So I just picked up an old Mega Drive 2 with PSU and a third-party controller at a local flea market. One reason I bought this, despite already having a MD2 for example, is the controller because it's a 6-button one, a Competition Pro Series III (aka Honey Bee SG-18 according to the underside). Problem being, the D-pad is... well: Down-left is down, left is down-left, and so on. First I though, "maybe you can rotate the D-pad; I have that SFC arcade stick where you can rotate the face buttons, after all..." but no dice. I opened it up and finally started to realize what wrong with it... What the hell? The button contacts are in a square formation! Shouldn't they be, you know, in a diamond shape? Sure, it's "Made in China" but don't they at least have some kind of quality control? That thing's a disgrace to the name Competition Pro!
It is designed for the large number of isometric games like Landstlker, Marble Madness, Syndicate, etc. Once you get used to it, it is surprisingly more accurate to use then the normal pad...
Makes sense I guess, but are you sure that's the case with this controller? Looking the thing up with Google, the photos I can find show it with the D-pad oriented the way you'd expect, as it is on Sega's own controllers. ...no, wait, there's one on a Swedish auction site (?) that looks just like mine. I'm confused now...
That's really crazy looking! At least they tried I noticed on the PCB it says SG-18, I have a SG-8 controller with an extremely short cord.. Could this possibly be the "updated" version?
This was my brothers controller back when we were kids, he was really good with it, it's better for some people.
Guess I was way too quick in my judgement here, huh? At least I learned something new; never knew that controllers like this even existed.
