The crack open DC ASCII FT Pad review, unlike other reviews on the web this isn't a "oh dis pad feelz s0 g00d, I giv3 it tenz!" I open up the pad and let you look at all the parts so you can decide if it's good or not, racketboy was supposed to host the pics but since I haven't heard from him I've hosted them on one of these free image host services. Racketboy, if you have the images uploaded on your flrick account feel free to swap these with yours.
Anyway on with the review, BTW these pics where taken with a borrowed Sony video camcorder so the quality isn't that great but I can't get anything better
Here's the FT Pad as we all see on the images on the web, followed by another pic showing the pad and the cable, notice the CD for size scale (and my feet while taking the pic
) and just in case you are wondering yes this is a ASCII FT Pad (made in Taiwan? LOL)
Here's the close up of the Vibration switch, this does the obvious, it's turns the vibration motor on or off, when off the games cannot detect the rumble, it's like it was never there, like detaching the rumble pack from a regular DC gamepad.
Now close-ups from the action buttons and D-Pad. The start button is made of the contact rubber as we'll see ahead.
Now here's something you can't see on the images on the web, this pad has a huge bulge behind, this is for the rumble motor we will see in a while. Plus here's how the cable goes into the pad... not that secure
Here's where the memory card connects to the pad, most of the card sticks out, kinda insecure, forgot to take a picture to the pad with the card attached, if you wanna see just ask and I'll take it.
These are the screws used to wold the pad together, we are now going into the guts of the pad.
Here's the pad opened in two with the screw used to open it on the pic as well.
And now a close of of each half, notice the PCB, it has the button contacts labeled and you can see the memory card plug in detail.
Close up of the rubber contacts of the pad, they are quite unusual, so if you screw them up this pad is history,
Also like I said the start button is made of the same rubber of the action button contacts.
The pad without the rubbers, next we are going to torn apart the D-Pad.
The D-Pad torn apart, if you ever opened an Xbox/Xbox 360 gamepad you'll notice the D-Pad is built the same way, that means, not that well done.
Now we'll look below the PCB onto the rumble motor, the back of the PCB and the back of the pad case. As you can see there's a plastic piece covering part of the rumble motor, we'll get rid of it in a jiff.
But before, a close-up to the wire contacts on the pad, do you see that white plug on the wire that connects to the console? It's equal to a regular DC pad, in fact the wire seems to be a regular DC pad wire, I'm not sure but I bet you can swap this wire with a regular DC pad wire, useful in case you damage the cable. The other two tiny wires lead to the rumble motor.
A close-up of the Maple bus controller chip, this is the chip that encodes/decodes the button press and rumble info sent and received from the Dreamcast.
Remember the plastic piece covering the rumble motor, it's gone now
And now here's the bare PCB and back case of the pad, there's nothing more to disassemble.
A close-up to the action buttons just for kicks.
I also have the manuals (in Japanese) and the original box but I haven't taken pics of it, if you wanna see it just say and I'll take them pictures.
Well... I hope you enjoyed the review!
...
What? If this pad is worth hunting down and buy it? Well, yes only because it's the only 'old-school' gamepad for Dreamcast, if you already have a Saturn pad adapter or an arcade stick it's not really worth it unless you really like the vibration on games (like me) or you can't use arcade sticks that well (like me).
P.S: Do you wanna know if the pad is still working? I dunno can't be arsed to test it.
Might not be needed because the pad is half transparent, but what you can't see thru the case is the really smart way the D-Pad is built, the so called Floating D-Pad.