Customer Reviews

Kensington/Gravis Gamepad Pro (USB) - 42111

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Before I commend Gravis, I must thank sony for making such a great playstation controller. And thank you gravis for making the same controller for the pc. Although the controller is small, it fits perfectly in my hand. The is an 8 Axis control pad on the left, select and start buttons in the middle and 4 buttons on the right. At the top there are 4 more button. Another great thing about the controller is that the buttons are not mushy. You can press the easily not like the real playstation controller. The manual has instructions and troubleshooting techniques for installing in different languages. The keyset program, Xperience is bundled on the CD with documentation for that software on the CD. Although a little tricky to program, the keyset software works great. So if you have a playstation or you play alot of playstation games and you need a pad for the PC, this is definitaly for you. For everyone else, its a great cost effective pad. Also, some games like Fifa 2000 would us the same button setup like on the playstation if you use this pad.

With a form-factor nearly identical to the original PlayStation controllers (but minus the analog sticks of the "Dual Shock" controller), this controller's obvious benefit is to owners of "Connectix Virtual Game Station", the PlayStaiton-on-Macintosh emulator. It's also handy for arcade-y titles and MacMAME, the emulator of classic arcade video games.

The one place Gravis makes a change is very much for the worse -- the four separate directional buttons are replaced by a single pivoting directional-pad. As too often happens with designs like this, the D-pad pushes two switches at once, and ALWAYS comes through as a diagonal (eg, right + up, when you thought you were just pushing right). The frequent inability to enter a true right, left, up, or down is annoying in some games, particularly in navigating the menus of an RPG, and deadly in others (PSX "Asteroids" is unplayable when rotating your ship sometimes inadvertantly puts you into hyperspace, since that's what "up" does).

Also of note is the fact that this controller works only with games written to use Apple's "InputSprockets". That's true of most late 90's / early 2000's games, but not of some earlier titles ("Descent", which used to be bundled with Mac Performas, comes to mind), and it's not clear if Sprockets will be supported in the upcoming Mac OS X.

That said, driver installation is easy and has been hassle-free on my two iMacs and my iBook. USB plug-and-play almost always works without a snap, though I've found it's better to plug it in once the Finder is up instead of during the boot cycle.

If you play lots of Mac games (and by the way... HOW?!), this is better than relying on mouse/keyboard alone, but the D-pad problems are a major aggrivation.

The Gamepad Pro works smoothly with the Macintosh, and is a breeze to set up and configure with games. Anyone familiar with the Playstation controller will be perfectly comfortable with this one. For sports games like Madden 2000, it's a must. And certainly it goes hand in hand with the Playstation emulator Virtual Game Station. It's design is sturdy and the software is seamless. And for its price, you really can't go wrong.

The Gamepad Pro is a good choice for any gamer who is used to the layout of the standard Playstation controller. The buttons and directional pad have about the same feel as the original Gravis Gamepad, (There is some room for improvement there) but for the price of the gamepad the overall quality is excellent. I have owned mine for at least two years (I use it frequently) and it still works like new.

Before you buy the Gravis Gamepad Pro USB- 1. Make sure you have an open USB port! 2. If you mainly play racing/simulation games, you should consider an analog controller.

This is a warning to all consumers. This product's USB cable contains lead. This is clearly labeled on the back of the box, "Please wash your hands after using this product," but not on this web-site.

If you have small children or were planning on giving this to a child, please do not.

-- Joseph Hawkins

This is an inexpensive, lightweight PS2-style programmable gamepad that would otherwise be a great value were it not for the extremely shoddy directional pad.
I own two of these gamepads for about 3 years (which shows its durable) and they have fared well for emulator games and games such as Madden and High Heat Baseball where precise directional control is not crucial. But the d-pad makes this almost unusable for 3D and racing games.

The d-pad is slotted to the diagonals which tends to push you diagonally when you want to go up, down, left, or right. This makes it difficult to go in a straight line which can kill you in certain games where accuracy and speed are important. Using the mini-joystick can help control a little better. The controller is kinda small so it may not fit well in big hands. Its instant and easy setup without any software makes it a true plug-n-play device.

For the $10-$15 price range you can't beat this, but do yourself a favor and spend another $5 to $10 more if you can for a better quality gamepad with ergonomic controls, trigger buttons, and force feedback.

I'm unsure why many of these people disliked this product, I found it to be excellent.

I have no trouble at all with the diagonals. I find the d-pad to be quite comfortable, and had no problems getting use to it.
The buttons are equally as good.

It doesn't have an anlog stick, which is a plus to me, since I find those things are inferior for everything but FPS.(which I rather use a mouse) And no rumble pack, again always seems to me a useless feature.

The only reason I didn't give this 5 stars, is because like it has been mentioned the screw in the middle is odd. While I found no discomfort at all about it. The screw was designed for a small joystick you can screw in(which is provided) personally I think this feature should of been left out, as it well.. sucks. If I wanted to use a joystick, I wouldn't have use this one.

But for the price, I think this is excellent.
These people who are saying that the d-pad sucks, are either flat out liars.
Or like someone else before me mentioned, just aren't skilled gamers.

Buy this if you want a PS-clone, you will not be disappointed, I promise ;)

This controller is very good for what it is. If you need a usb controller for NES, SNES, or Playstation emulation, this is a good one to get. I bought two of them for NES/SNES emulation and I have no major complaints.
This pad comes with a small joystick you can screw into the d-pad which is awkward and you'll never want to use. The only problem is that when you have the stick unscrewed, the center of the d-pad has a threaded metallic hole which can slightly irritate your thumb after a few hours of playing. Despite this minor flaw, while it's not the greatest controller you can buy, at this price it's an excellent value.

The PC format has some great joysticks, but it lags far behind consoles when it comes to gamepads. The Gravis GamePad Pro is, obviously, virutally identical to the original PlayStation controller, but the quality is much worse for several reasons.

At the top of the list is the terrible D-pad, which makes it extremely difficult to press straight up, down, left, or right; the pad always reads your input as a diagonal direction. This flaw makes something as simple as entering your name to be a major chore, and during gameplay its effects can range from annoying to downright deadly. The face action buttons are very stiff and must be compressed too far, while the shoulder buttons make a loud and distracting click every time you press them down.

On the positive side, the start and select buttons are quite nice, but really, who cares? The best part about this controller is the overall shape and ergonomic feel, but that's just because the PlayStation controller before it had a nice design.

Maybe I'm just spoiled by Nintendo's great controllers, but in my opinion the Gravis GamePad Pro just doesn't cut the mustard. Sometimes I wonder if its designer ever logged some serious playing time with it before sending it off to market.

Response is okay - if a bit slow - but the directional pad is not very stable at all (very noticable in puzzle games like Tetris or Dr. Mario, even brought up problems in some platform games) and so control is shaky. I will be returning mine shortly in order to try out something different, this is just aggravating me.