joypad durability

Balfa

I've had two Dualshock 2s in about a year and a quarter. The first one's left analogue stick deadzone is messed up so it keeps wavering between centered and slightly right when i'm not touching it. The second one just lost a spring for R2 (which I only use in one of the games I regularly play). What's the deal? My Gamecube controller is two and a half years old and still looks, feels and plays like brand new, and it gets at least as much attention as the PS2

Blah... half a year is a bit pathetic for a controller lifespan. Now I have to go and reward sony for their crap controllers by buying a brand new dualshock 2 off them (well i'm not gonna touch a 3rd party joypad, am i!). Bloody annoying.

Laguna

Yep, I agree, DualShocks fall apart in your hands. The wires on mine became frayed after about two months and then the buttons followed suit about four months after that. My original NES controller still looks brand new in comparison...

steviec

Hmmm I have a perfectly working 6 year old dual shock, and a second perfectly working 5 year old dual shock which was replaced last year along with the console though it didn't really need to be. I even have a perfectly working PS1 pad here that I still use for multitap games that don't require analogue, no idea how old that would be. I do have one broken dual shock which only lasted a couple of years, what happens when you let a 10 year old brother and friends have full access...

exzantia

Dito, my DualShock is still going grand despite almost being 6 years old. Both my PS1 contollers are in perfect order too, despite me not being particularly kind to any of them.

Perhaps I don't use mine as a tow rope... *shrugs*

Laguna

exzantia wrote:

Perhaps I don't use mine as a tow rope... *shrugs*

Neither do I, I tend to just use them to control games.

madrab

mine is mostly perfect, 6 years old but has a slight tendency to pretend that is isnt connected but that just requires a quick fiddle with the wires to fix

Balfa

exzantia wrote:

Dito, my DualShock is still going grand despite almost being 6 years old. Both my PS1 contollers are in perfect order too, despite me not being particularly kind to any of them.

Perhaps I don't use mine as a tow rope... *shrugs*

Or maybe I play games 15 hours a day and you play 1 hour a week. We all have different styles of play, and some might give a pad more punishment than others. Which makes statements like "my really old dualshock still works great" less useful unless qualified by a statement like "whereas my other controller for another system has been destructed by me playing the same way with the same frequency and it's only N years old".

I have two GC pads (2.5 and 2 years old, respectively) that are indistinguishable from new ones (except for a little grime in the screw holes on the bottom).

KdjaCL

I actually twisted one into smashing in 2 (RAR im strong) whilst flying in GTA SA.

They are slightly less flimsy than 3rd party ones, but they are useful when used withs USB convertter.


kdjac

Beekay

Mine only ever break after they have been smashed onto the floor.
But usually its only an R2 or L2 button out of place.
So i open it up and fix it.

You should try fixing it yourself,it's not that hard

Balfa

Beekay wrote:

You should try fixing it yourself,it's not that hard

I'm definitely going to give it a try with the R2 spring that's rattling about inside, but I doubt there's much I can do about that wobbly deadzone

bennyc

If you dont like button bashing dont get King Kong I finished the game but my XBox Controller was crying after it. its one of those keep pressing the green button to pull open the mouth of the t rex and there are plenty of them.

Beekay

Balfa wrote:

I'm definitely going to give it a try with the R2 spring that's rattling about inside, but I doubt there's much I can do about that wobbly deadzone

You can keep the one with the wobbly deadzone for spare bits

Roar

Balfa wrote:

Or maybe I play games 15 hours a day and you play 1 hour a week.

whoa.. thats hardcore :eek: if i play pro evo for 3 hours i feel guilty, imagine 15! get out more lad! lol

anyway agree completley about the gamecube pads, they're absolutely magic.. i've had the same dualshock 2 for the past 5 years and no complaints whatsover, i think a lot of problems come from wrapping your wire around the controller when you;ve finished your session, i just leave mine behind my hi fi without wrapping it, that way the wiring doesnt get all messed up..

Jazzy

I actually cant use PS2 pads for 2D fighting games such as SF2 and such.
The way i hold the pad for these games means that my whole left thumb and index finger start straining and hurting after more then about 4 street fighter 2 rounds and my hand wont feel normal again for a good while and if i continue playing I have to pause every 15 seconds cos of the pain.

I only make a slight adjustment in the way i would hold the pad for other PS games and this happens (i make the adjustment as I slide my thumb for the different special moves, imagine holding it like a SNES pad but still holding the handle thingy aswell) it is INCREDIBLY annoying and i still re-iterate that out of all the consoles since the NES, the PS has had the worst control pads. They got lazy with the PS2 and didnt update them so they could be more user friendly (i think?). Its just annoying when i have to use them. MS seem to have gotten a bit lazy with their 360 pad. Take an S controller, add Dual Shock-esque style shoulder buttons instead of the black and white buttons, make wireless, release. so basically u mixed a wavebird, dual shock and S controller? clap clap. did it not occur to MS that some ppl liked the original big control pad cos it essential had 6 easy to reach "face" buttons? the S control pads black and white buttons just seemed to be an after thought when they finished it... hence moving them to the top of the 360 pad as alternative shoulder buttons. Nintendo seem to be the only ones concerned with how ppl play games, i.e.- the pad. so they tend to put a bit more thought into them (from what i can gather).
Tried to buy a Pad for the PC recently? 99% of them are basically dual shocks for the PC, logitech seem lazy too
The best control pad i have ever used is still to thius day the Gravis Xterminator circa 1998(ish). had everything. 6 face buttons, throttle, HAT, Start button, 2 more random buttons at the top, shoulder triggers, D-pad, Analogue and it was Comfortable.
Freespace 2 and Mechwarrior 3 were a dream to play with this. I was unstoppable with this in my hand on MSN Zone, so much so that all my mates who played mech 3 bought it too

oh well, rant over

Jazzy

tits, double post

KdjaCL

R2 is easy to fix the deadzone isnt hard either when you take it apart clean the ball the Analog stick is on and make sure the spring is clean, its usually just chaff from the pad that causes it.


kdjac

Stompbox

Beekay wrote:

Mine only ever break after they have been smashed onto the floor.
But usually its only an R2 or L2 button out of place.
So i open it up and fix it.

You should try fixing it yourself,it's not that hard

Thats what happened me too.

exzantia

Balfa wrote:

Or maybe I play games 15 hours a day and you play 1 hour a week. We all have different styles of play, and some might give a pad more punishment than others. Which makes statements like "my really old dualshock still works great" less useful unless qualified by a statement like "whereas my other controller for another system has been destructed by me playing the same way with the same frequency and it's only N years old".

I have two GC pads (2.5 and 2 years old, respectively) that are indistinguishable from new ones (except for a little grime in the screw holes on the bottom).

Oh for god sake, fine then, if it helps I don't use the controllers for one hour a week, if I did then it would be a waste of my time and effort posting in here... my controllers have gotten tonnes of use and only other system that I own is a second hand GC, the controller on it is fine too.

I don't even particularly care that yours fell apart, boo hiss, my point was that Sony DO make good quality controllers. The number of faulty controllers they have made is extremely low when compared with the number of units shiped.

projectmayhem

i have my original ps2 dualshock working like it's brand new to this day, same as my xbox and gc controllers.

in fact, i only ever had a problem with 1 ps1 controller, but that was mainly down to me standing on it...

Peteee

Still have all my controllers for the PS2 and PS1's.

Never broken a joypad.

Balfa

exzantia wrote:

Oh for god sake, fine then, if it helps I don't use the controllers for one hour a week, if I did then it would be a waste of my time and effort posting in here... my controllers have gotten tonnes of use and only other system that I own is a second hand GC, the controller on it is fine too.

I don't even particularly care that yours fell apart, boo hiss, my point was that Sony DO make good quality controllers. The number of faulty controllers they have made is extremely low when compared with the number of units shiped.

There's no need to take such an aggressive stance in your posts. If you don't care about this topic, please don't waste your time posting in it. And if you would like to make statements like that in your last sentence, they will hold more sway if you back them up with references.

Crucifix

My PS1 dual shock broke (the x button was continiously pressed, one day I started up FF8 and it loaded up my game automatically:D ), but my PS2 one has been fine.

madrab

i remember my old c64 joystick would break religously ever month or so, i think i had to buy 6 or 7 replacment sensors/limit switchs for it

AnCapaillMor

Gone through at least 6 in the past 3-4 years. Mainly due to PES3 and the stupid handball fouls. I snapped a joypad in 2 once which impressed me(well i kind of cracked it the week before).