Six-button controller with special criteria - does it exist?

[nathanddrews]

It's a long story so for the sake of argument, believe that I have a lot of good reasons for wanting what I want. Basically I want a good quality controller that is just like a Playstation/Xbox controller, but has six face buttons instead of four. "Face" buttons being XYAB.

I bought one of these to test, but it has two main problems that prevent me from using it:
1. The buttons are too close together and press too deep, so you end up pressing two at once.
2. The two extra buttons on the face require disabling two of the trigger buttons unless you activate a special hardware mode.

The button layout and feel of the old Sega Genesis six-button controller was perfect (ABC/XYZ), but that controller lacks dual analog and triggers/bumpers.

EDIT: I found a pretty good one!

 

[Stringjam]

Have you looked at the Hori Pad EX2?

Seems like what you described....but the price is kind of ridiculous.

https://www.amazon.com/Hori-Pad-Ex2...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=5YR55HNV4NK838ZZ52BS

 

[cmdrdredd]

It will be hard to find a good example of what you described. Most controllers are made to mimic the console it comes from and 3rd party options are usually pretty cheap and not worth it. The best examples are fighting pads but they don't have analog sticks.

 

[nathanddrews]

It will be hard to find a good example of what you described. Most controllers are made to mimic the console it comes from and 3rd party options are usually pretty cheap and not worth it. The best examples are fighting pads but they don't have analog sticks.

Have you looked at the Hori Pad EX2? Seems like what you described....but the price is kind of ridiculous.

Wow, that is expensive, but it looks like there are many other similar models available. At the very least that gives me a lot of potential leads to investigate. It's definitely a challenge to find something that works, but in my searches for a "perfect" single controller to play games across many generations, this is close. Of course, finding one with quality construction is a task in itself.

 

[nathanddrews]

Hmm, this one looks promising - made by iBuffalo, the same group that makes the sweet SNES USB replica - but might be too small judging by the reviews. $21 experiment.

http://a.co/ihyB0wD

 

[werepossum]

Dude, your domain registration expired.

 

[Ichinisan]

N64 Adaptoid is great for fighters like Killer Instinct 1/2 (arcade emulated).

I've got 3 of them from the original Wishtech days.

 

[nathanddrews]

N64 Adaptoid is great for fighters like Killer Instinct 1/2 (arcade emulated).
I've got 3 of them from the original Wishtech days.

The Adaptoid is (was) awesome. I have four of them that I bought a long time ago (Windows XP+PJ64 era), but I can't get them to work in W7/W10 (no drivers) with Retroarch (won't recognize all buttons). Slightly OT, I was able to get a serial port N64 memory card reader to work and dump all my real N64 game saves and convert them into emulator-compatible saves. All of my CAW from Wrestlemania 2000 and No Mercy are forever safe.

My iBUFFALO controller (posted above) arrives today or tomorrow so I'll report back my findings for anyone interested.

 

[Ichinisan]

The Adaptoid is (was) awesome. I have four of them that I bought a long time ago (Windows XP+PJ64 era), but I can't get them to work in W7/W10 (no drivers) with Retroarch (won't recognize all buttons). Slightly OT, I was able to get a serial port N64 memory card reader to work and dump all my real N64 game saves and convert them into emulator-compatible saves. All of my CAW from Wrestlemania 2000 and No Mercy are forever safe.

My iBUFFALO controller (posted above) arrives today or tomorrow so I'll report back my findings for anyone interested.

It has been a while since I tried to use one of my Adaptoids, but at least the basic functions (standard USB HID game controller) should work with Windows 10. Even in USB HID mode, you can do certain button combinations to switch functions of the D-pad and control stick.

Too bad the guy never made 64-bit drivers. So the special functions and direct-access API for emulators currently can't work for 64-bit systems. Maybe someone can make a wrapper of sorts to encapsulate the 32-bit Win9x driver and make those features available to newer emulators. My brother corresponded with the creator on Usenet before the Adaptoid was made and probably influenced some of the features it had. I think the guy's name was David. I remember looking him up on LinkedIn and seeing that he went on to work for Logitech. Makes sense...

 

[sweenish]

Yea I know, I don't need that domain anymore. Thx.

But you do still need it in your signature.

 

[werepossum]

I ordered a PlayStation 3 Move controller. We will see if I can work it sufficiently - not to mention swap hands for functions I've been using almost three decades.

 

[nathanddrews]

Hmm, this one looks promising - made by iBuffalo, the same group that makes the sweet SNES USB replica - but might be too small judging by the reviews. $21 experiment.
http://a.co/ihyB0wD

Just arrived. So far, it's pretty damn great. I'll post a review and video or something later.

 

[nathanddrews]

As promised, here's my attempt at a video review:

 

[Ichinisan]

Found my third Adaptoid

 

[werepossum]

As promised, here's my attempt at a video review:

So was your intent to use any controller with old games using an emulator, to play all games using a controller, to play with a controller with more buttons, or what? Do you dislike the XBox controller or does it not work with your older games?

I'm considering going back to the mouse for accuracy.

 

[nathanddrews]

So was your intent to use any controller with old games using an emulator, to play all games using a controller, to play with a controller with more buttons, or what? Do you dislike the XBox controller or does it not work with your older games?

I'm considering going back to the mouse for accuracy.

I wanted a single controller that could adequately replicate all old console controllers with buttons in similar locations to original:

NES
SNES
N64
Genesis
Saturn
PSX/2
Dreamcast
Gamecube
Wii
Misc. arcade games

So far, I'm still pleased with it.

 

[werepossum]

I wanted a single controller that could adequately replicate all old console controllers with buttons in similar locations to original:

NES
SNES
N64
Genesis
Saturn
PSX/2
Dreamcast
Gamecube
Wii
Misc. arcade games

So far, I'm still pleased with it.

Ah. I've never owned any consoles since the original Atari 2600 and original Pong, so using a controller is alien to me. I can see though how advantageous it would be to have one common controller; that's pretty smart.

 

[nathanddrews]

Ah. I've never owned any consoles since the original Atari 2600 and original Pong, so using a controller is alien to me. I can see though how advantageous it would be to have one common controller; that's pretty smart.

Thanks for the compliment, but if I were really smart, I would just assimilate all gameplay controls to the Xbox controller and be done with it instead of chasing after such an elusive product.