FWIW I’ve been using one as my PC controller for 5 years now and haven’t had any issues with stick drift or shoulder buttons. I use the button remapping and back paddles all the time. I’m an on-and-off player but by now I’ve surely used it at least 500 hours.
my wife’s got stick drift with a year. all of the first party controllers can develop it because they’re using the same mechanical potentiometer parts
look for a controller with hall effect sticks like the 8bitdo ultimate or the gamesir offalynne linked above. i’ve used the 8bitdo for a couple of years now
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i had the shoulder buttons break on two regular xbox one/series controllers, but never had the stick drift with either
the move now does seem to be get a hall effect thing or buy from somewhere with a generous warranty (just got a dualsense from john lewis for their 2 years)
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i can’t recommend an elite 2 now, heavy but ultimately flakey
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Im very late and only saw this post by accident but i love my king kong 2 as well, but also I will note/warn that for some reason it has latency on the switch which makes Smash and etc nearly unplayable.
I’ve checked that it’s on the latest firmware and etc etc
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the Elite 2 was by far the most / maybe only unreliable controller I’ve ever owned, cannot recommend
back bumpers are great but the sticks are literally too heavy, they snap back and register whiplash inputs in a way that no other controller ever has for me, and the short travel on the shoulders adds nothing imo
just get a regular current gen Xbox controller for $40
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though I think I have a light touch in a uniquely weird way because I have never in my life encountered stick drift but the whiplash thing was constant
8bitdo is by an enormous margin the most affordable and reliable 3rd party and I personally love having good controllers that can save pairings to 3-4 devices at once and switch between them (which is also why I don’t even look at airpod pro alternatives)
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The regular current gen Xbox controller also has the best d-Pad of all time for some reason. A $40 Xbox Series S controller got me to Celestial in GGS. I tried all kinds of specialized fighting game controllers before settling on this absurd preference
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if there were a cheap bumper attachment for it like the PS4 controller and if it could pair to more than one device that isn’t an Xbox it would be perfect for 95% of people
For the Flatbox in particular, all the hardware files including cases are on the developer’s GitHub.
there are many, many, many chinese hall effect pads now, most of which also have mechanical buttons. it’s a whole new world of controllers, which is both nice and very annoying. I have a very feature rich pad that cost me less than $50, and all I can think is lets try a different one. mostly because I think my current pad is too big. something about the ergonomics are off for me. the dpad is also only ok, and I don’t like the back buttons
I also still have this cheap controller I talked about earlier in this thread that was 20 bucks and is excellent outside of having unusable face buttons and non functional bluetooth. bit of a problem. I look at it longingly now and again.
recently I was thinking about buying that mobapad controller that persona linked, but the problem is it’s kind of boxed into being a niche pad since it doesn’t have analog triggers and I don’t think it has 2.4hz. a bit expensive at $60 for that feature set to me. but if you don’t care about those things much, it is almost certainly excellent because mobapad’s joycons are perfect. I think the joycons could maybe use slightly extended grip handles, and the cross dpad is not great (the disc is perfect if you like discs; I do) but other than that I have zero complaints and I’m hopelessly picky about controllers.
anyway I was looking for something to buy to use on my ipad to play shmups with (seriously a 13 inch ipad pro with a magnetic stand to rotate on is a perfect retroarch device, the only two downsides are core compatibility problems on ipados and being locked to bluetooth for controllers; those two things combined with, you know, the price of an ipad, means I couldn’t really ever recommend it, but man is it nice) and I decided to buy this newer mobapad controller, which is cheaper than the other one but doesn’t have mechanical face buttons. one thing these chinese brands like to do is never stop releasing new shit, there’s always a new version, a new niche, a new doodad, just throw it out there and see who figures it out. I think it has something to do with the supply chains, they probably all buy most of the parts from the same couple factories and just make frankenpads with whatever comes out at any given month. anyway I got the non HD rumble version of that new pad from aliexpress for 30 bucks, should be fit to purpose. they probably just stole the switch pro buttons. I’d rather have mechanical switches, but these should be pretty decent
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incomplete list of recent gamepads with mechanical switch buttons
-
GameSir
- G7, HE
- Cyclone 2, Pro
- T4K
- Kaleid
-
Flydigi
- Vader 3, 3 Pro, 4, 4 Pro
- Apex 2, 3, 4
- Direwolf 3 Pro
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Beitong
- Asura 2 Pro, 2 Pro+, 3S
- Zeus, 2
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Mobapad
- M9, Pro, HD
- Chitu
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Thrustmaster eSwap S, S Pro, X Pro
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Machenike G3S, G5 Pro, G6
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Razer Wolverine TE, 2, 3
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EasySMX X10, X20
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Bigbig Won Blitz, 2
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Scuf Envision, Pro
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Thunderobot G45
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Turtle Beach Stealth Ultra
-
Xiaomi Gamepad Elite
most of these are trashy. they’re using kailh green mech switches that have reliability problems, in many cases they have membranes on top of the switches, and poor button fit/stability. the thrustmaster and razer pads are definitely not worth the extra you’re paying for a western brand, they’re equally if not less reliable than chinese equivalents
the mobapad joycons feel great in no small part due to using omron switches… a nicer chitu would be close to ideal I think, the sticks etc. on the pad are markedly cheaper than on the joycons.
scuf envision are reportedly very nice but 
lol. holding out hope for Gamesir G7 Pro to be The One…
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I had a Razer 360 pad years ago that developed stick drift after a month. They gave me hell trying to get the warranty on it, but they relented and sent me another, which got stick drift after…three weeks.
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is there a controller with a 2.4 GHz dongle and an amazing dpad in the psx shape? ie I don’t have to make an awkward reach to get to it. but I don’t want Bluetooth because it’s unreliable in Windows
Hmm, all three of those criteria are kind of rare on their own so the intersection might not exist.
I suggest instead you try this USB dongle and then get a controller based purely on your dpad criteria. It may be Bluetooth in between the dongle and the controller, but Windows doesn’t know about that so it can’t mess it up.
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aha genius, I thought this was just an 8bitdo branded Bluetooth dongle. i already have a controller that will work with this so that’s perfect. thanks!!
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there is the gamesir tarantula pro, which i was holding out hope for, but it seems to have a lot of qc problems and it has a gimmicky button swapping feature that means buttons aren’t mechanical and they apparently kinda suck. Still, it’s on Amazon so you get an easy free return if you wanna give it a go
I just ordered the Gamesir Galileo G8 which has gotten pretty good reviews because I want to use it for streaming certain games from Steam/PS4 to my phone. I figure all the RPGs and turn-based games ought to work alright and I’ll play more if I don’t have to be at my desk
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Shouldn’t it be the other way around, in terms of size relation?
Relation shoes
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