/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.7700552]

What gamepad, if any, did people use in the P4 era / prior to when the 360 controller first came out?

[Anonymous No.7700567]

>>7700552
keyboard and mouse as pc games were not infested with ports, it was actually the other way

[Anonymous No.7700587]

Stuff like the Saitek P880, Logitech Dual Action, various Microsoft Sidewinder gamepads. At least from what I recall.

[Anonymous No.7700589]

>>7700567
Ok but was there any common one to use between when the sidewinder 2d pads and 360 controllers were common for people who wanted to play racing/fighting games but didn't want to invest in a wheel or stick?

The closest I could find was the Alienware configurator of the time selling you the choice if a sidewinder pro usb (gamepad with no sticks) or a dualshock 2 to usb adapter (which seems a bit kludgy but ok I guess).

[Anonymous No.7700601]

>>7700587
>Logitech Dual Action
That actually looks pretty nice, reminds me of when logitech made the best wireless controllers for sixth gen consoles around the same time.

Too bad it also seems to be cursed with that soft rubber coating that turns back into crude oil after 15 years later

[Anonymous No.7700603]

>>7700587

[Anonymous No.7700907]

>>7700603
those square gated sticks were awful

[Anonymous No.7700908]

>>7700907
You cannot name a controller with more SOUL than this one.

[Anonymous No.7700929]

>>7700908

[Anonymous No.7700939]

>>7700552
Intel is the luxury and Linux option, so in those days I was using the AMD poverty option. I think the Pentium 4 era was when I was on Athlon XP. I remember adapting Sega Saturn controllers for emulated games.

[Anonymous No.7701087]

>>7700908
I hate this gamepad but I'll have to agree.

[Anonymous No.7701286]

>>7700552

[Anonymous No.7701417]

>>7700907
This one is kinda clunky but it's cheap and it works. That's more than most logitech products these days in my opinion.

[Anonymous No.7701684]

>>7701286
This surprisingly to some.
There was an unofficial cable sold online back then that allowed you to connect to your PC via USB with a Duke or S controller. I think they also had their own software for it.

[Anonymous No.7702026]

>>7700939
Athlon>>> P4 tho

[Anonymous No.7702031]

DualShock with an USB adapter. Completely plug-n-play even in 98SE except for the rumble, the drivers for the rumble came on an included floppy

[Anonymous No.7702054]

>>7702026
P4EE was pretty good.

[Anonymous No.7702058]

>>7700552
I didn't use a gamepad. At that time all the games worked best with keyboard and mouse.

[Anonymous No.7702059]

>>7701417
>that's more than most logitech products these days

Amen.

[Anonymous No.7702070]

>>7701417
>>7702059
>logitech
More like logiwoke. Can't even call them out on their LGBTQ english ads. The LGBTQ shit was magiclly absent from all their foreign language ads.

[Anonymous No.7702487]

>>7700552

[Anonymous No.7703469]

>>7702026
I remember that Intel was always faster and had higher clock speeds. The Athlon XP I had was just simply cheaper and supposedly more efficient per clock, but that didn't matter to anyone so AMD started giving fake names like "3000+" and "3200+" to pretend like it was almost at Pentium 4 specs when it was really running at 1/2 to 2/3 the speed of the P4 matching the fake name. Websites like Anandtech and Tom's recommended the P4 over the Athlons all the time. I loved using my Athlon XP, but AMD is just what people put up with when the alternative is so costly.

[Anonymous No.7703548]

>>7700552
There were a lot of gamepads back then, companies like Saitek and logitech just stopped making them when the 360 controller became standard. I used a logitech wingman for the original Mafia, GTAIII and Vice City as well as some other racing games and flight sims

[Anonymous No.7703646]

I used this, genius g-09D. 6 face buttons and 4 shoulder buttons, enough for emulating everything and great for fighters, only downside is you need to use the shoulder buttons as start/select/coin input.
It had one huge downside, the d-pad was hanging on a single plastic piece and it broke extremely easily. I swear I had to buy 3 or 4 of these for that reason. The first one was all black, later models had the silver parts.
I had to play stuff like Metal Slug from the analog stick due to how often the d-pad broke.
The logitech and saitek pads were uncomfortable pieces of shit with stiff d-pads. I didn't like them.

Getting the x360 pad was a crazy huge deal after all of that shit. There's a reason it was universally acclaimed. I used them for like 15 years (the first one broke, the second one is still fine), only just now switched the the latest xbone pad which finally has a better d-pad (the first xbone pad with the cross-shaped pad put horrible pain on my thumbs).

>>7701684
The xbox OG pads used standard USB, just with a different plug. When the controllers for my sisters xbox had their cables torn, I just cut off the end of a standard USB cable and soldered it to the PCB and the pc immediately recognized it as a standard gamepad. However this was many years later on windows 7, I don't know if PCs of the time could do that. And yes the controller dongle was honestly a simpler solution. Those xbox pads sure were comfy though.

[Anonymous No.7705297]

>>7703469
>anadtech
funny you mention them

[Anonymous No.7706538]

I had one of these back then, but I think Descent was the only game I really used it for. I did have the early Belkin Nostromo Speedpad n50 paired with my mouse from 2003 onward.

[Anonymous No.7706797]

>>7706538
>3dfx branding
imagine if it only supported Glide games