I Bought A Gamepad

flosch — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 13:34:27 +0000

Some time ago, I decided would need a gamepad eventually, but couldn’t really decide what to buy. I was used to the symmetric PS3 setup, but it seemed that XBox-Controllers were much better supported by Windows (surprise). In the end, I found one that combined both advantages:

Finally, an XBox controller for people who were born with a symmetric pair of hands.

The Saitek Cyborg V5 might look like a standard XBox controller, but the left silver part is detachable and can be rotated to work in both types of configurations. It works quite well, and I’m happy with it. Funny enough, it’s almost too big for my liking, and I have rather large hands (I can easily play a Ninth on the piano; not that it is a very useful interval). Maybe that’s because I grew up with Nintendo controllers in the 80ies and early 90ies, and they were much smaller, so you learned to hold them differently. Other than that, I can’t complain. It does what it’s supposed to do, and even after some extensive testing (more on that in another post), I did not walk away with any strains or cramps. Thumbs up!

I Need a Gamepad

flosch — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 09:40:04 +0000

I never thought I’d say that. But with the amount of games that are console ports, it seems like a gamepad for my PC would be a wise investment. It’s just that I have absolutely no idea what I should get.

So I’m open to suggestions of any kind.

Maybe some background because I assume “I need a gamepad” is about as specific as “Good morning, I would like to buy a computer”.

I like the PlayStation controller. I played a lot of games with them, and got used to the layout. Conversely, I am not a big fan of the X-Box layout with the weirdly out-of-place analog pad on the left hand side. So I’d very much prefer something that looked more like the former than the latter.
It should work with most games. (Duh) Back when I last owned a gamepad, that wasn’t an issue. A gamepad was a gamepad. Granted, that was when my gamepad looked like a Super Nintendo controller and was connected to the computer via my Sound Blaster 16’s “game port”. So times might have changed, and a PC game ported from the PlayStation might only work with some controllers, and a game ported from X-Box only with others?
Wireless sounds good in theory, because I have this tendency to make a mess out of cables. On the other hand, I’m worried about battery life and robustness of the wireless connection, especially with a wireless mouse already around.
Price is not a complete non-issue, but if you had good experiences with comfort and longevity, I’m willing to pay for that.

So please tell me if you had particularly good or bad experiences with a certain pad, and could suggest a good buy.

gamepad – Random Waypoint

I Bought A Gamepad

I Need a Gamepad