaming", then:p

monument

Re the original Xbox controller - it could have just been my big country hands.

Retr0gamer

monument wrote:

My Microsoft wireless optical mouse with five buttons along with a keyboard using the directional keys and a few more like shift, ctrl etc (no w, a whatever I'm from the country, thus inbred etc).

:eek: Directional keys! What a muck savage n00b you are

gizmo

Strange that no one has mentioned the original Microsoft Sidewinder pad, one of the most comfortable and durable pads I've ever used. Unfortunately I only have the serial port version and not the USB version so its been gathering dust for the past while as I hunt for the latter version online. The only downside I can think of is that it doesn't have analog sticks which leads me to...

...the XBox360 pad, my second preference in terms of the newer pads. The reasons for this have already been highlighted by others so I won't go into them again.

Special mention to the SNES controller too, man I loved that pad.

monument

Retr0gamer wrote:

:eek: Directional keys! What a muck savage n00b you are

That's why I gave the "I'm from the country and inbred" excuse, it's better then the dyslexia excuse.

CiDeRmAn

Speaking of Sidewinder, I bought a Sidewinder 3D stick back in the dusty misty year 96 to go with my brand spanking new Pentium 200mhz PC and a copy of Mechwarrior 2, awesome, twisting the stick to twist the torso of the mech, throttle, loads of lovely buttons, and plug and play, nice, never used a stick it's equal, then again, never bought one again!
I preferred the original Xbox pad too, just got used to it, never found it too big, the S controller was ok, a bit small perhaps, 360 pad kicks them both into touch, reckon MS will never have to do anything to it to improve it although you know some commitee is going to squeeze motion sensors into it sometime in the next couple of years, oh dear.

d22ontour

GC Wavebird for me.

The Freeman

hmm, have to say the 360 wieless one is ver comfortable but the oul keyboard and mouse is the best by far

Sarky

I used this one with my Amiga. Still have it, still works.

http://svi.s31.pl/quickshot/qs135.jpg

God damn, I loved that stick, fit my hands perfectly, and extra buttons are always useful. Not like tha Atari 2600 sticks. I remember playing a "waggle the stick" racing game until the palm of my right hand was raw and weeping.

This one was very comfortable too, but it broke within a week.

Large manly fellow that I am, I found the original XBox controllers quite nice. Certainly no discomfort after 18+hours of Morrowind. Buggerall experience with the 360 ones, so no comment.

Right now I really like the Wiimote/nunchuck. It's comfy, responsive, and just feels cool to be using. My current favourite is a toss-up between Wii and mouse/keyboard, then.