So my PlayStation (circa 1998) seems to be acting up.
After an hour or so of play, the Dual Shock controller is observably not responding. Trial Mountain Reverse. Cannot negotiate the final run down from the tunnel to the finish line. Steering input is just too imprecise. Similarly, in the hairpin at the far end, you cannot go around it slowly; you're likely just to "understeer" off onto the embankment. Power off the machine, give it a bit of rest, and after restarting it seems good to go for about another hour. Take the same car to the same tracks and the oddities do not happen. Flicking in and out of analog mode does not seem to fix it. I think the axis on my right stick throttle might develop similar vagaries, preventing proper acceleration.
Odd that it fixes itself (for now) after rest. Even more weird I can sometimes use GT tuning to compensate for it.
I first observed the problem with one controller, and thought the problem was the controller, but I believe changed the controller at the same time as powering down, resting and restarting. So, either the defect is in the PlayStation end of the analog mechanism, or the PlayStation might be ruining controllers. Fairly soon after observing problems a few weeks ago, I removed the GameShark Pro from its slot.
Oh well, if worst comes to worst, I could play on a PS2. And just the other day I found another PlayStation (1) stored away, and I even have a PSOne I've hardly used.
Any other thoughts?