In my journey to make the ultimate WHDLoad machine I've come to the point where its almost complete.  I just need a Blizzard 1230 and better gamepads than these typical Atari like controllers.  Honestly can't see how any one ever played a platform game like that.  I have seen some people say they used Genesis controllers.  I have also seen people say the can damage the systems.  So I have 3 questions.  1 is that true?  2 if yes can it be modified to work? and 3 will it allow me to use 2 button options in games?

Hopefully someone can help

Thanks

I've used one for few months and they work fine.  the biggest draw back is that most Amiga platformers use the UP direction on the joystick to jump, not the fire button.  This is very annoying.  I've read that its possible to solder a wire from the up pad to one of the buttons so that pushing that button acts like JUMP UP, but I haven't done this. I've never come a cross an Amiga game that needs two buttons though, so can't comment there.

And yes a joystick makes most games unplayable for me as well, but apparently there are many others who prefer it this way.  In fact, I play a lot of retro games under emulation eg genesis, SNES, NES Amiga using a PC analogue stick and I find it so much easier and have got my highest scores ever that way.

I think CD32 pads can be obtained for little money and as an added bonus they work great with CD32 installs... Great for Lost Vikings

I have uses Genesis Pads with my C64 for years.  They work fine with Amiga too!  Also, Colecovision/Atari controllers work fine.  If I could find a still working Colecovision controller, I would use it instead of the Genesis controllers... but all the ones I find at yard sales, etc are always screwed up.  Come to think of, I have never had a Genesis D-Pad die on me, so I guess Colecovision controllers where less quality :-)

The quality of game pads for the Genesis platform run the range from poor to great.  I'd avoid pads made by High Frequency for example.  I picked up a few metal cased arcade quality joysticks for Genesis from the game recycling stores a few years ago for a song.  Very durable.

I have not researched this in depth, but, I've seen evidence that the Amiga and Genesis ports are not identical.  Prior to the CD32, there was one fire button commonly used on Amiga.  The Genesis has the same connector (9 pin limit) and they found a way to multiplex the 3 or 6 fire buttons used on their pads into the same connector.  There is a chip in their pads for this purpose as well as tunable rapid fire, etc.  

IIRC, there are two wires to swap and two resistors to add in the controller.  After this mod, the game pad chip gets 5 volts and more buttons work.  Then you have to find Amiga games that use these multiple buttons.

If you are interested in experimenting (try it with a machine with socketed CIA chips), I found this info in the docs that came with ADOOM on Aminet.

Good Luck!
 

I used an Ascii 6-button Genesis pad with my Amiga for a few years, no problems. For my money tho, a Honey Bee Comperition Pro CD32 pad is about the best. Comfortable, turbo/auto-fire on all buttons, and hard-to-find, sadly....
The Turrican series also supports a second button, as does Mortal Kombat II.

Linde wrote:
I think CD32 pads can be obtained for little money and as an added bonus they work great with CD32 installs... Great for Lost Vikings

Yes, but the CD32 controller is one of the worst ones in console history.

Megadrive/Genesis pads work flawlessly on Amigas. Button B is the main fire button, button C acts as the second button. I prefer using my little arcade-style stick, though, or Sega Mastersystem pads.