I was thinking, in the project I would like to use them for, I only need 10 inputs per player (2 8way joys, start, coin), so with d-pad, face buttons, and start/back, I should be ok.... As far as hacking them, can I just ignore the triggers entirely or will they still be a problem?
Good to know that folks should pass if they have plans for the triggers!  

If nothing else I will have a couple cheap (if extraordinarily ugly) pads for PC gaming...
Good luck.  Hacking the triggers on those things SUCK.  There's a reason I don't touch them anymore.