Customer Reviews

Dekcell CPA-1040 USB Dual Action GamePad for PC

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is a great item for what you're paying. It's essentially a cheap, generic gamepad put into the casing of a dual-shock controller. The d-pad is four separate buttons, which is pretty annoying, but you get used to it, and I actually find it preferable vs. the d-pads on most PC game controllers. Also, the l3 and r3 buttons(when you push down on the analog sticks and they make a clicking sound) are a little too sensitive, but I can't think of a single game that uses them, or a single good use for them, so it's all good. It comes with no drivers or anything, so you can't do anything crazy like map the buttons to keys or set turbo buttons or anything. It plugs and plays on pretty much any system, the last reviewer was running a G5 iMac, and I'm using a PC with Kubuntu 7.04, so if your computer has at least one USB port, the product will more than likely work. There's room for improvement, but for ten dollars I doubt you could do any better.

If you're looking for a bare bones controller for use with platform style games, then this is the controller for you. Works perfectly in XP (mine came with a driver disk, but I didn't need to use it for it to install). Like the other poster mentioned, it doesn't have any advanced features like advanced button mapping or turbo, but if you're just looking for barebones buttons and analogue sticks, this is a good choice. It may also be possible to find some 3rd party software to enable these options anyway. I don't know for sure, as I haven't really looked.

The analog stick buttons on my controller are tight and don't fire unless pressed with a reasonable amount of force, so it's possible that the sensitivity issue is only on some controllers. The only real issue I noticed is that when in analogue mode, some programs have issues detecting diagonal presses on the Dpad because they map as a separate buttons (Hat UR,UL,DR,DL). Most programs are good at detecting this, but I've found a few that don't, and you'll have to turn off the analogue feature if you want to use the Dpad to move around diagonally (or you'll have to use the analogue stick).

For the price you're probably not going to find a better controller. It's an exact replica of the Playstation dual shock controller (same shell) with the only difference being that the dpad is 4 separate buttons. Additionally almost all the "face" buttons protrude about 50% further than the PS dual shock, so if you're used to the dual shock you may notice that the buttons on the Dekcell are a bit less comfortable.

UPDATE: The Dekcell pad is still functional after 18 months of moderate use (about 3 hour a week on average, with spikes upwards of 30). I've had a few problems with buttons sticking, but as a handy person, 30 minutes with a screwdriver, alcohol bottle, and some Q-tips solved this (gunk builds up on the buttons). I warn those of you who decide to take this controller apart and fix it yourselves: It is very hard to get the pad back together correctly. Seriously, the fix of this controller only took 10 minutes, but I spent 20 minutes trying to get the game pad back together and have everything line up correctly. Of course the fix was worth the effort in the end, as it's performed perfectly since then (about 8 months ago). Regular external cleaning of the buttons with the Q-tip since then has kept the gunk level down to a point where I don't need to open it up again.

For $10 this gamepad was the right price, just plug it into the nearest USB port and it worked great. Unfortunately it isn't very durable and after a few months one of the small joysticks broke, essentially rendering it useless. I would purchase it again but we're getting a PS2 system so we won't need it. Just a warning for those of you considering a purchase, it is cheap plastic and you get what you pay for. We got great use out of it though.

We use this controller with an iMac G5, and, as a household with no console gaming platform, it has allowed our son to enjoy the computer games we have without having to use the keyboard. We're very happy with this purchase.

I have broken 2 of these things in normal game play (GTA: Vice City). On the first, the cord just pulled out of the back. It started out loose and the connection would come and go and then eventually it just pulled out. Took about 3 months.

So i ordered another one because they are so cheap. It lasted about 2 months playing Jets n Guns. The left analog stick stopped returning to center.

Ultimately they are cheap as hell so I'd consider it basically a disposable Joypad.

The price is quite possibly the best thing about this gamepad. Why are they so expensive, anyway?

The PS1-style is pretty cool, though I'm a Nintendude myself. The fact that you can tell it's some kind of cheap plastic when you're using it is kind of a downer, but that's expected with the price.

It did break fairly quickly on me (I'm gonna say after about 6 or 7 months), but once again, look at the price.

This is probably the millionth time I've said this, so I'll say it again for good measure: The best thing about this is the price.

this controller lasted for about a year until the left analog stick started to make crunching sounds and then there was no spring to re center the analog!!and the cord severed itself at the controller's entrance. do not buy unless you only want it to last a year at best!!

I got this controller as my first PC gamepad so I could play my playstation roms on my pc. After obtaining the controller, I was pleasantly surprised by it's performance. The controller works like a charm and is an amazing deal. Good price, good product!

These game controllers works perfectly with Vista. The setup was so easy that I forgot that i was loading them on a Vista machine.

I used it for no more than an hour a night for a week. All of the sudden, when I plugged it in, the computer doesn't sense it at all. This is true on all USB ports, after various reboots and trouble shooting.

This thing is almost certainly toxic and difficult to recycle.