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Battle of the Gamepads
by Warren "Llama" Ernst for Gamers Today
OK, I'll admit it: I never understood gamepads. My old Atari 2600 had a pair of joysticks, and I just never looked back. However, I now freely admit that there's a whole range of games where both my snazzy optical mouse, and my flightstick/throttle/rudder pedal combination, just don't cut the mustard. Games like Galaga 3, Frogger, and Subspace (not to mention just about every fighting game out there) just cry out for gamepads, and after checking out three of the most popular models, I'm starting to see the light.
I recently tried out the Microsoft SideWinder Gamepad Pro, the Gravis Xterminator Digital GamePad Pro, and the Logitech Wingman Gamepad. Well, I went beyond trying them; I lived with them for a few weeks. I spent time programming each for my favorite games, worked around various incompatibilities and eccentricities, and even got a few blisters. Though I thought they would all be similar, in fact, each has definite strengths and weaknesses.
The most basic, "classic" gamepad tested is the Logitech unit. It fits your hand like a glove and offers a standard digital 8-way directional pad (usually called a "d-pad"), two triggers underneath, and 9 additional buttons on the top. The software lets you program any button (or direction on the d-pad) to reproduce any key on the keyboard, plus make any button a kind of "gamepad shift" button, doubling the programming options of any of the others. The software is exceptionally easy to program, and prints up gorgeous color button-assignments. It also works with both regular joystick ports and USB.
There are only a few downsides. First, I found the d-pad "up" direction gave me a blister far too easily, since the pad is more diamond-shaped than rounded. Secondly, the d-pad is a digital device; that is, it goes 100% up, down, left, and right, just like a set of arrow keys on a keyboard, and offers no proportional movement. And finally, the automatic programming routines sometimes got confused with certain games ñ more on that below.
The other side of the gamepad spectrum is the Gravis Xterminator, which has more bells and whistles than many flightsticks. The Xterminator offers both an analog and digital d- pad, an throttle slider, two proportional analog "flippers" to act as a rudder control, two triggers on the bottom, and 11 buttons on the top. I found the proportional d-pad heavenly, but the digital unit is convex rather than concave, so finger slippage was a problem.
The programming software is very complicated, but given all the flexibility of the controller, this is understandable. Like the Logitech gamepad, the Gravis software senses what game is loading, and switches the programming automatically. This nice feature can sometimes be fooled, however, so the programming doesn't always become active. A quick email to each company's tech support solved the problems, however.
Microsoft's Sidewinder Gamepad pro straddles the bridge between these two devices in that it has a single d-pad, but it can perform both analog and digital functions, depending on how it is programmed. It also has two triggers and 7 buttons on the top, but only the large button next to the d-pad can act as a shift button. Since the d-pad is perfectly round with soft corners, it is extremely comfortable even after hours of play.
The software is extremely simple to use to program each button, but you need to manually change the programming profiles yourself before you start a game. Though a tedious extra step, this system promises to never get confused by older or complex games, and proved very reliable.
In the end, it's hard to recommend a single gamepad as the best. The Gravis gamepad is flexible but complex; the Microsoft gamepad comfortable, but perhaps too simple; the Wingman gamepad elegant to program, but offering no proportional controls. In this case, buying a gamepad from a store with a good return policy, and evaluating which one is most likely to meet your needs, is perhaps the best bet.
