Discuss - 169

[Darran@Retro Gamer]

What's your favourite joystick/joypad
Best answers to appear in the magazine.

[The Laird]

Has to be the original Japanese Sega Saturn controller, as near to perfect as you can get. I still use a USB one with my PC for emulators too.

[AceGrace]

Kempston joystick for the Spectrum. You can keep your Quickshots. This is the best.

[The Beans]

Suncom's Slik Stik is my favourite joystick by an absolute mile.

After going through about five Quickshot-style flimsy sticks I finally bought a joystick that was really robust. It was a Suncom Starfighter and I loved it immediately. Really easy to hold, short stick travel, no microswitches and ridiculously easy to maintain. I bought my first Slik Stik about three weeks later and it became my favourite. It just beats Suncom's Tac-2 because the Slik fits more easily in my hand. My original Slik Stik still works great.

I have a box that's full of Suncom joysticks. I always buy if I see them at car boot sales and suchlike.

[Antiriad2097]

Competition Pro 5000 in its black and red incarnation, usable on just about any 8/16 bit computer, which is just as well as it'll outlast them all.

I had a Slik Stik and it was good while it lasted, but the rubber around the shaft broke and that was the end of my fun, as is so often the case in these circumstances.

[The Beans]

Competition Pro 5000 in its black and red incarnation, usable on just about any 8/16 bit computer, which is just as well as it'll outlast them all.

Too bulky for me. If I remember rightly it did a load of microswitch clicking too, which really gets on my nerves. My mate absolutely swore by it though. He had some sort of mega-pricey stick, by Gravis (I think), and it gathered dust because he preferred his clicky Pro even though it was a bit battered.

[Mayhem]

Competition Pro or Powerplay Cruiser for the home computers. Anyone that mentioned the Konix Speedking will be summarily beaten to death with one

Console wise, either the 360 pad or GameCube pad, they were excellent. Likewise anyone mentioning the Dual Shock will be summarily beaten to death with one

[lavalyte]

The Suncom Tac 2. It's got a nice short travel, ergonomic in your hand, duplicate buttons for left or right hand use and is damn near indestructible.
Also, I ripped the autofire circuitry out of a bodgy Quikshot joystick and added another firebutton to mine.

[ianpmarks]

I always liked Q A I O P on the ZX Spectrum's keyboard. Or Q W SPACE for Jet Set Willy.
Not early Ultimate games though... QWERT was on of the worst keyboard control options ever.

For proper controllers the Gamecube was my favourite.

[necronom]

The best normal joystick I've ever used is the Zipstick. I have two that I still use all the time for retro gaming (Spectrum, Vic-20, C64, Amiga, or emulation). For MAME I built some arcade controls (joystick and several buttons), and for modern gaming (i.e. any Playstation model) it's the PS controllers.

[HalcyonDaze00]

joystick - comp pro 5000 clear, super cool and would survive a nuclear war

pad - xbox 360, just way ahead of every other pad there has been

[trunky]

The Konix Speedking.

Still have mine, it still works and just feels right. I also have a competition pro. I like it. Just not as much. It hurts the palm of my hand after a while.

[RodimusPrime]

The NES controller. What a revelation after having to endure playing on 8-bit home computers with joysticks and only one fire button. no more pushing up to jump on platform games, no more pushing up to accelerate on driving games. That simple addition of a 2nd fire button and a wonderful d-pad meant I could never go back to 8-bit home computers and bizarre control schemes ever again..

[kiwimike]

Yeah I'm more of a fan of pad controllers than joysticks, and to me 360s pad is perfect for my weedy hands. Liked the Dreamcast one as well

[ncf1]

Its funny, I used to loathe gamepads and only use ever use joysticks but having been introduced to the Xbox 360 controller - and recently the wireless version - well there's no turning back is there, its the xbox 360 wireless all the way for me.