Old joysticks / joypads

[RMA]

It's Christmas time in the office and we've been reminiscing about our first computers, games, peripherals and this one came up...Favourite controller of all time.

On consoles it has to be the old Saturn analogue pad that came with NiGHTS. Awesome.

The best controller of all time though...the name escapes me. It was available on Spectrum & C64. It was hand held and fit snugly into the palm of your left hand. The stick had a red ball on top. The colour on the base was red and black stripes. Need help with this one, guys!

Oh...and your thoughts on the best controllers of all time are also welcome!:p

[Spore]

http://www.syntaxerror.nu/joy003.jpg

This, the Command Control Famous Redball Joystick?

Or this?

http://www.syntaxerror.nu/joy051.jpg

Or this?

http://www.syntaxerror.nu/joy048.jpg

[neuzd]

WOOOOOAH!!!!!
The Speedking!
I had it, it was a time when microswitches were so frail!
In that C=64, Amiga period I probably bought (and broke...) the 80% of the total controllers I had and will ever have in my whole life.

Personally there's a manufacturer which had never let me down.
It's Saitek. The first memories I have of one of their controllers is the MX-130 Megastick III.
It was one of the first microswitch joysticks for PC that was reliable enough, in the mid 90's.
The latest one is a FF wheel, the R440 Force. A really economic wheel and pedals for PC. It was about 70000 lire (35 €) some years ago, when other wheels were around 150€ or more.

I never followed this company with particular interest, but I found myself feeling highly satisfied with several of their products.

[ZueriHB]

I stick with the Nintendo Controllers, I have some spare Logitech Gamepads for PC laying around, but since I got my Skillz Cube Connection, I use my GameCube or SNES-Refitted HORI-Controller for my gaming needs (Sadly it doesn't work in Vista, but Bluetooth gives me the excellent Classic Controller).

[SegaFan]

For 3D games, the Gamecube controller, for 2D games the Saturn 2D controller (second type).

[RMA]

YES SPORE! Great work, fella! It was the Speed King (though the name doesn't ring a bell). It was a 'Kempston' joystick I think.

Two thumbs up sir!

[alexknibb]

My favourite for the Amiga (which I used to own back in the day) was the Quickshot Python 1M. I must've gone through a hundred of those bad-boys. Too many times getting trounced at Speedball 2 and smashing the joystick down in frustration!

Having said that, though, my favourite controller of all time has to be the GameCube Wavebird. I loved the PS1/2 controller for ages (it's not a bad controller you know ;)) but the minute I got my hands on a GC controller I was sold. The extra increase in size over the PS equivalent made all the difference to someone like me with fairly big hands, and it's to this day the most comfortable controller I've ever used. :)

[theUndead_feature]

I think it's amazing my old NES gamepads are still working. As far as design goes, I'd have to say my favorite was the 6 button Sega Genesis controller. I could really tear up MK3 with that.