I was wondering, besides Gravis gamepad pro (1995) and Logitech Thunderpad (1996-97), what were the gamepads available before Win98 era? I know there are some but finding actual manufacturing date for them is surprisingly difficult.
Sure was:
There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉
The original Gravis gamepad.
Caluser2000 wrote on 2021-08-03, 03:41:Sure was:
haha also had a Quickshot!
It wasn't bad but it's nothing fancy. Even when I got it I knew I would still mostly stick with keyboard so didn't get anything expensive.
Microsoft SideWinder Game Pad 1.0 in 96
Microsoft SideWinder Freestyle Pro in 98 (so 95 would have been the main OS in use, does that count?)
Logitech Cyberman/Cyberman 2 from around 97 That's kind of a gamepad? Don't think they made any gamepads Pre 98
Thrustmaster Digital Rage Gamepad from 97
Thrustmaster Phazer Pad from around 95/96
MadCatz was big in the 90's but to what I would call a quality brand but then from what I understand the Gravis gamepad wasn't amazing either.
I would say as long as it uses gameport your in the ballpark of '98. It was around 1998 that gaming devices moved over to USB
Gravis was around in the 80's and 90's, but they got hammered by other companies in the 90's, namely Logitech and Microsoft, who dominated the market. There were a bunch of gamepad/joystick brands in the late 90's and early 2000's, after the industry switched to USB around 97-98, when the 95 and 98 adoption rate soared with new computers and PC gaming got real popular with the masses, due to 3D acceleration.
