I have had my PS2 since 2001 and the controllers just do not seem to last for me. Just to clarify, my house has 2 PS2s (in rooms on opposite ends of the basement.) I inherited my family's original unit, that we got for christmas in 2001. It has a faulty CD lens, forcing me to put a spindle of duct tape around the center of the disc (between the data and the hole in the center) in order for it to play CD-format games. This caused me to be at a loss with a lot of my favorite games for a good two years, and it took quite a while for that information to show up on the internet. Upon recieving the PS2 i was informed that the plastic that surrounds the controller port was broken as well. All still works though, as I have been playing MGS3 and MGS2 at various points in the past month.
Now, on to the main problem. Our official PS2 controllers. The first one went missing. The second one broke after much strenuous use. We have gone through an insane amount of controllers since. Then we moved on to a MadCatz DualForce 2. They died eventually. My dad got a Madcatz Red Sox one which seems to work fine for him...and still works. I got a Psyclone controller for myself, and have been using that for not only a year when it dies on me today in the middle of the fight with Solidus. We also have a third party red-colored Performance one that my 8yr old brother has been using just the other day to play Ape Escape 2...which somehow seemed to break just conveniently while I was trying to provide my father with a controller to play with.
My brother of 12 bought his own GameStop controller, and he has yet to complain of its possible disfunction.
The problem all these controllers seem to have when we try to use them on BOTH playstations is this: The red Analog light can be turned on and off, but no other buttons are responsive at ALL.
Please help, I am tired of shelling out 10-20 dollars per controller every few months.