Try hacking some gamepads ... its cheap and easy.  Try [hid].

My project, robotcowboy, makes use of hacked gamepads and a custom joy -> OSC daemon in Linux.  I'm getting ready
to release it soon, so if you use Linux you could try that.

For instance, I cut a gamepad up and wrapped it around my old trumpet.  pic1, pic2, a short pd session with it

There's lots of cool stuff you can for cheap.  Also, old console gamepads (psx, ps2, gamecube) are readily available and all you need is a usb converter.  I've found aftermarket playstation controllers the perfect hackables.

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Dan Wilcox
danomatika
www.robotcowboy.com