CNet's Crave put together a list of the best five game controllers ever made, and while you might not agree with their rank, they hit all the important ones. Since their list charts the peaks of the controller's evolution, they disqualified the Wiimote and Sixaxis for being too new. Here's their picks and reasonings:

• #1: Atari 2600 joystick: Featuring a simple stick mechanism for moving around and a red button for firing. It's not technically a gamepad, but it's so crucial to gaming history there's no way we couldn't mention it.
• #2: SNES controller: This exercise in ergonomics is a curvy, multi-coloured, multi-buttoned evolution of the angular NES controller. This was the first controller to have shoulder buttons -- a revolution that made an arcade staple like Street Fighter II a viable proposition in the home.
• #3: Nintendo 64 controller: This is one of the most important joypads ever produced. Not only did the N64's controller feature an analogue joystick, which made playing games such as GoldenEye realistic and subtle, but it also featured a pistol-like trigger button underneath.
• #4: PS2 controller: Nintendo may have started the analogue-stick-on-a-pad idea but Sony really took it to the bank. For many gamers, the DualShock gamepad is the best gamepad ever made. ... Having two analogue sticks meant you could play games in a completely different way to anything available before.
• #5: Xbox 360 controller: It was the first wireless pad to come as standard. Its comfy, solid design offers dual analogue joysticks and two analogue trigger buttons underneath. There's also a built-in jack for connecting a headset.

I'm surprised GameCube didn't make the list, I know a ton of people who claim it's the best controller ever made for the way it curves around your hand. Although its lack of symmetrical design can be annoying depending on what games you throw at it. I thought the PS2 had the best design by far for its time, but now that others have had time to perfect it, I actually like the Xbox 360 controller slightly more than the DualShock. I still can't get used to Sixaxis's weird trigger setup, and the Xbox 360 controller's simple curves and ability to turn your console on and off makes it the industry standard in my opinion.

Looking back over all the controllers ever made, which would you pick as your favorite?

PSP homebrew coding community continues to put the Wii's Virtual Console to shame, StrmnNrmn's 'Daedalus" Nintendo 64 emulator for the PSP has been updated to version R10, and now can play Super Mario 64 at full speed on the Sony handheld. Here's an outdated list of the games that the Daedalus emulator supports, only 5% of all N64 games is pretty pathetic, but that's still better than the Virtual Console. Not bad for a one man project.

Screw the Virtual Console, here's N64 games on your PSP! Someone by the online name of "gunntims0103" has posted a Nintendo 64 emulator for PSP on the DCEmu forums. Made by StrmnNrmn, the Daedalus R9 version runs faster, has a new user interface, and even includes graphical fixes. This release finally includes audio, although StrmnNrmn makes it clear that the audio support is only at a beta stage for now, so it's disabled by default until you enable it in the pause menu settings. Many ROMs don't work, and there's limited save game support, but if you want to try it, then you can download the files here.

Here's how the control conversion works:

Start                Start
Analogue Stick        Analogue Stick
Dpad                O (Circle) + Dpad
A                    X (Cross)
B                    [] (Square)
Z                    ^ (Triangle)
L Trigger            L Trigger
R Trigger            R Trigger
C buttons            Dpad (Circle unpressed)

And here's a few graphics examples of games that work on the emulator for PSP. Star Fox 64 for PSP would be perfect, but games like Army Men were hard enough to play on the Nintendo 64. So if you have a PSP and try this out, then choose wisely.

I think I spent more time over all my past summers playing Goldeneye 64 in my friends' basement than I ever spent watching babes on the beach. Using Valve's source code, this mod team set out to completely revamp the Goldeneye game, and they plan on letting us play it on Christmas. Suddenly all the Xmas gifts I was hoping for don't seem as desirable as before. You can see more pictures and info here on their site. I can't wait to finally have a reason to yell "I'm invincible!" again as my DK mode Russian goes on a slapping spree for old time's sake.

_{(Click in black area above to start video)}

We've all seen the Nintendo Sixty Foooooooooour kid before, and now we've finally come full circle and have a Wii kid. Nothing beats the original, unless of course it's a PS3 kid and the parents give him an empty box and tell him to wait for Xmas for the rest. We'd never see that video though because it would end in a double homicide and be used in court to try the four year olds as adults. 

The Wii launch is almost here and there's still plenty of people unsure of all the important details -- yesterday one of my old friends (I instantly disowned him) asked me what the fuck a Wii was? Blasphemy! So here's a nice little graphic to tell you all you need to know about which controllers will play which games. Notice the beastly Gamecube controller sweeps the board, a key piece of fodder for those who rant at how the Wii is merely a Gamecube 1.5. I disagree adamantly -- Gamecube 2.5 is what I'll gladly be buying soon.

 

Goldeneye 64 truly made boring summer days golden for me, and it's all about to return. The latest Goldeneye Source trailer above shows various maps in the modification of the Half Life 2 mod based on the N64 classic. The upcoming beta is on its way and I see no reason not to be completely ecstatic. I call Ourumov, who are you gonna play as? You turn on DK mode and paintballs and I'll call for the pizzas.