Wireless controllers for emulators

[touchingcloth]

I fancy digging out some old 8-64bit games on emulators, and want a wireless controller to use with that.

Can anyone recommend ones? The Xbox Elite ones are well reviewed, but well expensive.

I've never used a console with two analogue sticks before, so N64 is the most complicated set of buttons I'd need, but I had an original PlayStation as well so that means ideally four shoulder buttons.

I'd go up to £50 if necessary, but would ideally like to pay less so I'm after your thoughts on cheap and cheerful but not fuck-awful ones. FPS was never my genre, so ergonomics for that sort of thing aren't crucial.

EDIT - reported as I meant to post in PC Gone Mad.

EDIT EDIT - none of the controllers I've seen have ideal layouts for N64 games - 4 buttons and a thumbstick rather than C-pad plus two buttons. Presumably the sticks can be mapped as buttons in most places, but this seems like it would be bad for anything needing bashing on the Cs.

[The Guppy]

This'll connect to a PC over Bluetooth.

https://store.nintendo.co.uk/en/nintendo-64-controller-for-nintendo-switch-000000000010006981

For a "jack of all trades" controller, a standard Xbox Wireless Controller is fine. These 8Bitdo ones are good too.

[thehungerartist]

These 8Bitdo ones are good too.

Yeah, I reckon the Pro 2 would be ideal for OP - the button-mapping application and macros are just icing on the cake. Excellent controllers.

[Memorex MP3]

I'd get a specific controller just for n64 tbh. Too specific of a layout to not always be wandering into some new quirky layout that needs new remapping

Wiimotes still work directly with Windows but they're becoming more of a pain to connect so a dolphinbar might be a good idea for it

PS2/PS3 may benefit from a DualShock 3 due to the pressure sensitivity. It's not used heavily in very much though.


Most everything else you could go with:
- joycons (you can set these up to be 2 basic controllers and I think Steam includes some drivers that supports combined joycon controls; handy if you already have some lying around)
- Xbox gamepad (will work with loads of stuff with no fuss)
- 8bitdo pro options (customisation, extra buttons, multiple connection support)
- 8bitdo usb wireless adapter (use a controller you already have and don't want to be endlessly connecting between devices, just need to plug the dongle into the current device)

[touchingcloth]

Yeah, I reckon the Pro 2 would be ideal for OP - the button-mapping application and macros are just icing on the cake. Excellent controllers.

I'd seen the 8Bitdo ones, so this review has clinched it for me I think - I was umming and ahhing between the Ultimate (essentially the size and shape of an XBox controller, from what I can see), and one that is based on the SNES controller. XBox controllers are too fucking massive for my tiny  hands, and the SNES one looks like it would be cramp-inducing, so this looks like a great middle ground.

I'd get a specific controller just for n64 tbh. Too specific of a layout to not always be wandering into some new quirky layout that needs new remapping

<Other useful information>

I'd mainly want to play Goldeneye, Zelda, and the Rare platformers, and you're right that all of these feature very different usages of the layout - C-buttons for strafing, item selection, and camera movement specifically. They'd map nicely to the main buttons on that controller, so the main issue is whether I'd be able to relearn using something like the A & B buttons mapped to the shoulder triggers, or the diamond layout as opposed to the Megadrive's 3-in-a-row one (not that I can think of many games which used more than two of them).

DualShock3 and PS2s sound very modern. I'm not sure I can handle this latest generation of hardware.

[touchingcloth]

Dat 8bitdo, do.

I bought one of these, and it does the trick. Using a thumb stick instead of c-pad is as quirky as I had expected - it's hard to hit the same button repeatedly, and if you press them quickly enough then the spring back is enough to hit the opposite "button", meaning anything I had mapped to c-down in Zelda would spring back, hit c-up, and result in the interminable Navi popping up. I sorted that out by tweaking the sensitivity/active area of the thumb stick via the software.

7.5/10.