While messing around with the Sega Mega Drive core for my new MiSTer stup (one of the few cores that run without extra RAM), I played the excellent version of Aladdin on the system. I have played the game before on other platforms for a little bit, but never on the Sega and I can definitely see what the fuss is about. It is quite a fun game and plays excellent. At least, it would with the proper control methods. It uses the three buttons that the Sega controller has. One for jumping, one for poking and one for throwing apples. And all the controllers that I have only have two buttons next to each other in the Nintendo fashion.

I have an original SNES controller (albeit only with an adapter to Atari/Commodore gameport). I also have the excellent controllers that came with the SNES Classic Mini (two of them of course) and the 8Bitdo SF30. Then there is also the Wii Classic Controller Pro tat works great with the USB adapter that I have. I guess I could use the Wii Fight Stick that has eight buttons, but I like to play these console games with a proper gamepad. Another option would be the Microsoft Sidewinder gamepad, because that has a similar button layout, but I can’t get the controller to work with a simple gameport to usb adapter. And then there is the Gravis controller, with another USB converter, but I doubt that would be useful. I want to play some early DOS games with thatm but nothing else (and I can’t get that to work yet). That means I need a proper Sega controller. I’ll probably go for the wireless (non-Bluetooth) version of the M30 from 8Bitdo.