Quick Dpad Test

[Bosbeetle]

If you want to test the quality of the diagonals, play Q-bert. That game is a blast with a good dpad and a nightmare with a crappy one, and it's all about the diagonals. You'll know in 30 sec if the dpad is working the way it's supposed to.

Haha playing q-bert with arrow keys is hell

 

[Exophase]

hi openpandora devs. you can really put that dpad to the test using it to play street fighter 2 and marvel vs capcom or street fighter alpha 1,2,3. test it for an couple hours over time doing all the moves from the street fighter guys like ken and ryu. im just saying because i was playing mugen and i was using doctor doom and ken. well after a few days playing and throwing fireballs and helicopter kicks my dpad snapped off. it was a seitek that cost $35.00. i forget which specific controller it was. but anyway im scared of something like that happening on pandora. whoever can please test the dpad. give it a good kicking hehe.

If it's the same design as the Saitek I've used then I can tell you it was a flawed d-pad. I broke two of them in only a few weeks. I've never broken another d-pad off like that, although I've worn out a few. But only after quite a long time. If you wear out the d-pad parts on the Pandora you'll probably be able to order new ones for very cheap.

 

[MDave]

I'm glad DaveC went with the Saturn style D-Pad. It has all the goodness that people seem to like about the SNES D-Pad, with the added bonus of diagonals being easier and more comfortable to do.

 

[andyB911]

Dave designed the Dpad on the Pandora.

I've played SF2 and was able to do the basic moves (haduken, sonic boom), I don't know the complex ones.

Hi Craig, Yep I know he designed it... but that is still a little different from actually using it on a finished product and confirming that it gets his infamous seal of approval

 

[vampire8bit]

Well after the poor joystick on the GP2X you would think that one the best things about the Pandora would have to be its d-pad, especially since it is so heavily geared towards gaming. I'm hoping that a lot of work, care and testing has gone towards its development. Not only will it have to be a great d-pad for all types of games but also robust and reliable otherwise many people are not going to be impressed no matter how good the Pandora looks. The GP2X was hated by many because of its controller even though it had some awesome emus.

 

[Dunny]

On a related topic, I remember laughing at the console owners back when I had my Speccy and was using Quickshot II's or Kempston style joysticks. How humbled I was to discover that the d-pad based controllers were in fact much better for most games. Mind you, a Kempston joystick blu-tacked to the table makes a pretty good 'arcade style' joystick!

I still laugh at the SNES gamers. But then, I use the greatest controller of them all - QAOPM on a rubber keyboard...

D.

 

[-Tj-]

I liked the SNES d-pad. Saturn (the big, original US one) I liked as well. Something about the SNES one gave me blisters tho. I can't say for sure what it was, maybe the texture on it or the resistance. It was great tho, very well-designed pad.

 

[Balzac2m]

I'm on my way to EvilDragon in about half an hour. It is a four hour train ride, but I'll try to test if the d-pad is as good as it is supposed to be.

God, I'm so excited.
and i just can't hide it.
I'm about to control a pandora
and i think I like it!

 

[skyeyemachine]

I'm on my way to EvilDragon in about half an hour. It is a four hour train ride, but I'll try to test if the d-pad is as good as it is supposed to be.

God, I'm so excited.
and i just can't hide it.
I'm about to control a pandora
and i think I like it!

Lucky bastard! Give us an in-depth review on how it performs when you get back!

 

[cosurgi]

I want to assign 8 directions on DPAD to send keycodes of 8 numbers from numpad. Then I will walk around scary dungeons, kill monsters, gain experience and find powerful artifacts! All in the glory of superb ascii graphics.

 

[john4p]

You could both test the dpad and show off the Pandora's power by playing Street Fighter III: Third Strike via MAME on it...

Btw., for Street Fighter the Saturn-pad is by far the best. The dpad is very precise. Also you need six face-buttons for Street Fighter which SEGA-pads have (the SNES-pad only has 4 face-buttons).

 

[x68000]

I've used every pad going, and for me the Japanese saturn pads are by far the best for fighting games, 2d shooters and platformers. Closely followed by the 6 button megadrive pad.

 

[MDave]

I liked the SNES d-pad. Saturn (the big, original US one) I liked as well. Something about the SNES one gave me blisters tho. I can't say for sure what it was, maybe the texture on it or the resistance. It was great tho, very well-designed pad.

That's an easy one to answer. If you often did moves like rubbing your thumb from one direction to another, like fireball or dragon uppercut in street fighter, your thumb would rub against the edges of the DPad when you went from one direction to another. You don't get that problem with the Saturn Pads

 

[SoleGrave]

I think Im the only one who liked the Sega Genesis d-pad for fighters. It felt like a good hybrid between a floating and flat d-pad. The Gen's was larger for my thumbs while SNES's was smaller. I too wonder if the Panda pad is up to street Fighter/King of Fighters standard. Although not terribly functional I found the Game Gear pad very comfortably shaped.




.

 

[clippa]

The SNES d-pad was great. Has there ever been a d-pad worse than the one on the xbox 360 controller?