Are these sanwa pads any good

Herr Schatten · Post by **Herr Schatten** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 10:58 am

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-1i- ... 0-t8a.html

They sure do look sexy. Has anyone ever tried them?

SuperGrafx · Post by **SuperGrafx** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 6:24 am

I'd be interested to hear more about these too.
Not overly expensive, so maybe I'll just bite the bullet and buy one.

Frederik · Post by **Frederik** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 7:21 pm

Okay, I don`t know them either, but they look remarkably similar to the original Famicom controllers, especially with the cord coming out of the side instead of the upper side (and the second row of buttons which were turbo buttons back then).

Hey, I am no tech nerd, I have this all from this console history book "Spielkonsolen und Heimcomputer" by Gameplan (which everyone should own!).

The best pad so far for me is the Saturn lookalike for the Playstation from Lik-Sang (and Play-Asia should have them too). Seems like you could use this Sanwa one mostly for PCE or Famicom Emulation. Which games do you want to play with that? I personally think the cross shaped d-pad is better suited for Jump-N-Runs, as a circle shaped one like the saturn pad makes it much easier to pull of smooth motion in shmups.

But please let us know if you got them and tried them! Hell, theres so much talk about sticks, its time to talk about all those gamepads too!

I know that Hori produces PS2 Pad with proper cross shaped d-pads, you might want to check those out too.

Tychom · Post by **Tychom** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 10:53 pm

I believe the whole intention is to mimic the famicom pad for emu purposes. hence the "classic" designation.

FWIW I don't believe Sanwa (the stick makers) have anything to do with Sanwa Supply. I've no idea what Supplyare like but they look like simple mass-market averageness.

Frederik · Post by **Frederik** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 11:57 am

So in conclusion, unless you´re having tears in your eyes from childhood memories playing with a Famicom (if you grew up in japan by any chance), I would strongly vote for that Saturn pads for either PS2 or USB (I have a PS2 one but ended up using it for MAME most of the time, plugged into a cheap pps2-usb converter, since my TV is rubbish and my PS2 shmups are collecting dust) - if you don`t already have one.

The Saturn ps2 pad is THE SINGLE BEST CONTROLLER I EVER LAID MY HANDS ON, even beating the classic SNES controller for me. Supersweet nice clicky soft dpad, nice buttons, really a lightweight, and the best design for a controller EVER (unless you think the New Beetle and the iPod are the pinnacle of design). I have one in black and the nice one looks so sweet I have to be very hard to myself not to order a second one. Still this is not answering your initial question but the journey for a good controller for shmups ends with the Saturn pad.

Damocles · Post by **Damocles** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 2:47 pm

Another vote for the Saturn-style pad. It takes a little while to get used to the small size (unless you're used to the Saturn pad), but works like a charm. As for the Famicom...well...I'm not sure how the original compares to the NES pads, but if they're similiar, they're not as wonderful as you remember. I built a parallel port adaptor for my NES and SNES pads, and found that unless you're playing NES or SNES games, the d-pad is pretty useless.

mannerbot · Post by **mannerbot** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 5:29 pm

Yes, why would anyone think that an NES-style controller is going to be comfortable? Just get a Saturn pad.

Pretty sure that the USB Saturn pad came out stinky, unfortunately.

bigbadboaz · Post by **bigbadboaz** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 9:52 pm

The original Saturn pads are still the best... the D-Pad has a firmer touch and more precisely defined directions than the reissues. For the absolute best solution I recommend the 3-in-1 PC Joybox and a genuine Saturn pad.

KBZ · Post by **KBZ** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 2:20 am

bigbadboaz wrote:The original Saturn pads are still the best... the D-Pad has a firmer touch and more precisely defined directions than the reissues. For the absolute best solution I recommend the 3-in-1 PC Joybox and a genuine Saturn pad.

ditto, that's what I use and it talks the talk

elvis · Post by **elvis** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 2:29 am

Damocles wrote:Another vote for the Saturn-style pad. It takes a little while to get used to the small size (unless you're used to the Saturn pad)

I hate huge gamepads. XBox and original MegaDrive/Genesis are two of the worst in history.

NES, SNES, MS, Genesis/MD 6-button are all a decent size. The smaller the better in my opinion. I don't want to feel like I'm holding a goddamn giant taco.