CH Gamepad
Review by Al Giovetti
Price: $30
Genre: 8-button game pad controller
Publisher: CH Products, 970 Park Center Drive, Vista, CA 92083, USA
Phone: 619-598-2518
Fax phone: 619-598-2524
Internet: http://www.chproducts.com

Compared with the new Microsoft game pad, the CH Products’ game pad is a sturdy competitor. CH has a long time reputation for quality, and at 25% lower priced than the $40 Microsoft Sidewinder PC Game Pad perhaps this is the one to look at.

The game pad has two top-side turbo buttons with optional auto-fire, six buttons on the face of the pad for right thumb control . On the left thumb side is an eight-way directional control disk for the improved control afforded by the left thumb. One of the six buttons on the game pad faceswitches to two player mode.

A seven foot cable assembly gives you that extra foot of room for extra demanding players who need more room to play and machines placed further away from the monitor. The gampad works with all current and future games that work with a standard joystick, and designed to be compatible with games that support six button game pads.

Over the years, in review after review and test after test one word has become associated with the CH name, reliability. I have owned and used CH products since my first CH Mach I joystick for my Apple II computer. I still have that Mach I and it still works.

CH selects the materials for incorporation in their products at a very high standard. CH molds its own plastics in their 80,000 square foot facility in Vista, California. Like all CH Products, the CH Gamepad is made in the United States and has a three year warranty.

Perhaps the only downside to the product is the lack of daisy chain and hot swap capabilities. The Microsoft Sidewinder PC Game Pad allows you to hot swap up to eight daisy chained game pads. The CH products game pad allows you to use two pads simultaneously with a CH Y-Cable or through a computer with a two port game-port. The lack of more than two game pads on one machine is not much of a drawback since there are not many games that support or require more than two game pads per PC.