pretty cool, reminds me of using PSX controllers adapted to the parallel port.

But why? Dos and Win98 gaming were always keyboard/mouse/analog joystick.

Very nice!

I just looked up what "Playstation Classic" is, and it's basically an ARM-based system running an emulator, so practically off-the-shelf components. It comes as no surprise then that they implemented the controller as a standard USB gamepad, which in turn explains why it just works on Win98 SE with the standard USB HID driver.

brostenen wrote:

But why? Dos and Win98 gaming were always keyboard/mouse/analog joystick.

I guess people who grew up with consoles prefer the control scheme of a gamepad; even though technically, anything a digital gamepad can do can be done by a keyboard (as long as it has sufficient rollover, that is).

brostenen wrote:

But why? Dos and Win98 gaming were always keyboard/mouse/analog joystick.

main reason why I wanted a controller was to play emulators like Zsnes

but some old PC games also work rather well with gamepads, basically any game that just uses keyboard and not that many keys translate decently to digital gamepads, and there is a level of comfort in just holding the gamepad and sitting at a distance from the desk.

digital gamepads were also a thing on PC in the 90s anyway.

SPBHM wrote:

main reason why I wanted a controller was to play emulators like Zsnes […]
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brostenen wrote:

But why? Dos and Win98 gaming were always keyboard/mouse/analog joystick.

main reason why I wanted a controller was to play emulators like Zsnes

but some old PC games also work rather well with gamepads, basically any game that just uses keyboard and not that many keys translate decently to digital gamepads, and there is a level of comfort in just holding the gamepad and sitting at a distance from the desk.

digital gamepads were also a thing on PC in the 90s anyway.

I never saw anyone play with joypads/gamepads in the 80's and the 90's. Except consoles. Yet I did buy a gravis gamepad, and all my friends laughed at me. Not even on Amiga or C64, it was used at all. People used joysticks and mouse. Mostly joystik on those.

brostenen wrote:

People used joysticks and mouse. Mostly joystik on those.

Many of the games, even if they used an analog joysticks, did not utilize the analog precision all that much, or at all; these could be played with a D-pad just as well.

A lot of PC gamers had a stick up their arse when it came to controllers until last gen. Never understood it myself, not every genre is best suited to a mouse and keyboard.

I'm glad to see it works well cabezonnor, I'm thinking of picking a system up myself if I see one cheap enough.

Duouk2000 wrote:

A lot of PC gamers had a stick up their arse when it came to controllers until last gen. Never understood it myself, not every genre is best suited to a mouse and keyboard.

Very few genres are best suited to a digital pad, though. A digital pad gives you nothing that a good keyboard can't give you.

I am just wondering, what exact titles are best suited for joypads? As far as I remember, then none. There might be some titles that are equally good with keyboards than they are with joypads. Yet if you have a keyboard, and I kind of guess you need one for a computer, then a joypad are money out the window.

I remember playing WipeOut, and a joypad was really useful, especialy for aero brakes 😀
That's why I bought a Sidewinder.

Tons of games are better with a control pad than a keyboard. Every 2D action/platformer, beat em ups, shoot em ups, racing games, arcade game...etc.

Some of these may be even better with dedicated accessories such as arcade sticks or racing wheels but as a general purpose input device a control pad beats a keyboard hands down for the above genres.

Duouk2000 wrote:

Tons of games are better with a control pad than a keyboard. Every 2D action/platformer, beat em ups, shoot em ups, racing games, arcade game...etc.

Some of these may be even better with dedicated accessories such as arcade sticks or racing wheels but as a general purpose input device a control pad beats a keyboard hands down for the above genres.

That's (largely) not true. The only reason people think these games are better with a pad is because they don't know how to play with a keyboard, since they grew up with a pad; keyboard players think the same thing in reverse.

In racing games, you need analog precision, which means you need an analog stick, not a digital pad. For fighting games - the ones that utilize circular motions / diagonals, an arcade stick is greatly preferred; a D-Pad can provide some advantage over a keyboard in circular motions, like 180, 360, 720, but it still fails miserably compared to an arcade stick for complex diagonals.

I'm not sure what you mean when you say people don't know how to use a keyboard. They may both be digital but a dpad provides much better control than arrow keys for platformers and the like. Controling Lara in Tomb Raider feels much more intuitive with face and shoulder buttons as well.

I agree it does all come down to preference but if someone asks if they need a control pad for old PC games I'll always say yes. Not all of them of course, but they'll definately have a better experience with certain games if they have a pad handy.

In regards to racing games, I first played Epsode 1: Racer with a keyboard and really enjoyed it. It played even better on my Dreamcast though. These days I use a 360 pad to play the PC version.

When I say people don't know how to use the keyboard I mean exactly that people who think that:

Duouk2000 wrote:

a dpad provides much better control than arrow keys for platformers and the like

don't know how to use the keyboard (for gaming, that is), and the reason they think that

Duouk2000 wrote:

Controling Lara in Tomb Raider feels much more intuitive with face and shoulder buttons as well

is only because this is what they are used to, so it is much more intuitive for them.

When final fantasy 7 and 8 came for PC in late 90s, I did always prefer to play them with a game pad and I would have loved to have that kind of game pad for them. I think the first good game pads came later for PC when logitech released rumblepad. I still have logitech rumblepad 2 that works well even though I mostly use PS4 game pad nowadays when it comes to games that work better with a game pad which are generally console ports. I would never use a game pad with a fps game or any other game that works better with a mouse.

Duouk2000 wrote:

I'm not sure what you mean when you say people don't know how to use a keyboard. They may both be digital but a dpad provides much better control than arrow keys for platformers and the like. Controling Lara in Tomb Raider feels much more intuitive with face and shoulder buttons as well.

I agree it does all come down to preference but if someone asks if they need a control pad for old PC games I'll always say yes. Not all of them of course, but they'll definately have a better experience with certain games if they have a pad handy.

In regards to racing games, I first played Epsode 1: Racer with a keyboard and really enjoyed it. It played even better on my Dreamcast though. These days I use a 360 pad to play the PC version.

Totally agree. Last night i've played Nfs III, Nfs 2 and Tomb Raider II and it feels better to play than keyboard.

I have a Super-Famicom replica USB controller. I wonder if that'll work in Windows 98. Hmmm...

cabezonnor wrote on 2019-02-16, 15:06:

Hi guys! […]
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Hi guys!

First of all thanks a lot for all the tips and the information here. It's an awesome community. Second, my english is not very good but i hope you can understand (I'm from Chile).

Well here's is the thing. I've search a lot for a compatible and retro looking gamepad to run on my retro system (Athlon XP 1600+ / 256 MB Ram / Geforce 3 / SBlaster Live / Win98 SE) i've looked everywhere for a cheap Gravis Gamepad Pro kind of gamepad but no luck at all. Yesterday i've bought a cheap Sony Playstation Classic System (these are getting cheaper everyday) and i've wondered if maybe the USB gamepad will work on my retropc and incredible, it works instantly. No drivers needed at all, just follow the default windows setup and after a few seconds, the device appears in the joystick section on control panel with all the buttons perfectly configured.

I'm looking for the same thing. How did you find a USB PS controller? Or do you use a PS/USB converter?