Controller choice advice

[fantoboy]

I recently built an HTPC for my living room with emulators and I am now shopping for wireless controllers.

Does anyone have and controllers they have had good experiences with?

I mostly play Street Fighter and my controller of choice is a ps2 controller. Right now I use a USB adapter.

I would prefer to use a wireless PS3 controller, but I can't find any drivers out there that don't use the USB wire.

Here are the 3 controllers I am looking at now:

wireless 360 controllers. I like them mostly for the variety of accessories such as charger docks:

Charger Dock

I think these controllers would be great for everything else besides fighting games.

I just don't think I will get used to the D-Pad. Does anyone know what the guide button does on a pc?

I heard it has no function with the wired controllers, but does with the wireless.

The 2nd controller I am looking at is a ps2 knock-off:

Divineo

I like the idea of it, but I am afraid a no-name brand will not be durable and the quality will suck.

Plus I'm afraid the D-Pad might not feel as good as a PS2.

My 3rd option that I am swaying towards:

Logitech Controller

It attempts to imitate the PS2 controller, has great customization options, long battery life, and great reviews on Newegg.

You can even set up an analog stick to act as a mouse. My only fear is that I will not like the D-pad.

Anyone have any strong opinions out there about any controllers?

[midget35]

i find the logitech one to be of the highest possble standard. Outstanding.

Stay the hell away from the saitek p series!

Good luck

[Stu1983]

  fantoboy said:

Does anyone know what the guide button does on a pc?

I heard it has no function with the wired controllers, but does with the wireless.

I have the wireless controller and the guide button simply brings up a wee on screen display that shows the battery status

Stu

[fantoboy]

  PimpDaddyStu said:

I have the wireless controller and the guide button simply brings up a wee on screen display that shows the battery status

Stu

Do you find that it works well with emulators?

My main concern is the d-pad with fighters, but also things like the analog stick with Project64 and NullDC.

[Stu1983]

  fantoboy said:

Do you find that it works well with emulators?

My main concern is the d-pad with fighters, but also things like the analog stick with Project64 and NullDC.

Sorry I don't use it for emulators I have an arcade cabinet for them, I use it on my other PC for racing games and what not, if I get a chance I'll try it out on a few emulators over the weekend

Stu

[Smocca]

  fantoboy said:

Do you find that it works well with emulators?

My main concern is the d-pad with fighters, but also things like the analog stick with Project64 and NullDC.

I use it for all of my emulators and it works well in all of them. I use it in conjunction with xpadder so that I can set a custom dead zone and/or button assignments as needed.

But yea, the DPad is beyond terrible for fighting games.

[bkenobi]

How does the logitech work with N64? I really want to be able to play some of those games, but without an analog joystick, it's pointless! I really miss MarioKart64

[iano]

  bkenobi said:

How does the logitech work with N64? I really want to be able to play some of those games, but without an analog joystick, it's pointless! I really miss MarioKart64

Would one of those N64 Controller USB Adapters work ? So that you can use a real N64 Controller with Project64.

[fantoboy]

  Smocca said:

I use it for all of my emulators and it works well in all of them. I use it in conjunction with xpadder so that I can set a custom dead zone and/or button assignments as needed.

But yea, the DPad is beyond terrible for fighting games.

One of the reviews on Newegg says that the customer had great results with Project64. The controller allows you to adjust the analog sticks with the software it comes with. So far it is one of the best reviewed controllers I have come across. The only complaint I see is that the holes the analog sticks are in are square shaped, so you can't push the controller all the way and have a smooth circular motion. You must hold it a little away from all the way pushed.

If the 360 d-pad isn't good for fighters, looks like I might go with the logitech.

[iano]

  fantoboy said:

One of the reviews on Newegg says that the customer had great results with Project64. The controller allows you to adjust the analog sticks with the software it comes with. So far it is one of the best reviewed controllers I have come across. The only complaint I see is that the holes the analog sticks are in are square shaped, so you can't push the controller all the way and have a smooth circular motion. You must hold it a little away from all the way pushed.

If the 360 d-pad isn't good for fighters, looks like I might go with the logitech.

I got an xbox 360 console and i love the thing (even though the fan is loud) but i downloaded SF2 Hyperfighting from xbox arcade and found the special moves were difficult to pull off with the d-pad. I have a logitech wireless rumblepad 2 but it's still in the box and haven't got round to trying it out.

[fantoboy]

  iano said:

I got an xbox 360 console and i love the thing (even though the fan is loud) but i downloaded SF2 Hyperfighting from xbox arcade and found the special moves were difficult to pull off with the d-pad. I have a logitech wireless rumblepad 2 but it's still in the box and haven't got round to trying it out.

OOH! Try it out! I'm probably gonna order 2 tonight. I wanna know how they are, especially the d-pad!!

[keithdok]

I would advise strongly against the Xbox 360 wireless controller. I have one and found that it didn't work well with Gameex because of its automatic timeout when you're not using it. If it turns off while Gameex is still on, when you turn it back on Gameex won't respond to up-down-left-right navigation.

The Logitech Cordless Rumblepad 2 is better in every way. It's cheaper, very solid, has better battery life (it lasts for weeks even with heavy use, while I found the 360 controller to drain its batteries in a matter of days), is able to switch back and forth between d-pad or analog stick mode (or use both at the same time for things like N64 emulators), and Gameex doesn't lose focus when it switches itself off. You also don't have to worry about accidentally hitting that stupid sync button on the 360 controller and getting that battery status popup that sometimes messes things up.

Plus the D-pad on the 360 controller is really stiff and awkward, while the Logitech has that great PS2 style which is just about the best shape ever made, in my opinion.

[Tom Speirs]

I bought some wireless logitech wingman controllers a while back, and found there not a lot of good for classic arcade games, due to the response time. I tried to play joust 2 player on my media center machine on the big screen, but couldnt flap fast enough. I suspect the newer controllers may overcome this problem, dont know, just my experience, the controllers are a little old now.

[keithdok]

  TSpeirs said:

I bought some wireless logitech wingman controllers a while back, and found there not a lot of good for classic arcade games, due to the response time. I tried to play joust 2 player on my media center machine on the big screen, but couldnt flap fast enough. I suspect the newer controllers may overcome this problem, dont know, just my experience, the controllers are a little old now.

Yeah, I can't speak for all the Logitech controllers. I actually also have one of the wireless Logitech controllers that's made for the PS3 (but also works on PC) and don't like it as much. It works as well as the Cordless Rumblepad 2, but is much lighter and its construction and the buttons and sticks feel much cheaper than the Rumblepad 2, even though they cost about the same.

This one right here is the one I'd recommend.

When I just had the 360 controller I even had to start a thread just like this because I disliked its power-saving function so much.