That Time I Bought [ Crappy ] PC Gamepads

So I watched a video by @rerez called "Worst SNES Classic Ever 2." By the way that video made me feel grateful for what the major gaming company manage to give their consumers. That console is utterly unplayable!

Anyway, when the reviewer started talking about the Gamepad and how they're the worst. I reminded that I bought Gamepads that were very similar and have most of the same problems as these, back in the day. It was more than 10 (probably 15 or more) years ago and I didn't know any better, but I find it a fun topic to talk about now.

As a teenager I had almost no budget for gaming. I was playing too much but most of that was with PS1 disks (which were cheap in my country,) and later with Emulation. It was a common thing in our early 2000s culture to have a minimal (if at all) budget for entertainment. (Well, we bought a game console so maybe what I said isn't entirely true.)

So, when I decide to buy a Controller for PC to play emulated games with, I don't even think of getting a high-end controller. (I don't even remember which controllers were the thing before Xbox 360 controllers for PC came out.) There was electronics shop 10 minutes drive from home that had cheap controllers for sale. The Gamepads I bought from there were inexpensive, but they were also of cheap quality.

These controllers are still selling in Alibaba

I would call those PS2 Controllers for PC. (In Libyan Arabic "يد بليستيشن متع كمبيوتر" which roughly translate to "Playstation Hand for Computer.") And they were serviceable, but had many problems... The plastic is cheap. buttons don't have the best feel, and may stuck when button mashing, and the directional buttons sometimes take the wrong input (which luckily didn't happen often.)

Despite their bad quality, I enjoyed playing games with them. I still vivdely remember Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories (on GBA Emulator.) The game was insanely hard and if I was playing with Keyboard I would've rage-quit earlier.

My biggest problem with these Gamepads was that they just stop working after a while. The PC recognizes that there's a device in the USB port but won't recognize that it's a Gamepad anymore! I didn't understand why? Did I do something wrong? I didn't drop the controller from the table did I? The controller worked for a whole month, so why...?

These how to fix guides make the process look trivial

I tried many things to fix them, none of them worked. Did the manufacturer make them intentionally so they stop and make me buy another one? Because I DID! (I now realize how terrible is that logic. If something didn't work for you don't blindly buy another one from the same brand!) The new one stopped working after few weeks too... Bad idea.

I used to joke with my brother that these controllers self-destruct in one month time. I think I got my money worth out of these jokes alone.

Finally I learned my lesson and I'm buying "proven quality" stuff since then. I'm using an Xbox 360 controller for my PC (will probably upgrade to Xbox Series X's controller next.) But I still see these funny cheap controllers whenever I go to electronic stores.

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The first image is taken from this website. The second image is taken from Alibaba. The last image is taken from Ifixit.com