I got my Mist last month, and I'm still in awe. Hooked it up to a Trinitron crt vga 30khz monitor. I've set up three different sd-cards with different cores; ST, Ami and Mac. These cores are rock solid!
I'm selling off my Amiga 600 now, it is simply not worth the hassle, after I got the Mist. (Keeping my real Mac and my Atari ST's though.)
What I like about the machine, is that it comes as a finished box. No endless add-ons like the MistER. The product is done and fully contained. Lovely case, lovely build quality.
I don't recommend using the Mist with a CRT TV in 480i 15khz, as some cores lose picture sync when direction 'left' on classic joysticks is used. Also, you need to get a Mist compatible vg2scart cable with resistors installed in the cable, as some pins are too high voltage and could fry your expensive PVM. (Theoretically.)
As for joysticks.
- For USB I only got the original Xbox 360 wired controller to work. I tried 7 others USB-joypads without luck.
- 8bitdo 2.4ghz genesis replicas through the classic joystick connector is a no go as well.
- Sega Mega Drive pads work fine in the right port.
- Classic Amiga mice works fine, but I ended up just using an usb mouse.
I highly recommend getting a Mist, especially if your main thing is classic micro computers. In fact, I'm relieved that I didn't purchase the MistER instead! As others have said, I feel a resurgence on the horizon.
The general stagnation of core development and maintenance suffers equally on both Mist and MistER. But what's there is really good.