I recently got out my Saturn pads as I was going to mod them to terminate to USB but I’ve noticed something with the dpad… I have 2 pads, and the other is the 3D control pad, the dpad from the controller made in Japan the texture seems to have worn out where it’s slippery, however the one made in China feels like how I remember the saturn pad. I do remember my pads back in the day would wear out the texture that is.
Anyone else have a smoothness to their Dpad? Also didn’t know there were batches made in Japan and China until I looked at the back of them…
Both function exactly the same, the text on the China pad isn’t as sharp as the one from Japan but that’s to be expected.
I did purchase both of these on Ebay 10 years ago but don’t remember the dpad being smooth then.
Got the same issue, except both of my pads are from Japan. Hopefully all this will be moot when Retro-bit releases their Sega-partner Saturn pads. I plan to buy a few for science. If they have the same quality as the originals, I suggest you buy those too. These things are wear items, and new (if made well) is always better.
My only guess is the texture wore off, same with how your spacebar will lose it’s texture (if it had one) and will get smooth over time. Not really a big deal, you can still find new in box if you want a new pad, but after 20 years it may be stiff…
I’m also waiting for the retrobit pads, buying a usb, bluetooth, and basically one of each color. I have an old mayflash converter I use to use my pads on PC, no noticeable lag but don’t get the adapter that has 2 ports otherwise from reviews there is lag…
I’m not spending $300 on a sls pad unless I found the blue controller, boxed and new.