Controller Showdown

Hardware

These are my gaming controllers. You can just make out a tiny bit of grey plastic on the right which is an HP ProBook 'potato' laptop I bought from the nearest mobile phone shop for £160 second hand.

Made in 2019 with 8GB shared ram with an integrated Intel HD graphics gpu. The gpu is very capable at 3D games but sadly there is no 2D acceleration.

But it's fine for emulation and in fact anything I need to do or play. Although no good for graphically expensive games like Forza or Yakuza.

At the top is the Wi-Fi dongle based Retrobit Legacy 16

This grey SNES style control pad with added thumb sticks and two shoulder buttons on each side offers full compatibility with modern games.

But it uses low quality plastic and is very light with a mushy and imprecise feeling dpad. 

Input lag from a 2.4GHz signal is minimal at about 4-5ms but feels cheap in the hand.

3/5

Next down from the top is the Qanba Obsidian 8 button usb fight stick

This is big, but standard for a fight stick. Six buttons are replacements from Seimitsu in purple and grey.

A robust Sanwa micro-switched Japanese style (round joystick head) is easy for me to use in fighting and ship games.

This is the most reliable controller in terms of compatibility and being recognised with no problems. It’s USB only so there is no input lag.

No thumb sticks but you can set the stick to pretend to be an analogue stick for compatibility as well as auto fire options.

Features wire storage to help portability and a table clamp.

4.5/5

Next down is the Retrobit Mega Drive 6-button style bluetooth controller

Build quality is as good as an original controller and buttons and dpad action are as good as an original pad.

This is my preferred controller for most games, especially Sega games for the 3 button layout. It has the best input response from the wireless pads at around 3-4ms or about the same as the Legacy.

I would have maybe used the Retrobit WiFi version of this pad but there was a fault with some inputs so is sadly unusable. Also, I prefer a bluetooth controller because that free’s up a usb slot and that desk real-estate, without the fear of losing the dongle and the pad becoming derelict.

It features shoulder buttons for SNES and Saturn compatibility.

It needed opening to clean Fanta from the dpad and closing it again caused issues, as small pads of material are used for the shoulder, home and select buttons which can easily fall out of place.

Sadly, this model is no longer in production from Retrobit, but a second hand controller can be acquired cheaply.

There is a dongle available to enable connection to a real console, which I haven’t tested.

5/5

Gulikit Elves Switch style bluetooth controller

This pink controller is not ‘watermelon’ as advertised and appears in the promotional photography but is really more like the colour of a doll’s house and not the sophisticated and subtle pink-green shade I was hoping for. But the colour is ok.

The input lag is noticeably longer than the WiFi and Retrobit controllers at around 6-8ms but is still very responsive and good enough for most action games, providing the game itself does not present additional input lag in software, so it can be limiting to use in 2D games.

The Nintendo cross style dpad is serviceable with good snappy action but feels a bit imprecise with smooth plastic surface, which means fingers slide about a bit and I found up-right can be difficult without a concave shape, which makes it force a slightly different hand position that feels less natural as a result.

But the larger width allows me to reach the shoulder buttons more easily.

It has loads of neat features and works with Android, iOS X/D-input or Switch.

It has all the SNES buttons in the 4 button diamond configuration, precise thumbsticks in the Switch positions and double shoulder buttons on each side for full console support as well as Home and Function buttons.

The home button brings up Microsoft Game Bar in Windows 10 (if enabled in system settings).

The Function button, when pressed with other buttons allows settings to be changed such as auto-fire. The pad will rumble once, twice, then three times for two speeds, then back to normal. You can adjust the intensity of the rumble by pushing the left analogue stick. The lightest setting is strangely pleasing!

You can record up to 5 minutes of actions on your controller which could be used to cheat on games or record gameplay which can be shared in a file.

It has a gyroscope and accelerometer for Switch motion compatibility.

So the Gulikit turned out to be a great acquisition as the most compatible controller, but lacks the comfortable feel of the Retrobit Mega Drive 6-button pad.

4/5

Thoughts on wireless vs wired controllers

It was a bit of a learning curve to figure out how to pair up the bluetooth controllers as there was some confusion with the menus when pairing in the Windows interface. But when they were up and running, having no wires is a blessing with the limited desktop space available to me and only one USB port on each side of the laptop (for two in total) with the left port used by the fight stick.

Wired controllers are easier to install and connect than wireless controllers but the amount of time saved dealing with tangles and the amount of space saved, the trade-off of charging (which takes about half an hour from a direct mains connected output and needed about once a week) and the increased input lag is generally preferable to the limits of a physical bind to the (fragile) laptop, general posture and all the tangled mess of wires.

Retrobit 6-button, Gulikit Elves, Retrobit Legacy 16

Bluetooth connection tutorial

It took me a long time to figure out how to connect and test the controllers in windows 10.

A small tutorial will follow. The solution is first to pair with windows from settings>devices>bluetooth and other devices>add bluetooth or other device and then click the first option 'Bluetooth'.

I got confused and clicked 'Everything else' because it mentioned XBox controller with Wireless Adaptor. I just wanted "Bluetooth (Mice, keyboards, pens or audio and other kinds of Bluetooth devices)". Because "other" includes controllers.
The next step is knowing if your controller is detected by Windows and then testing it.

A usb controller will nearly always be detected instantly and will show up in Settings Bluetooth and other devices. It will show an icon for your controller with it's name and say Paired in light grey if it's been registered by the system by the 'pairing process' above or Connected if it's turned on and communicating with Windows. You can test it at this point with the dpad which should show a black bar around system menu items which move when the dpad is pressed. Not much use but a good way to test it's been detected.

The next step is to test the buttons and latency. Scroll down the bluetooth settings window to the Related Settings menu and click on Devices and printers. Then right click on the icon representing your controller and then Game Controller Settings from the popup context menu.

Here is where you can see a list of currently connected bluetooth devices. Click on your bluetooth controller and then click Properties.

Now you should have a window with a diagram of a controller and all the related buttons and x/y analogue stick locations and you can test your controller and see what the latency is from pressing the button to seeing the related button turn red in the diagram.

It's in this way that you can confirm your controller is working, which is something I found neccassary when emulating games on a computer.

Test program for Windows 10

Thought's on controller choices

I tend to use the fight stick for fighting and shooting games, but equally, the Mega Drive controller works, or if the game is an SNK title, a 4 button diamond configuration (a Nintendo or modern controller) is usually fine too.

There aren't many modern games in my game rotation, with most being 2D retro games and rarely needing the twin analogue sticks. But the Switch style controller fills this roll well enough if needed and no wires or dongles really helps as I tend to alternate between the Elves and 6 button controllers when the other needs charging.

The Qanba fight stick takes up alot of space so I would like to maybe get a Mega Drive or Dreamcast arcade/fight stick which are a bit smaller and lighter as the weight of the stick begins to make my legs ache after a few hours.

But the feel of a stick and physical sensation of the microswitches and use of a lever, combine for a more tactile and physical experience than a control pad and feels like a boon when you want to focus on a high score arcade game.

For controller's, I prefer Sega's strange black organic and alien designed controller that fits and accommodates the shape of the hand in a way other controller's don't, which makes using the 2D pad alot easier and facilitate overall greater control.

The 6 button pad can also use the diamond configuration with the first two of the upper row of 3 buttons, but generally, games tend to use at most 3 outside of the fighting genre.

I prefer the form and dimensions of the original Sega 3-button controller, which is larger and feels more substantial and a better fit than the other controller's in this list.

As for the Playstation's button dpad, I crafted a small disc, which I blue tacked to it so that my thumb could make them register without wearing out my hands, which have suffered damage in the past and can get stiff or painful in long sessions.

Wooden rocker for PSX controller

I haven't tried a modern Playstation control pad, as I'm referring to the Playstation control pad that was included with the Playstation Classic mini console, which is a faithful reproduction of the original PSX style control pad which I use with that mini console and connect to the TV, but haven't been playing lately as I still haven't changed the games.

So as popular as the wifi-dongle based controller's are, the space it takes up on my desk and use of a port is difficult in my situation and any problems I had charging and connecting, I eventually overcame.

Using a laptop on a coffee table comes with it's pitfalls such as wires. Which is why I chose a bluetooth and not wired or dongle controller.

But the trade off is latency versus the big joystick's weight. But a wireless controller often needs charging, so when using bluetooth, the usb connection is so loose that you must place the controller down, facing away to show the lights, which will indicate when it's fully charged and use a second substitute controller when you wait for your primary controller to charge.

So you need two wireless controllers or otherwise wait the 30 minutes it takes for a flat controller battery to fill up. Which is a minor inconvenience as the batteries I found to last up to a week with the amount I use them.

But they could run out their charge in under two days when used all day in a game which is slower paced and takes a long time.

Mega Drive and Sega controllers

So I'm a fan of Retrobit. Even though I bought a broken (new) wi-fi 6-button pad, I still rate their overall quality and faithful reproductions of Mega Drive and Sega controllers.

The Sega style of controller was dropped with the Dreamcast and more or less homogenising their designs, with the exception of the location of the thumb sticks and Nintendo's custom designs, although the Nintendo Pro Controller is remarkably similar to the XBox 360 controller and lacks the analogue triggers, so useful in driving games.

If I was to design a controller, it would have the form factor of the original Mega Drive 3-button control pad with additional thumbs sticks and/or a track-ball and possibly a screen, microphone and speakers like modern controllers have. Although these additional options do all come at a cost and are arguably superfluous.

So my minimal gaming setup is based on efficiency of hardware, software and physical space, primarily.

The kinds of game I play are mostly 16 and 32bit and 2D, without the need for good analogue sticks you get in a new and modern controller such as an XBox One controller.