ScuzzBlog: Diaries November 2019
Entry 10th November 2019: Post 01: Amiga Gamepad - SG or Competition PRO.
Amiga Gamepad - SG or Competition PRO.
There is no doubt in my mind that the PlayStation controller is
the best design for any gamepad. It is light, easy to use in one
hand when needed. Has excellent thumbstick movement and shock plus
the basic four button symbols just make multi bashing so easy. If
you play games like Bayonetta where combo button play is essential
and you have to learn these processes like Morse Code on heat then
man it really helps having a controller where you have to move
the fingers and thumbs the least distance to get the most instant
and speedy response. The curve to the rear is just so well shaped
to take support from your hands and the trigger buttons are sited
so perfectly.The success of the PS gamepad was its weight. The
only downside is the SELECT and START buttons which could have been
better located on the underside of the unit. Man I hate the reach
I need and the tiny buttons I have to press for those functions.
I hated joysticks I always did. The only joy I ever got from a
joystick was swinging the thing round my head by its lead and then
smacking it into the wall to smash it into a hundred bits. When
you are in the heat of battle and get the old metal tang failure
and am unable to go in a certain direction, then the joystick
just gets smacked. I have a graveyard of so many Quickshots from
my Sensi era.
So when the CD32 controllers became available for the 1200 I just
said goodbye to the joysticks forever. And they just got better.
The early ones were fine but a little restrictive. The best of
the best just had to be the Competition PRO which transformed my
Amiga gaming experience. And then it got better still when I got
my hands on a SG PRO which was a third party Sega Megadrive pad
that for some reason works on the Amiga 1200. I never looked back
when I got this gamepad, its just classic.
Today I play with nothing else. I do use joysticks when I am doing
retro photo shoots of Amigas. My favourite is the grey/red that
looks very much like the one used with the Games System. But I
would never want to live with a joystick for more than a few minutes.
Even my 500s have the little black gamepad that does the job. I am
pretty certain that if the Gamepad had been adopted in the first
years of computer gaming, nobody would have ever even thought of
designing a joystick.
Here are a few shots of the SG Pro and Competition PRO. Don't ask
how the SG works on the Amiga, I wouldn't know. Maybe they designed
it to work on an Amiga. All I know is that it does.
Amiga Gamepad - SG or Competition PRO.
|
