The hunt for the perfect controller.

kikinaak

Its all a tradeoff. I know everybody has their favorite and I am probably going to step on some nerves with this. Thats not my intent.

That said, why are all controllers out there these days limited to 2 sticks, D-pad, 4 face buttons, 4 shoulder buttons?

For emulating old systems, this admittedly does cover a lot. Basically all of Nintendo (save the 64) and Sonys consoles are covered by this, as well as xbox if the pi could handle it. But what about the N64? Wheres the genesis/segacd, saturn? Those had 6 face buttons. Yes you can map them to shoulder buttons but thats cludgy. Wheres the analog triggers for the dreamcast?
Mame takes this even further, some games having up to 10 buttons per player plus the stick, but 6 and 8 being rather common in fighters and beatemups.

So, my dream controller, D-pad, 6 face buttons plus start and select, 2 analog sticks, 4 shoulder buttons, analog triggers (possibly shared with 2 of the shoulders) and ideally some other button I can dedicate to shift for metafunctions. I can live without analog face buttons. The ps2 and 3 had em but I think like two games made use of them. I'd prefer bluetooth connection and yes, I want fries with that ;)

Ya, I know I'm looking for something above and beyond the current market standard. But does it exist outside the DIY realm?

BobHarris

@kikinaak I've never seen it sadly. It's either everything but the 6 face buttons, or 6 face buttons but without some of the other features (like analog sticks). Maybe there is one out there, but I only try to read about high quality controllers.
I guess I'm more of a casual player: The dual shock 4 fits all of my needs: Great dpad for fighting games, high durability, analog sticks, triggers, good ergonomics, wired or wireless, the PS button to function as the hotkey. It would indeed have been even more perfect with 6 face buttons, but now I just map the buttons for each game like it suits me.

cosmo0

Hi !

I have spent a great deal of time looking up plug-and-play controllers for the pi.
As you have sumrised, there just isn't any pad that cover everything. If you have 6 face buttons, you probably won't have an analogue stick, for instance. Unless it's a N64 controller, and then everything but N64 games become unplayable.

TL;DR: check out :

Mad Catz Fightpad Pro
8bitdo wireless usb adapter
Gamesir G5

In no particular order, here are all the pad manufacturers I know of, that should be compatible with the Raspberry Pi.

Mad Catz
With their recent sell-out, they shifted their focus away from game pads and into mice and keyboards. You can still find their pads and arcade sticks, though.
The Fightpad Pro has a d-pad, one analogue stick, 6 face buttons and 4 triggers, although 2 of the face buttons are hard-wired to 2 triggers.
The rest is your regular mix of Playstation- and Xbox-style pads and arcade sticks.

SteelSeries
Has 2 "Playstation-style" controllers, one for Android and Windows, one for iOS.

Razer
A well-known, high quality brand, they have Playstation and Xbox controllers, as well as regular arcade sticks.

8bitdo
You may have heard of them ;) they have NES and SNES controllers, some with additional triggers and analogue sticks, as well as an arcade stick. They used to have a N64 controller, maybe you can still find one.
I have also found out while I typed this post, that they now provide a "universal USB adapter" that can plug PS3/4, Wii, WiiU and Switch controller on your Pi, PC, Mac and Switch.

Ipega
Yet another "generic" brand, they mostly provide generic-looking bluetooth controllers with phone stands included.

Gamesir
One of these new "high quality new Chinese brand" that seem to pop up everywhere these days. They build "generic" Xbox/PS clones pads, quite well built, having tried one myself, even though they are not very well compatible with the Pi.
Their latest offering is the G5, which has a Steam Controller-like touch pad replacing the right stick, and like a thousand buttons.

Hori
Known for their arcade sticks, they also have fightpads, the Fighting Commander, with 6 face buttons, 2 of them hard-wired to 2 triggers.

Xiaomi
The brand known for their phones and other high-tech products also has a cheap Xbox-style gamepad.

NVidia
The Shield has had several iterations of their Xbox-style gamepad. It's compatible with Windows, maybe it's compatible with the Pi?

Sony
As you well know, the Dualshock 3 and 4 are compatible out-of-the-box with Retropie.

Microsoft
The Xbox 360 controllers are compatible out-of-the-box, I'm not quite sure about the Xbox One. Maybe the latest, bluetooth controllers work on the Pi ?

Nintendo
The Wiimotes and WiiU Pro pad are compatible with Retropie. The Switch Pro controller has been reported to work, if you put some time in configuring stuff.

Steam
The Steam Controller has been the first real innovation in the gamepad world since a long time. I'm not sure it's compatible with Retopie.

Logitech
They have built Playstation-style controllers for as long as I can remember.

Scuf
They provide Playstation and Xbox pads, and are actually the creators of the Xbox One Elite controller.

Nacon
Newcomer in the high-quality segment, they build Xbox and Playstation controllers targeted at the Xbox One Elite pad.

Thrustmaster
A "cheapo" builder of gamepads since 1990, they build Xbox and Playstation pads.

Retrobit
They provide replicas of Sega (Genesis and Saturn) and Nintendo (NES/SNES) pads. They used to have a lot more stuff (N64, Gamecube...) so maybe you can still find some online.

Another, Libretro-licence-violating company builds replica pads of various systems (NES, SNES, Xbox, Gamecube, N64...).
I won't name them here because of the Libretro situation, but their pads do not violate licences, so search for them at your own moral risk ;)

mitu

@cosmo0 I think Retro-Bit are also in breach of the Libretro license violation - https://www.libretro.com/index.php/appeal-to-game-journalists-about-retro-bit-and-about-the-new-retro-emulation-industry-in-general/ - because of their console.

cosmo0

@mitu said in The hunt for the perfect controller.:

@cosmo0 I think Retro-Bit are also in breach of the Libretro license violation - https://www.libretro.com/index.php/appeal-to-game-journalists-about-retro-bit-and-about-the-new-retro-emulation-industry-in-general/ - because of their console.

Yes but apparently they're working towards a solution : https://www.libretro.com/index.php/eurogamer-article-on-non-commercial-license-violations-of-emulators/

Out of the three parties involved, RetroBit so far has been willing to work with us in trying to remedy the problems with the launched product so far and come to a workable agreement between us and them. We applaud this and we hope that we will be able to resolve the issues in an amicable fashion.

If it's a problem I can edit out the name in my post.

mitu

@cosmo0 said in The hunt for the perfect controller.:

If it's a problem I can edit out the name in my post.

No, I don't think it is. IMHO you could have referenced the 'other' infringing company, as long as the proper 'attribution' is added.

GtBFilms

Interesting question, and one which I gave up looking for a single answer to!

I don't think there's any controller that has enough buttons/sticks etc to be a sufficiently good jack-of-all-trades for all games.

I've noticed I play much better using a proper arcade stick and buttons for arcade games, particularly shooters, fighting games, while there are a lot of console games that benefit from a control pad.

Even in arcade games, I've noticed the difference in using a 4-way gated joystick on games that originally had a 4-way stick compared to an 8-way gate. They play so much better with the correct controls.

The exception to that was Asteroids, which I had the good fortune to play the original arcade cab recently - no joystick, just buttons - and I actually found that harder to play than I do with a pad or stick.

My solution has been to have a bit of a collection of controllers, and use which every one is suitable for the game I want to play at the time.

kikinaak

Actually, I might have just found a contender. 2 analog sticks that have L/R3, D-pad, 6 face buttons, 4 shoulder buttons, and 4 buttons where you would find start and select. So total of 16 buttons. Its cheap, but the reviews are... not kind. Some are downright impolite. Also not a brand I've ever heard of. But its cheap, so I'll give it a try next payday and report back here. There's also only 2 left in stock so I'm not sharing the link yet. Dont want you guys to buy it out before I can grab one!

I did look at that Gamesir G5. An impressive beast to be sure, but I dont care for the touchpad replacing the right analog stick. What would it take for retropie to even support that thing and map it to buttons? And the button layout is just wrong for classic gaming. Basically what I want would be a ps2 dual shock style controller with 6 or 8 buttons instead of 4 on the right side, and analog triggers.

Beldar

There was once a controller very close to what you are looking for. It was made by Hori and called the Ex 2 turbo for the Xbox 360. It is long out of manufacture, though.

cosmo0

Back when Saitek did gamepads, they made the P880 : 2 sticks and a d-pad, 6 face buttons, 2 triggers.

However, the d-pad was as awful as the Xbox 360 one :/

kikinaak

Well I wasnt able to pick up that contender after all, but I'll drop the link in case anybody else here has any experience with the thing. The brand is Ibuffalo. I've never heard of them, and like I said a lot of the reviews rip this thing apart, but its certainly got enough buttons and a good classic layout.
http://a.co/f5Smg6K

thelostsoul

@kikinaak If its the same iBuffalo brand as the one I know, then I trust in them. I own a pair of iBuffalo SNES styled USB gamepads and the quality is well done and known for it.

KN4THX

Do they make a Sega Genesis turbo 6 button controller with shoulder/triggers? I thought they did back when my 66mhz PC used to play Street Fighter and Jill Of The Jungle.