Finished up a slightly custom PS2 controller just now. Okay, so it's an el cheapo $10 controller, but I've had numerous of these things over the years, because...gaming rage, let's just say. They're as ridiculously fragile and easy to break as they are very low quality, but I love these things for the form factor, price point (especially), and the fact that the L2/R2 buttons are curved and stick out a bit, making these super handy for stuff like drag races in Need For Speed. The whole thing looks like a knockoff Xbox 360 controller, down to the analog button hilariously being a fake home button, it's circular in shape and in the very same spot. I ordered a couple of these about a week ago, and decided to mix up some of the parts (namely, I wanted the grip panels and center decorative...piece, off one controller, and put it on another) for a two tone theme. Also kind of had to swap most of the parts from one controller over to this one, because the quality control is REALLY horrendous on these, and while one controller was great, the other...not so much. Like really not so much. Besides all that, I attempted to remediate a design flaw where the rubber grip panels very easily break and get stuck inside the body of the controller when gripping it too hard by just supergluing them to the face of it. I used a LOT of superglue on this, and the decorative center piece thingy, just because sometimes that part does come a bit loose or will stick out a little, and you have to press it back in. There's some flaws with the cheap design, I'm just saying. And just as an added touch for ergonomics, old vibration motors out of an actual Xbox 360 controller, ironically. They're not hooked up to anything, and are just there for weight in the hand, making the controller feel a lot less cheap in the hand. They're also superglued in place to prevent them from rattling about. Technically, these also serve the purpose of further preventing the grip panels from getting stuck within the controller, since the motors just physically block them from going in. The motors had to have the rubber buffer stuff removed from around them to be able to fit, and they kind of have to sit at an angle in order to wedge into just the right spot where the controller will go back together correctly and not be in a bind. All in all, the best of a terrible controller design, a good working example with some remedies in place to fix some of the design flaws it has. I'm loving the white and black color scheme of it. Funny enough, I've never seen a white one in person, and the only time I've ever seen one in white was when I was shopping online and I saw one. Having had a ton of these in other colors, obviously I wanted the one I haven't seen before, just to have owned them all, pretty much. But, it normally has white grip panels, and a white center piece, making it look rather plain. That just wouldn't do! I also put shiny silver screws in this one, as the original white controller that served as the base of this one had black screws, but the black controller that donated practically its heart and soul (and board) to this one had these nice, shiny silver ones - why wouldn't I use those?
I forget to mention, another reason I love these controllers is the fact that the L2/R2 buttons go even further to mimic the "feel" of Xbox triggers by having wire tab things in them to provide resistance as they travel inward, and makes them spring back outward. I don't care about this, and if anything, it's not so preferable, being a bit stiff; what's awesome about this is that you can just leave those tabs unhooked when you disassemble and reassemble the controller, so now you have hair triggers sitting directly against the pads inside, and this, combined with the curved profile, makes them super easy and quick to rapidly tap, making things like swapping weapons in GTA incredibly fast. But also makes shifting gears in drag races in Need For Speed a lot easier, because they're so easy to bump with the edge of your finger, and have zero travel to them.