You can only have one controller. Will it be a Joystick or a Pad?

[Bill Loguidice]

While I love classic joystick controllers, the versatility of something like an Xbox 360/One/PS3/4 gamepad would be impossible to pass up in this insane hypothetical scenario.

[Nutsy Doodleheimer]

Gamepad without question. Fits in your hands better and more comfortable without any fatigue.

[Andromeda Stardust]

I voted joystick. But they need to be heavy duty, quality arcade parts. The stock 2600, 5200, and 7800 joysticks can shove it though. A Genny pad or converted NES-to-7800 is 1000x better than a crappy old CX-40 or Proline. The CX-78 Euro pad is also junk.

 

Also sadly gamepads are a must for modern systems with analogs or more than 6-8 buttons. True pot-based analog joystick might work well, but they're unobtainable and the modern fancy HAL sensors are incompatible with pad hacks.

 

Check my sig. I've built some freakishly big arcade controllers. One more thing to note, is that arcade joysticks/buttons use different muscle groups compared to gamepads. So it may take getting used to one control scheme or the other, but once you've made the adjustment, both methods are equally viable.

Edited April 27, 2015 by stardust4ever

[MaximRecoil]

Controller pad. Joysticks are superb on an arcade cab but in the hand.. not so much.

 

 

Basically what liveinabin said. If I have to pick one, I pick a pad. Joysticks are fine if you have a sturdy control deck or if you only need one button. Any other arrangement and joysticks get cumbersome in a hurry.

 

Exactly. The base of a handheld joystick shifts in your hand as you use it, because it is only supported by one hand, working against the leverage of working the joystick shaft, which is a lever. A gamepad is supported by both hands and working the D-pad doesn't apply any leverage to the base.

 

Joystick. Because they always put the d-pad on the wrong side.

 

They put the D-pad correct side, i.e., the side that the joystick is normally on in arcade machines.

 

Many early arcade games had buttons on both sides of a centrally located joystick so you could play left or right handed.

 

How many can you name? And of those that you can name, how many were major hits? The first "blockbuster" arcade game which used joystick control was Space Invaders, and its joystick (or two buttons in the case of the U.S. Midway upright cabinet) was on the left.

 

A few arcade exceptions included Joust and Defender where left/right or up/down movement was secondary to flapping or thrust/fire/smartbomb controls.

 

You have that backwards. Joysticks on the right in arcade games is the exception; I can't even think of one major arcade game that originally had its joystick on the right. Joysticks on the right are commonly referred to as "wrong-handed" in the arcade collecting community, and they generally only exist in bad conversions (which means the operator did it, not the manufacturer of the video game), and usually on the second-player side (due to an operator unwisely thinking it would look good to mirror the player 1 controls).

 

The typical arcade layouts are as follows:

 

1 joystick, no buttons: joystick in the center of the control panel

1 joystick, one button or more: joystick on the left, buttons on the right

2 joysticks, no buttons (e.g., Robotron, Smash T.V.): joystick for character movement is on the left, joystick for firing is on the right

1 trackball, no buttons: trackball in the center of the control panel

1 trackball, one button or more: trackball on the right, buttons on the left (trackballs require far more dexterity than a joystick; they are like using a mouse)

 

Some games, like Ikari Warriors, did have wired-in-parallel buttons on both sides of the joystick, but that was far from typical. The typical layout for joystick/buttons games has always been joystick on the left, buttons on the right.

Edited October 16, 2015 by MaximRecoil

[high voltage]

Gameoad. I never sae a joystick with 10 buttons.

 

The Atari 5200 joystick, the Interton VC 4000 joystick.

 

Anyway, joystick is far better, more precise control. I mean you wouldn't use a pad in a helicopter, would you.

So the wise people would use a joystick.

Edited October 16, 2015 by high voltage

[MaximRecoil]

I mean you wouldn't use a pad in a helicopter, would you.

So the wise people would use a joystick.

 

You wouldn't use a handheld joystick in a helicopter either. The "joystick" in a helicopter is securely mounted, which is a totally different thing.

 

From best to worst (IMO):

 

1. Arcade joystick securely mounted in the control panel of a ~300 lb. arcade machine

2. Arcade joystick mounted in a relatively heavy, large, stable box which you can set in your lap or on a table

3. Gamepad

4. Handheld joystick

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

You wouldn't use a handheld joystick in a helicopter either. The "joystick" in a helicopter is securely mounted, which is a totally different thing.

 

From best to worst (IMO):

 

1. Arcade joystick securely mounted in the control panel of a ~300 lb. arcade machine

2. Arcade joystick mounted in a relatively heavy, large, stable box which you can set in your lap or on a table

3. Gamepad

4. Handheld joystick

I like this list. Atari 2600 joysticks as well as most other pre-NES game controllers are rubbish, but if you take the time to actually install arcade parts into a real wooden enclosure, the experience can be very rewarding!

 

[tripletopper]

Joystick, but only if it's an Arcade style stick and buttons that was right-handed. I prefer it in most old games, and I can't seem to get the knack of subtle analog controls for shooters. Even when I try to make subtle changes in aim, I overshoot my mark. I prefer the "hold until there" approach of digital aiming. I was more accurate in shooters before the analog sticks. As for fighters, I beat a fairly famous gamer in Street Fighter thoroughly and consistently before he won the local Blockbuster Genesis tournament in 1993(4?) He later went on to be Cable TV's best all around gamer. In all fairness to him, he was using a pad when I beat him on my right handed joystick, before Joysticks were the rage, in the Genesis days, and I let my friends try and everyone using my ambidextrous stick said they liked it better than a pad for Street Fighter, even beating him, and we all thought the right handed setup was better for precisely, quickly and without any giveaways, entering dragon punches. Maybe that's a testament to the vitality of the right tools rather than my skills per se. I understand modern games might not work well with Joysticks, but you could make analog sticks with a thumb cross pad and 4 finger buttons on both a left and right stick, so you can access all buttons without reaching for the button portion of the pad. I call it the Table Pad. Thankfully there's no dictator decreeing all controllers are either sticks or pads.

 

Though it seems there's a dictator decreeing all controllers are left handed. The last major off-the-shelf stick that was ambidextrous and authorized by the system maker was the Beeshu Turbo Grafx 16 joystick controller, and before that the last first party controller that was right handed was the Master System joystick, though their pads were left handed, which had a problem keeping the left and right absolute, meaning the button you rapid fire in games where left and right aren't important is the middle finger button, not the index finger button, which is weird. In most games for the Master System the 2 and 1 should be swapped, but games like Tutankham where the concept of left and right fire are important, they should not be swapped, therefore there should be swappable buttons, like on the Xbox One, even if the game doesn't allow it. or make a 3 button "1-2-1" arrangement where button a is on both the left and right side of button B

 

I've got a design for a joystick I feel comfortable with. And I'm planning to use it with as many systems I own by having working joystick PCBs connected to the stick, and yes it's ambidextrous, with button and direction swappability. It can even play Track N Field / Activision Decathlon by making 2 buttons right and left and a third jump/throw, or Pac-Land by making left and right run buttons, and joystick up for jump. I can keep buttons relative to finger, like street fighter and most games, or absolute like in Tutankham and Pac-Land.

[Andromeda Stardust]

I grew up playing left-handed pads and arcade sticks. So I modeled my console joystick enclosures after the original game pads.

 

When I started collecting Atari in 2012, I built an Ambidextrous VCS joystick so I could use either hand, and have found I use my right hand on the stick more often, although games that use multiple buttons I continue to play with a left stick.

[LYNXGUY]

Joystick because I don't have the dexterity in my hands like I used to. . . . . . .

[Osgeld]

our ancestors used poorly designed tools made of stone

 

not cutting my effin steak with a rock, and I am not going to cramp my hand on some mushy joystick designed to be made for a nickle

[Video]

I'd say pad. So many pad games don't work well on a stick, or at all, while I've never seen a stick game I couldn't easily adapt to using a pad with.

[Andromeda Stardust]

I've played Tetris on a stick. Pad and stick can be equal input methods (different muscle groups), but choice relies on the type of game you are playing and if accidental diagonals are desirable.

[digdugnate]

if im thinking forward, it'd have to be a controller/pad- my hands just dont tolerate a joystick for more than 30 minute bursts of games.

[Inky]

Depends on which pad and stick

[Shawn]

Depends on which pad and stick

 

Whatever one you pick.

[phoenixdownita]

Depends on which pad and stick

<lewd conduct>

you can always stick it .... where the pad is .... ouch!!!

</lewd conduct>

[Inky]

I'll go with the Genesis Arcade Joystick, then.

[zylon]

What about paddles? I can't play Kaboom! without paddles.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-2-Gemini-Video-Game-System-Controllers-Pair/302758736103?hash=item467dd3b0e7%3Ag%3AFc4AAOSwT4ZbFG6S&_sacat=1249&_nkw=gemini+controller&_from=R40&rt=nc&_trksid=m570.l1313&LH_TitleDesc=0

[doctorclu]

Meh, for platformers, which is what I like to play, the pad is best.

 

Even on my 2600 I use a 7800 d-pad by Atari. Love it.

 

(Just remove that thumb stick and just use the D-Pad)

Edited August 13, 2018 by doctorclu

[Video]

People hate that pad, but I don't really understand that myself. I love it, and you can use the stick of pad. Yes, NOTHING is quite as accurate as Nintendo pads, but I know of many far worse, and that 7800 pro stick

[nadir]

Joystick for sure.  I hate, Hate, HATE gamepads.  So annoyingly small.  Even the ones with the little sticks, they just don't have enough resistance for my big hands.

[DragonGrafx-16]

I love the PC Engine controller to bits... but most of my consoles have more than two buttons so in that case I'd choose a 6 button arcade joystick with microswitches installed. 

[roadrunner]

Gamepad

 

[+GoldLeader]

As I voted, it's neck and neck!

 

Honestly it depends, because some days I like one and some days, the other...

 

I voted joystick though, and the one I have in mind is my Edladdin Custom ColecoVision/Atari 2600/7800 stick with one microswitched arcade style ball top, right in the middle with buttons on both sides so I can be right or left handed, (I prefer the joystick in my right hand a bit more often I'd say)...And I agree, it reminds me of old arcade games where the joystick was in the middle (My Frenzy machine pops into mind instantly)...