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Best controllers for emulation on PC

Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2007 3:19 pm
by marurun
OK fellas. What is the best controller/pad/whatever arrangement for playing emulated games on the PC? What solution do you use at home?

I think we should look at this question from 3 angles:

What do you do?
What's the best controller/joypad/whatever overall?
What's the best affordable option?

Any opinions?

Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2007 4:35 pm
by arion
i just got a converter for most of my favorite controllers

http://www.jandaman.com/games.mvc?p=pcj ... ry_code=PC

in general i used the saturn pad most..but i liked the option of being able to connect either a dc pad or a psx pad if i needed an anlog pin

Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2007 5:22 pm
by racketboy
I heard that the Dreamcast stuff doesn't work perfectly on those...
Can't remember which buttons....

Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2007 5:38 pm
by Majors
I use the 3-in-1 PC Joy Box with a Saturn pad. It's $15 bucks and I have plenty of Saturn pads. Since it takes dual-shocks, it works for driving and Tomb Raider clones.

I also have a couple of 360 controllers that work well for Tomb Raider clones also. It's also swell for Battlefield 2 for flying helicopters/jets. It's not cheap, but I had to get them for a game room I ran at an anime con two years ago. The redcloud hack makes the d-pad work, but the Saturn is still the best.

Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2007 6:48 pm
by baphomet_irl
I have the V plus adapter thing, which takes GC, DC and PS2 input

Mainly I use my ASCII DC Arcade stick, as mainly I play emulation of vert shmups

The other controller I mainly use is a normal PS2 controller

I have to say the driver and controller config with this adapter is very good, although I did have some problems with analogue
inputs from a GC controller

Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2007 7:51 pm
by arion
racketboy wrote:I heard that the Dreamcast stuff doesn't work perfectly on those...
Can't remember which buttons....


well it´s been a while since i last used the dc pad but i don´t recall any problems..might be worth it to check tho

Official Sega Saturn USB pad

Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2007 10:37 pm
by alexkidd
If you can find it the official Sega Saturn USB pad is amazing. It was only released in Japan but had quite a few different colors.

I got a white one from www.play-asia.com a couple years ago. I'm sure it would be hard to track down now but it's worth it.

Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2007 10:48 pm
by fastbilly1
Depends on the game, but overall I use a Super Smartjoy and a SNES pad. Usually I have arcade controls setup but they are currently being gutted and rebuilt. 2 happ Competition Joysticks, 2 happ Universal Joysticks, or a Sanwa JLF-TP-8YT.

I love happ components but I may be switching to more Sanwa because I adore balltops for everything but fighting games. And sadly my fighting game time is almost nothing since I have very few friends who enjoy them nowadays. Sanwa of Seimitsu since my usual middleman only deals with Sanwas.

Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2007 1:46 am
by GSZX1337
I use several controllers.
I use an XboX 360 pad for games that have four button configurations.
I use a PS2 pad for other games that use four button configurations. Mainly because I already had one.
I use a NES Pad for games that have two button configurations.
have a 3D Sega Saturn controller for all of my games with six button configurations.
Ands I have the conrollers to the consoles that have controllers too big of a PITA to map onto the others. (ie. N64)

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 8:59 am
by neohx_7
The PS2 Sega Saturn controllers are the best I've ever used. I have PS2 adapters for all my consoles and USB for emulation. The feel silky smooth in MAME and since I play so much better with pads its hard to want to plug in my HRAP.