Joystiq Review: Pelican PS2 to PS3 controller adapter

by Kyle Orland { May 11th 2007 at 11:28AM }

The whole point of backward compatibility for most PS3 owners is being able to get rid of that PS2 in the old entertainment center. Yet many PS3 owners have had to keep their PS2 units hooked up for a few reasons, namely:

Support for our old memory card saves.
Support for rumbling controllers.
Support for the Guitar Hero controller.

The first problem is solved by an official Sony adapter which you can buy for $15, use once, and then throw away, we suppose. The second problem is solved by the recent firmware update 1.7, which added rumble support for old controllers hooked up via any number of USB to PlayStation controller adapters. Yet the third and most important problem remained -- if you want to play Guitar Hero, you need to keep a PS2 handy. Pelican's new controller adapter promises to fix this final problem, but the execution is less than perfect.

The major innovation Pelican's adapter has over others out there is an integrated PS button on the converter itself. This means users can bypass the annoying "hit the PS button," message on PS2 games by doing just that, no matter what kind of special controller might be inserted. The PS button functionality also allows users to assign the PS2 controller to any controller slot -- a must for multiplayer games. So far so good.

The unit advertises Guitar Hero support in big letters on the packaging, so we switched the unit over to its marked Guitar Hero 2 mode for a test. We were already prepared for a less than perfect experience -- as the unit's instructions explain, GH2's hammer ons/offs simply don't work with the adapter, a major blow for expert strummers. What's more, the on-screen colored gems don't light up when you push in the frets, removing an important visual cue for finger placement. The loss of these important features made playing on the PS3 significantly tougher than playing on the PS2. Still, the fact that we were playing Guitar Hero on the PS3 at all was something to get excited about.

Further testing on other games revealed a surprising omission: the Pelican adapter does not support force feedback. This is a bit shocking, considering numerous online reports confirm that older USB/PlayStation controller adapters support the rumble functionality just fine. While the Pelican adapter provided responsive, lag-free input from our old DualShocks, the lack of rumble made us wonder why we weren't just using a Sixaxis. Less surprisingly, special controllers for games like Taiko: Drum Master and BeatMania didn't work with the Pelican adapter, though all the DDR mats we tried worked perfectly.

While it's far from perfect, Pelican's PS2 to PS3 controller adapter remains, for now, the only way to play Guitar Hero on a PS3. When combined with another USB converter for rumble support and a memory card adapter for old saves, you just might be able to get rid of that PS2 for good. And really, isn't that the dream of every PS3 owner?

Tags: adapter, controller, converter, force feedback, ForceFeedback, guitar hero, guitar hero 2, GuitarHero, GuitarHero2, pelican, PS2, PS3, rumble

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Crono @ May 11th 2007 11:35AM

That sucks.

On a similar but unrelated issue, anybody know how to get your PS2 guitars working on an X360 guitar hero?

Joshua @ May 11th 2007 11:56AM

Is that PS button stuff similar to having to go through the Wii menus with the Wii Remote before you can play a GameCube game on the system (or play any game, for that matter)? That annoys me to no end, and there really should be an option to automatically start whatever game is inserted in the console right away...

sheppy @ May 11th 2007 12:04PM

@Joshua,

Consider the Playstation button the home button on PSP or the jewel on 360. It brings up a minimenu where you can access more functions or exit the game entirely.

I do agree about the Wii channel. I shouldn't have to ENTER the channel to select Start game. I should enter the channel TO start the game. But it's a minor annoyance at best.

Norm @ May 11th 2007 12:20PM

Dude, don't pay 15 bucks for that thing. They go for 4.99 here, and shipping is cheap:

http://videogames.barnesandnoble.com/search/product.asp?z=y&EAN=2000003124398&Itm=1

these things are awesome.

KilgoreTrout XL @ May 11th 2007 12:34PM

You won't be able to play half the songs- on MEDIUM, no less- without being able to use Hammer-ons and pull-offs.

That's a /huge/ omission. Bummer.

KingOFGods @ May 11th 2007 12:40PM

Does it read more than the 8MB card? I have a 64MB PS2 card and bought that damn official Sony memory card reader and it only works with the 8MB.

WhackMushrooms @ May 11th 2007 12:50PM

fuck GH .. what about DDR? will this help?

WhackMushrooms @ May 11th 2007 12:55PM

thats what i get for reading this via rss .. didnt see the rest of it before i commented ... im a tard.

Fuzzmosis @ May 11th 2007 12:52PM

I have to second the WTF factor. I greatly enjoyed Guitar Hero, but by 1 week of playing, was on hard and as such, every single song had hammer ons etc. If the guitar can't handle them, it makes half the game unusable essentially.

Though now I want to play Artereal Black again. I liked that song.

rom @ May 11th 2007 1:06PM

Hammer-ons and pull-offs don't work with this adapter? Damnit, it's Guitar Hero I all over again!

djricekcn @ May 11th 2007 1:14PM

I tried first party DDR "Konamistyle" and official Konami DDR "Delux" Pads, but they both didn't work. If you guys used third party brands, that might be the reason why since third party pads are usually mapped differently and emulating a regular controller rather than emulating Konami's pad.

either way, I confirmed for myself that 2 out of the 4 Konami branded pads don't work. I haven't tried it with DDR pads and DDR pads -revised edition-

yakapo @ May 11th 2007 1:15PM

yes what about DDR? I want to use my redoctane ignition pad on the 360.

yakapo @ May 11th 2007 1:24PM

here's an interesting adapter..

http://www.xcm.cc/xcm_xfps_360.htm

dork @ May 11th 2007 1:26PM

you guys hate gamestop so much, yet you go there to shop. How cute

SuicideNInja @ May 11th 2007 1:36PM

"On a similar but unrelated issue, anybody know how to get your PS2 guitars working on an X360 guitar hero?"

It can't be done right now without modification. No one has made an adapter that will work (maybe someone will?). The XFPS doesn't even work, because the jerks/money-makers at RedOctane didn't map the regular face buttons to the GH controller fret buttons for the PS2 (like they did on the 360).

Annoying.

I find all this amusing...especially how PS3-elitists blabbed on and on about %100 BC, even though Sony does it through emulation now with less than %100, you can't save to memory cards...only copy them to the hard drive, and there isn't a proper adapter with a PS button AND rumble support. GH is a huge game...to have that not working is a big deal.

Don't buy the memory card adapter if you want to swap between PS2 and PS3 play. It's only good for dumping the memory card contents; the PS3 can't save to it. When I found this out...I was...well...pissed that I wasted $15. They don't give you a USB cable with that either, making it useless out of the box if you don't have one available.

Joshua @ May 11th 2007 1:50PM

"Consider the Playstation button the home button on PSP or the jewel on 360. It brings up a minimenu where you can access more functions or exit the game entirely."

I don't have either of those systems, so I'm still a little unclear, but it kind of sounds like a much more advanced version of pressing the Home button on the Wii Remote.

djricekcn @ May 11th 2007 1:50PM

There's a USB that comes with the PS3 anyway so you are going to have one avaliable unless if you're a really unorganized person.

I do agree that they should've put a USB cable in there, but hey, Wiimotes and Xbox360 wireless controllers doesn't really come with batteries either.

Dave @ May 11th 2007 1:55PM

My primary complaints with the PS3 are the slots contained under the little hood. There's absolutely no reason to have all of those memory card types... It's nice, but CF is really only going to be used by higher end DSLRs these days... even the Nikon D80 uses an SD I think? That space could have easily fit a PS memory card slot. Throwing ONE PS2 controller port wouldn't have been much of a space concern either.

Otherwise, my system DOES do an awful lot of great stuff. BC is pretty damned good... I haven't had a problem with any game I own, thanks to my PS3 being a complete one (IE having the EE inside still) and I'm really enjoying the PSone downloads. Jumping Flash might look horrible, but man, does it play well.

And come on man, you're miffed about no USB cable in the box for the memory card adaptor? Damned system came with one, so you ought to have it lying around.

FrankTheCrank @ May 11th 2007 2:06PM

Soon to be a NON-ISSUE...

When GH3 for PS3 comes out, I'm sure the new PS3 guitar will have support for older games, you would think.

Can anyone get a confirmation on that? Will the new PS3 Guitar support GH and GH2??

Fuzzmosis @ May 11th 2007 2:23PM

Frank, Glad to hear you want to drop another 80 bucks on another guitar controller. So are the makers of the game. Also, if they don't, tis a huge error in programming or communication between RedOctane and Sony.

FrankTheCrank @ May 11th 2007 2:43PM

@20

Fuzz, I'd rather not. I would rather just use my current GH axe if possible, but I just don't see a fix for this problem, unless Sony and Red Octane come up with something. Huge oversight on all parties involved, more on Sony's part with respect to backward compatibility.

Personally, I don't think either party cares. Their just going to pump out more guitars and force us buy the new ones.

Jacob Jones @ May 11th 2007 3:01PM

"I do agree that they should've put a USB cable in there, but hey, Wiimotes and Xbox360 wireless controllers doesn't really come with batteries either."

The XBOX 360 wireless gamepads do come with batteries, actually. Not rechargeables, mind you, but they do come with a pair of double A energizers

Sweeth Tooth @ May 11th 2007 3:34PM

Can anyone confirm if this Pelican adapter or other adapters support the X-Arcade arcade sticks / trackball? How about the Namco NegCon controller ( originally designed by Namco for playing Ridge Racer 1 on PS1 with analong control which as two years before Sony introduced the dual anlog controller ) ?