Same. It’s hard to find good reviews that even bother to talk about the d-pad, considering the MD 6-button and Saturn are the best d-pads ever.
I got my 8bitdo MD controller about a week ago and have been using it quite a bit. I have to say, I was very skeptical but the d-pad is very very close to the 6-button and Saturn d-pad. I need to do more testing on more games but my impressions are that they actually tried to replicate the feel of those great Sega d-pads and I have to say I think they may have succeeded. It’s easily the best d-pad I’ve ever used from a 3rd party manufacturer.
Also I’ll echo socksfelloff and say that for being a MD controller, the shape feels more Saturn but I’m not going to complain about that. I got the bluetooth version so I could use with arcade games and shooters on the Switch and I am loving it.
I’m going to go with @panopticblue and say the dpad feels fantastic. It’s hard to compare vs a 25 year old controller but I’d say they nailed it.
I didn’t notice any latency in my short playtime with the 2.4ghz model. That said I bought these to use on the upcoming mega SG and that’s on a modern setup where I’m less concerned about input delay. I’ll still be using wired oem controllers on my actual Genesis.
I went ahead and bought the Bluetooth model as well since I was so happy with the 2.4ghz. I haven’t played with it yet but it’s interesting that it comes with USB C instead of micro USB like the 2.4ghz controller.
What is better between the two? 2.4Ghz or Bluetooth? Or are there pros and cons to each?
I ordered the retro-bit wired controllers, but I’m waiting on impressions on their upcoming wireless controllers before I commit to them or the m30s.
I’ve talked about it a lot already, but this 8bitdo controller is easily the best d-pad and buttons controller I’ve ever purchased that’s made by a third party. It’s totally on par with the original 6 button Genesis controller.
If it were available in 1991, I’d have bought two immediately. It’s that good.
I totally agree @DaveLong. Bought 2 of the Bluetooth ones thanks to your recommendation and I have nothing but good feedback.
It feels so good to finally have a Sega style 6-button wireless controller with modern standards (Bluetooth, 2.4GHz)…
It’s crazy to me that it took so long to have one come out, but they absolutely nailed it on their first try!
Just saw this latency test between the Bluetooth and 2.4ghz controllers which I thought was well worth posting in case anyone was still on the fence about what to get.
That’s good info. Because you can just plug the 2.4g one into a computer via a USB cable, it seems like the best option all around. I’m not usually too worried about wires at my PC.
If you’d rather read I’ll obviously explain some of the graph here:
This is the average input lag measured relative to an Arduino controller library I used. The 10.5 ms is the total input delay of moving the Arduino’s virtual analog stick until something changes on screen. The test was done in Rocket League on PC on a custom map at 1000FPS because it gives the most consistent results. My measuring setup is explained here: https://youtu.be/-lFXLKv3DhM
“+ 2.8 ms” means that the DS4 was on average 2.8 ms slower than the Arduino.
All results have an error of around ±0.2 ms. My measuring setup is actually more precise (if I take enough samples) but I found that whatever Windows decides to do in the background can have that big of an effect on input lag.
For space reasons, I didn’t write “button/analog” everywhere. If I left it out, that means that pressing a button had the same input lag as analog input (within 0.5 ms).
For the same reason, I omitted “wired” at times. When I didn’t write “wireless”/“stick”/“Bluetooth” that means it was tested wired.
All wireless tests were done with a controller receiver distance of ~10-15 cm and repeated with a distance of 3 m. There was no measurable difference between the 2 scenarios for any controller.
I don’t know why the DS4 has less input lag over Bluetooth than wired. All I know is that this has previously been tested on a PS4. Rather confusing tweet of the person that tested it. The DS4 does have a higher polling rate over Bluetooth but that only makes up < 2 ms on the average input lag and the difference is 7 ms.
Lowest input lag isn’t everything. I also talked about input consistency in the video, where the DS4 does better when using it wired rather than Bluetooth.
How is it possible that the XBONE controller performs the exact same through wired and bluetooth? Seems off to me. edit: I see now, it’s because of the limitation of a 150hz polling rate, whereas the PS4 has a 1000hz polling rate on wired.
I wish there was a way to get these companies to increase the polling rate on their USB wired connections. The Switch is particularly bad with this too. I think its USB polling rate is possibly even lower than 150hz. I don’t know if this is something that can be updated in firmware or if the chip would have to be different but its definitely noticeable. I have a Mayflash F300 arcade stick, which is wired, and when used on my 360 or PS3, there’s no noticeable lag. As soon as I use it on Switch its an instant difference, and you really notice the lag. Its frustrating, and I hope something is fixed. I have a ton of arcade games on Switch and don’t want to have to buy and then mod a bluetooth arcade stick as well.
I’ve seen it done on pretty much every Sonic speedrun. I was thinking about it for some reason on my way home from work today and decided to try to pull it off. It took a few minutes to figure out but I got it. I’m not sure if I’ll do it every time I play but it’s pretty neat so I might do it every now and then.
