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