Is There Any Good USB Dual-Analog Controller With a Proper D-Pad?

[Cyber Akuma]

I originally went with an 8BitDo Ultimate 2C, it felt like it had it all and was perfect as an all-in-one controller for just about every console and arcade core for my MiStEr, except for some Genesis and Saturn games Dual-analog, hall effect sticks and analog triggers, and 1000hz polling rate. However, I noticed that the d-pad is not that great, I was having a hard time trying to do something like go straight in Contra without constantly pointing my gun diagonally up. So I am trying to see if I can find a USB controller that is basically like this but with a good d-pad. Honestly, if I can find a good one like that I would want a second to use on my PC for modern games too.

Does anybody have any good recommendations for something like that?

I was told that the GameSir Nova Lite is apparently the most well known rival to the Ultimate 2C and that it has a good d-pad, but I also heard other complain it has the same issue so I am not sure. A little bit of a bummer that it's triggers are not hall effect but the only system I know of with analog triggers anyway are Saturn games that supported the 3D pad, and apparently it has pretty bad latency (though that might be over wireless only?), I have heard that there is a wired-only version but I could not find it if that is true.

I have also been looking into the PowerA OPS V1, it seems to have all the features of the Ultimate 2C and even better latency, but I have no idea what the D-pad is like, it's also wireless only though you can apparently use it wired.

And then there is the EasySMX rabbit hole, the X05, 10, 15, and 20. Was a little hard to figure out the differences between them, and prices seem to sometimes vary a lot from the MSRP so I am not sure what pricepoint to even consider for these, and yet again I have no idea what the d-pad is like... doesn't seem easy to find information on the d-pad's usefulness for retro games for these modern controllers. The X20 really seems great from what I have read, but it also has a MSRP of $60, and seems to be sold out a lot.

Anyone have any opinions on these or suggestions for something else?

[Missus]

my suggestion is one you may not like or want, but i dont believe there is a holy grail that ticks every box.

perhaps when you play contra (and other games where you want a specific dpad feel), you use a controller you deem best suited for that, and when you need dual analog sticks again, you swap back?

but if you must have an all-in-one, a 'modern' controller with dual sticks and a nice (enough) dpad that comes to mind for me is the original xbox 's' controller. it still doesnt tick -all- the boxes, but again, no controller can or ever will.

[Alf]

Xbox One, best overall.
Good dpad.

Just make sure to buy wireless dongle so you can connect via wifi and get low lag. You don't want bluetooth on your joypads.

[grizzly]

Google translated this from a swedish forum i wrote and a quick look over to fix the most obvious f-ups.

Beitung Zeus2
Has the absolute best A/B/X/Y buttons I used, the LT/RT LIMIT function (so it becomes a trigger instead of analog) is as usual it will be type 25% left of the pressure and there is no feeling at all in the downpressure.

D-Pad very good, analogue does is not the absolute best but still good.
Have 6 extra buttons four on the underside = useless for me but it applies to all other controls with them too, just hate them.
2st is on the back between LT/RT and is quite useful for me and all 6 extra buttons are mechanical switches.

The accompanying program is OK, there are better and there is above all much worse.
It is needed to set the extra buttons, but you can save four profiles for the controller itself and they then work without PRG running/on another computer.
Has a big nice on/off which I think should be a minimum requirement for a wireless control (it can also be run with USB cable).

LEDs are extra many and extra strong they can be switched off or lowered to a fairly low level (yes it is true LED crap that can be switched off/low level practically unheard of).
Do not remember but i think it if the LED is off, the colors will twinkle when you change profile, one color per profile.
And this comes from someone who really hates that LED is everywhere and it is extremely rare they do any good and they are at 99,99999999999% of cases at least 10 times too strong!

Another is Flydigi vader 4 Pro (Flydigi = Xiaomi's game division, so no small crap company directly).
All buttons are mechanical even LT/RT when put in trigger fashion and also have a very short pressure (and it is mechanical switch even there), A/B/x/y is very good but Zeus2's buttons are a little better.
The analog levers are adjustable in resistance nice in racing to have a little higher resistance.
Adjustable resistance and LT/RT which has a short pressure/mechanical, this is one of the best controls for FPS games.

D-Pad slightly better than Zeus2, 6 extra buttons here too the four on the underside are useless for me 2 is under the abxy buttons.
They are useful but not quite as useful as the two between LT/RT on Zeus2.

The accompanying program is the OK, it is a little better on some things and a little worse on some other than Zeus2 PRG.
To turn off the controller, you have to hold down a small half-invisible half-hidden button in 5sec according to the manual but it is more like 6-7sec IRL.
It is not something you will do if you have to go to the toilet or a short break and when you do not do it then you will probably not get into it at all and probably never do it even when you are done with the game.
That is, they might as well have skipped it!

LED´s a little less of them here and smaller surface a little stronger at the lowest and in my opinion just above the limit to be ok.
But they can be switched off here as well.

Next is Bigbig Won Blitz.
LT/RT is not analogue just triggers and the four LT/RT/LB/RB has quite a large distance to push down which I do not like but they can be used though.
D-pad a little worse than the two upper mainly that it is a little too easy to push down for my taste but has good feeling in general.
Two extra buttons on the underside that are unusable for me, two between LT/RT which are useful but not quite as good as Zeus2 as they are a little too low vs Zeus2 buttons.

Can't remember how the program or LED was but think that LED was able to turn off.

[Cyber Akuma]

my suggestion is one you may not like or want, but i dont believe there is a holy grail that ticks every box.

perhaps when you play contra (and other games where you want a specific dpad feel), you use a controller you deem best suited for that, and when you need dual analog sticks again, you swap back?

but if you must have an all-in-one, a 'modern' controller with dual sticks and a nice (enough) dpad that comes to mind for me is the original xbox 's' controller. it still doesnt tick -all- the boxes, but again, no controller can or ever will.

I was hoping for a controller that is still being sold, and the original Xbox controllers only had one set of shoulder buttons so that would be a little annoying, they had those black and white buttons in their place.

I actually was using a wired Xbox360 controller for the longest time, but eventually replaced it with that 8BitDo controller I mentioned since after 12-ish years of use the sticks started drifting pretty badly and the shoulder buttons broke, by the time I wanted to replace it they no longer sold 360 controllers anymore unless I wanted to buy one used or pay scalper prices.

Xbox One, best overall.
Good dpad.

Just make sure to buy wireless dongle so you can connect via wifi and get low lag. You don't want bluetooth on your joypads.

Is the D-Pad on that one good? Also, can you just use it as a wired controller or do you have to use wireless?

I was considering those, but on top of the price, I am worried it will just start drifting again since for some reason despite official 1st party console controllers costing $50-80 these days they still use potentiometer based analog sticks instead of hall effect that now even sub-$25 3rd party controllers have in them. Also IIRC they have a low polling rate too. It's weird how the 1st party controllers now feel so behind in terms of that.

[dougan78]

I remember when I would play games with the 360 controllers. What a terrible d-pad the 360 controllers had i could never go left or right it always did diagnals. I was on this quest after those. For me the Xbox Wireless Controller + USB-C® Cable are the way to fly. I got mine on sale for 30 a piece. Good luck!

[Bristles]

Everyone is going to have their own preference. For example, I hate staggered analogue sticks, I prefer mine aligned, like all the Playstation pads, so my advice will always be a PS5 Dualsense. But for wired, and a good pad for nearly all the 8-bit/16-bit consoles is the 8Bitdo SN30 Pro USB,

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07V2P79Z2?th=1

A D-Pad that feels close to the old NES controllers, and the pad feels good, very SNES-like. Latency is listed as "01-05ms (Platinum)", according to the Google docs page, here,
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... id=0#gid=0

It is a small pad, so not to everyone's taste. You might end up having to try a few pads to get what you want.

[LamerDeluxe]

Xbox One, best overall.
Good dpad.

Just make sure to buy wireless dongle so you can connect via wifi and get low lag. You don't want bluetooth on your joypads.

Agreed. I never had an XBox, only Playstations, but that dpad is really nice. It is a pretty solid controller in general.

[Alf]

Is the D-Pad on that one good? Also, can you just use it as a wired controller or do you have to use wireless?

The Xone dpad is really good. For reference, I think the Genesis dpad is the best out there (never tried Saturn), the Gamecube had the best button layout and the Playstation forces your left thumb into an awkward position because the left analog stick is so low.

With Xone's dpad you get no accidental diagonals, the central pivot is perfect, it has just the right clicky to mushy ratio, it has a nice smooth finish, is very subtly rounded so it doesn't cut your fingers and is positioned perfectly. If you have big hands you may find it to be on the small side, but for me it's perfect.
Overall the buttons on Xone pad are great and the design is incredibly ergonomic and nice to look at. Feels good in hands and the grip texture is perfect. The weight is just right as it doesn't feel like light cheap plastic but at the same time doesn't tire your hands.

It supports xinput, so you can use it on your PC. Also, I love the fact that it uses AA batteries which last a lot longer than any built-in battery packs. You simply buy rechargeable batteries and are good to go. Unfortunately you can't recharge them while inside the joypad but that is really a minor complaint.

The wifi dongle is a cherry on top as you get really low input lag and you can connect multiple pads to the same dongle.
And of course you can use it wired.

I was considering those, but on top of the price, I am worried it will just start drifting again since for some reason despite official 1st party console controllers costing $50-80 these days they still use potentiometer based analog sticks instead of hall effect that now even sub-$25 3rd party controllers have in them. Also IIRC they have a low polling rate too. It's weird how the 1st party controllers now feel so behind in terms of that.

I think the price is what you typically pay for a good joypad nowadays.
I've used them for some time now and had a slight drift on one of them. But it wasn't even that old so maybe a faulty unit to begin with.

As for the polling rate, you get no benefits in 60fps games and some joypads with a high polling rate can still have bad input lag, those two things are not the same. Higher polling rate also drains the battery faster. I haven't done any testing, but I'm very sensitive to lag (I play fighting games on an arcade stick) and find the responsiveness to be really good.
Would have to try the SNAC thingy to make a comparison but I don't think you will have any problems with input lag on this joypad, provided you don't connect over bluetooth.

[grizzly]

I think the Genesis dpad is the best out there

You do know that the Genesis controllers have many different "D-Pads"?
Some have the "normal" d-pad pressing down on rubber dome/PCB contacts on the top and then uses a couple of different pivoting systems, some good some less good.
And then two or three different ones (they feel very similar tough) where the dpad goes trough the PCB and has the rubber dome/PCB contacts on the bottom, and this have a VERY different feel to the more normal ones.

So without saying WHAT D-Pad is in that controller it don't really tell anything since the feeling is very far apart for some .
Some really like the "normal" D-pad system and hate the trough the PCB system, and others think the opposite.

I prefer the trough the PCB way but also thinks the normal way is ok but have only had "normal" ones that use what is considered the best pivoting system.

[Alf]

I did not know that but now I do

A bit off topic, I was about to pull the trigger on the Modretro Chromatic on eBay (since US Gamestop doesn't ship worldwide) when I saw reports that the dpad doesn't even have the central pivot and you can actually press all 4 directions at the same time.
Palmer Luckey did respond and was explaining how that was a design choice because of something something Tetris players. Really too bad since the Chromatic looks to be a superb piece of technology on all fronts. But then you have videos where the player presses left and right at the same time in Link's Awakening which creates never before seen visual glitches. And then people who already bought the device start drinking heavy copium and are hype over a software update that would erase multiple direction presses.

So...yeah. Maybe a dpad with a good pivot that prevents accidental diagonals, let alone pressing opposing directions, is already a superior dpad in this day and age

[Cyber Akuma]

Design choice because of Tetris players? Wouldn't Tetris players want to avoid accidental diagonals as much as possible?

[thorr]

I only use original NES controllers when playing NES games. No other D-pad measures up in my opinion.

[limi]

This is another option:

(I have no skin in this game since I prefer joysticks over gamepads, but wanted to pass it along)

[neogeo81]

8BitDo Pro2. Any other advice is BS.

[Alf]

8BitDo Pro2. Any other advice is BS.

How much lag over bluetooth?

[neogeo81]

8BitDo Pro2. Any other advice is BS.

How much lag over bluetooth?

18ms

[Alf]

Just checked Gamepadla numbers.
They say 8BitDo Pro2 has 13.21ms over cable, 19.63ms over bluetooth and 17.2ms over dongle.
Also according to them, the Xone has 5.54ms over cable, 10.23ms over bluetooth and 5.94ms over dongle.

So saying "any other advice is BS" is...well, BS

[grizzly]

Not a dual analog pad but probably a very good gamepad for all non analog systems/games!
D6 dreamcast controller from retrofigheters.
https://retrofighters.com/our-collectio ... ontroller/
Sold out for now but will be buying one or two when they get back in stock.