Theyre not as good as the original sticks though. Bigger deadzone and a different gate. Cool, but not a very accurate replacement. Steel Sticks is a better, if more exclusive, option.
Huh, haven't had any issues with deadzone. If anything, the deadzone is too small, especially on Goldeneye, where the sensitivity felt way too high for the software. But I found it a super smooth upgrade for pretty much everything else, especially Kart and platformers. I just looked up those steel sticks though, and they look awesome! I bet that has a nice, authentic feel to it.
...no, cartridges hadn't yet been invented for my first console and my first NES was actually the mid-nineties redesign, so i never experienced blowing dust off the contacts...
...i did get to play with ROM-swap developer cartridges on my atari 2600, though...