I was just wondering how many people actually use joypads/joysticks on their pc, and what kind of quality they are.
Basically I’m thinking about a control method that works great with an analog stick like most console controllers use. But using keyboard cursor keys is probably not responsive enough, and using the mouse would probably be too responsive, removing a lot of the challenge from the game…
Being a console gamer, I’ve had various gamepads for the PC.
Now I have one digital pad (4 directions, 8 buttons), one analog (2 analog, 10 buttons) and the last weekend transformed one of my pads in an arcade joystick 
The only PC games that I play with pads are driving games (need for speed, mc rae rally), all the others genres are better played with the mouse/keyboard combo. The principal use of the pads is emulation. (Try to play those NES platform games with keyboard 
)
Rafael
Being a console gamer, I’ve had various gamepads for the PC.
Same here
-A simple digital game pad
1 dpad 4 buttons (kinda noname duh)
-An analog stick of some kind
1 analog OR 1 dpad, 8 buttons or 6 and throttle (Saitek X6-33M it sucks!).
The whole construction is horrible… a total failure. If you have it and your shoulder buttons stopped working (they will)… open it and remove the springs.
-A controller with two analog sticks
2 analog sticks (pressable), dpad, 6 buttons, 2 shoulder buttons (Saitek P880 it rawks!). Image
This one is the best PC pad I’ve seen so far (tested about 15). The only thing wich isn’t perfect is the rather loud click noise of the shoulder buttons, despite that fact it’s the perfect input device. Btw there is also a rumble version of that thingy called P2500 (Image).
If you already own a PSX/PS2 it might be a good idea to get an usb adapter. After all the quality of console pads is still a bit higher.
I’ve just bought one of these:
http://www.play.com/play247.asp?page=title&r=PC&title=114167
Works with my PS1 pads wonderfully (at least on windows) and its so nice to have a real console gamepad available.
Kev
As flight-simmer, I have a M$ FF Pro stick. Theres also a MS gamepad somewhere on the shelf but I never used it. A wheel for racing games is very cool but only for real hardcore games, bc. it need quite a lot of space and setup time.
On PC, you cannot rely on anything else than kbd/mouse if you really want to reach a broad audience. So make sure your games can be controlled with these. Make stick support etc. optional (to the best without any configuration effort).
Forcefeedback BTW never got any importance, although it is a great opportunity to create immersion. But the device are rarely spread, sometimes poor (latency!) and the support by most games is bad. Even MS Flight, where I’d expected the best FF support ever, really sucks to that respect.
FF-wheels for car races, if done well, really rocks!
i have a whole bunch of thinsg you don’t list, but Ima controller freak.
One of my current favorties is an Nostromo N52 programmable game pad
