The History of the Game Controller

1up.com has up a feature going through the history of the game controller. Starting in the dark ages of the PDP-1, the article moves all the way up to Nintendo's mysterious Revolution controller. From the article: "And when will Nintendo tip its hand? All we know at this point is that the Revolution will be backwards compatible with GameCube controllers, so at the very least the system will support all the functionality you're used to. But apart from that, will the controller feature a built-in touch screen and microphone, like the Nintendo DS? Is it just a box of brain-wave-reading goo? One thing is for sure: if history is any indication, there's no telling what the game controller we use twenty years from now will look like. And just as long as there's no numeric keypad, we should be okay."

Comments

Best control goes to...

[XxtraLarGe]

The Dual Shock on the PS2. I've owned several consoles, including the Atari 5200 and Dreamcast. There's just something much more comfortable about the Dual Shock than the XBox controllers (why have the analog sticks in different positions?) and the GameCube controller. IMHO, the only way the Dual Shock controller could have been improved is if they included two more buttons in addition to X, 0, the box & the triangle.

Re:Best control goes to...

[nakedsushi]

I think we're all forgetting that everyone's hands are different sizes. The dual shock controller is perfect for me because I have a small hands and my thumbs naturally fall on the analog sticks. The BF, however, hates that controller and prefers the Xbox S-controllers because his hands are better and his thumb naturally rests on the left analog stick on that.

Re:Best control goes to...

[Anonymous Coward]

WHAT?!

Sorry, but the DualShock controller (you do know that it came out for the original PlayStation first, right?) gets to go down as one of the worst controller designs in history. Half of this is because the original PlayStation controller is the second worst controller design in history.

Let's start off with the d-pad. Good d-pads allow you to simply rock your thumb in the direction to move the pad. Does the Sony controller? Nope! You get to slide your thumb around!

Secondly we have the shoulder buttons. A single shoulder button works, the double ones just made the controller INSANELY awkward to hold. Most games just ignored the L2 and R2 buttons since they're next to impossible to press while holding the controller in a natural position. Most players I know just stick their fingers between the L/R1 and L/R2 buttons to allow them to kind of slide and press, which allows them to hold the controller without awkwardly having their middle fingers extended.

(Try this. Hold out your hands, palms facing each other, like you're holding a controller, and try to press a button with your middle finger. Feel how your ring fingers want to move with it? With the PlayStation controller, you needed to use the ring fingers to support the controller. If you didn't, you were left with your pinkies to support it.)

Finally we have the set of four buttons on the right. Are these set up properly, as buttons along two concentric circles based on the ball joint of the thumb? Nope. They're laid out in a grid. (And, as you mentioned, this would have been the PERFECT place to add an extra two buttons to get rid of the L2 and R2 buttons.)

Most games only use Square and X. Triangle and Circle get dumped off as rarely-used controls, because they're practically impossible to press at the same time as any other button!

And that's just the base controller. Now lets add the DualShock. The DualShock takes that horrendous basic design, and dumps two analog sticks onto the controller. (And adding force feedback, but they COULD have done that with the normal PlayStation controller.)

Are these analog sticks placed such that they rest at the thumbs' neutral position? Nope! They're placed at around 30 degrees, and pushed in.

As an added bonus, the analog sticks are buttons, too! Yes, you can push on them to get L3 and R3. Those buttons are rarely used, though, since trying to press down at an already awkwardly placed analog stick is just the height of foolishness.

Sorry, but the DualShock controller does not get the position of "best controller", but it does get a prime position in the Controller Hall of Shame.

Re:Best control goes to...

[Pranadevil2k]

Gripe gripe gripe.

You don't know much about what you're talking about, apparently.

You say L2 and R2 are such horrible buttons because of their placement. And then directly following that, you say your friends found a way to not bother with it.... You don't NEED your fingers on the buttons at all times, especially if (as you say) you aren't using the buttons very often.

Go play SSX, you know the PS2 launch title or one of its' sequels. It makes use of every shoulder button, and it is easily one of the most fun sports games you could ever ask for. The controller adds to the experience here, it does not degrade it.

For you to then complain about the placement of the face buttons is idiotic. Guess what? They're placed in the exact same manner as GASP the SNES controller widely heralded as the harbinger of controller salvation. Here's a small newsflash for you: A square (grid with 4 points, button layout) is just a circle with straight lines. The buttons are laid out in a circle, not a grid. Just LOOK at the controller, you can SEE the circular casing.

Don't use Triangle and Circle much do you? You must not play RPGs. 99% of RPGs actually don't use the Square button at all and make use of triangle for the menu, circle for cancel, and X for accept, or talk. And check this out, the ** Warriors series from Koei use all 4 face buttons with the 'main' buttons being square (attack) and triangle (charge attack). X is jump and circle is special attack.

If you can name a mainstream 32-bit and up console whose controller used every single button in the most comfortable possible layout in every single game, you're a much better man than I. I hate the layout for some games on GameCube with it's awkward d-pad and freaky sized face buttons. I hate the layout of MOST games on the X-Box, but maybe that's just because I dislike console FPS games which are the most popular xbox titles.

Of the games I own at least, the PS2 controller has far and away the best functionality. Maybe you just need to play different games.

Why stop at the PDP-1?

[ivan256]

There are some bad-ass controllers on some pneumatic spinning lathes and milling machines made in the 1950s and even earlier... I'm not just talking a joystick and a couple buttons either. These things had knobs, switches, slides, etc... All things that could make for interesting input on modern controllers, or have been experimented with on game controllers in the past.

Re:Why stop at the PDP-1?

[ivan256]

You don't. I'm just saying that the modern game controller and joysticks have roots that pre-date gaming. Surely a "history of game controllers" should talk about the roots and influences of the device. It's not like controllers and joysticks were invented for gaming...

I really miss the SpaceOrb

[Shivetya]

as I found it to be one of the best methods of playing FPS games, especially Descent. While not perfer for other games it had a level of control and ease of control that was hard to match.

The ASCIISphere was a version which existed for the PS2 playstation
http://playstation.video-game-store.info/B00001ZUT U/Agetec-ASCII-Sphere-360.html

Some information on this controller,
http://www.mindflux.com.au/products/spacetec/sorb3 60.html (product information from former seller)

Old review.
http://www.joy-stick.net/reviews/other/orb360.htm

Closest to current support you can get, as in enthusiast who moved it to XP/2000

http://www.planethardware.com/spaceorb/

Re:I really miss the SpaceOrb

[hrieke]

I actually own one of these- I bought it in a moment of stupidity.
Yes, it massively sucked.

While the concept is cool- the excution was very poorly done- there was no way to tell how much force you where applying to the thing in the games that it did work with.
This was espically true for the up / down, yaw & pitch movements.

eh, I wonder what I did do with that thing...

Am I the only one...

[game kid]

...who noticed the "original Sega Saturn pad" has the Playstation logo? (Here's what seems to be the actual one.)

The D-pad sucks

[Cthefuture]

This is an interesting read, rather shallow and missing a lot of information, but interesting. Being born at the start of the 70's, I grew up with all this stuff.

Dispite what they say, the D-pad is retarded. Tell me how many arcade games had D-pads? Why do you think that is? Joysticks still rule.

I friggin hate thumb controls. Yeah, lets take the most clumsy, one directional (ie. weak in all other directions) finger and control everything with it! Pfffft... this is why I haven't gotten into and played console games since the mid-eighties when I switched totally to computer and arcade games. That's still mostly all I play. I do have recent consoles but they all suck (save a few games like DDR that don't use the ass controller).

Re:The D-pad sucks

[Cthefuture]

I guess I should have been more clear. The thumb is not as dexterious as the other fingers because it is made to grip and hold while the other fingers perform more detailed work. However, this is totally beside the point I was trying to make.

What I meant by my comparison is that the thumb sucks compared to using your hand/wrist/arm like with a joystick or mouse. I can quickly and extremely accurately snap my hand to specific positions whereas trying to do the same thing with just your thumb and its limited movement is damn hard. It's like the difference between using a thumb trackball and a mouse.

Re:The D-pad sucks

[easychord]

I can, easily. I used hand held digital joysticks through the eighties and nineties.

People get used to using second best kit and don't know how to use the good stuff. Old console kids think that the DPad is some sort of awesome gaming setup. Playstation generationers think that the dual shock, one of the worst controllers ever, is actually one of the best. Old school PC gamers think that the people who are using wasd and mouse for fps instead of cursor keys are crazy kids.

N64 credit...

[kisrael]

N64 also gets credit for bringing back 4 controller ports on the system, something lost since the Atari 8-bits...every intermediate system neeeded a multitap, external hardware that never gets as much support as the base unit. DC and Xbox got the idea; Sony remains steadfast against it, and is the poor sister when it comes to party and splitscreen games.

As for
Say what you will about the Sega Dreamcast, but can we at least admit that its standard control pad was a carnival of screwups?

I think that's a huge stretch. Maybe for fighters it could've used more buttons (though I hate 6 similar buttons), and possibly a second analog controller, it brought in good analog triggers, and the VMU was really really nifty...I wouldn't be shocked if future controllers get little screens builtin at somepoint.

Spice tins

[fm6]

Those guys at MIT always had way too much money to spend on hardware. That's why EMACS is so much more complicated than Vi -- it was originally designed to work on a very expensive terminal, whereas Vi was designed for a cheap "dumb terminal".

When the MIT guys were doing that fancy Spacewar controller, less well-financed colleges were making them out of spice tins. Poke a couple holes for a rheostat and a trigger button, and voila! That was the first game controller I ever saw.

Nintendo and controllers

[alvinrod]

For everyone out there who's worried about Nintendo somehow making a lemon with the Revolution and that the controller will be terrible consider that Nintendo has been responsible for a lot of controller innovations that other companies have "borrowed" later on.

The D-pad was pretty popular. I've seen one on just about every major console controller since the NES. The same goes with shoulder buttons that were added on the SNES controller. And then they reinvented the analog stick for the N64. That one also seems popular now days.

Consider this part from the article: Nintendo had long shrouded the controller for its upcoming Nintendo 64 hardware in secrecy. Developers working on games told stories of having to put the controller

As is now widely known, the controller that Nintendo revealed at its Japanese trade show featured an analog thumbstick. After the failure of the Atari 5200 controller, analog joysticks were basically taboo in the video game industry. But Nintendo's thumbstick differed from previous designs in two important ways. First, it wasn't actually analog. Analog joysticks like the 5200's had too many moving parts and were prone to breaking. Nintendo's stick was digital, but provided enough levels of sensitivity that the distinction was moot. Second, Nintendo's stick worked just like a D-pad: you weren't gripping the handle but pushing it with your thumb.

And by showing off the new controller with a polished (but not complete) version of Mario 64, Nintendo showed the killer app that made the thumbstick more than a gimmick. Sony and Sega saw the writing on the wall: next generation meant 3D, and 3D meant analog. They immediately set out to create analog joysticks for their consoles. Sega actually moved so quickly on their design that they beat Nintendo to market in the US (though not worldwide).

Perhaps now you'll get over the paranoia that Nintendo has been displaying towards their controller. While the controller for the Xbox 360 is more or less set in stone, Sony might still have enough time between now and the launch of the PS3 to "borrow" Nintendo's designs.

Nintendo has been doing a lot of innovation with respect to controllers. So far they really haven't let me down. I'll trust whatever it is they're doing with the Revolution controller given the past record they've had.

Re:Nintendo and controllers

[HarvardFrankenstein]

I'm holding one in my hands right now. The edge limit is octagonal, not hexagonal.

I know a lot of people don't like the way that Nintendo's analog sticks have these octagons underneath them, because it feels restrictive, but I personally prefer it, because I know where absolute left is, where absolute up-left is, etc.

Pretty damn long article

[xenocide2]

For something that can be summarized as "Nolan Bushnell is the idiot savant that created video games, and Nintendo is the group that saved gamers from their creator."

The Revolution

[Iscariot_]

I think we are about to get a great controller upgrade from Nintendo (once again). They recently bought these guys: http://www.gyration.com/ . This could also explain why Nintendo said that twilight princess was the last of "this type" of Zelda game. I expect the next one to actually let you swing the controller to swing your sword.

Kinda neet:
http://www.gyration.com/files/demos/Remote_web_Ger man.wmv">http://www.gyration.com/files/demos/Remot e_web_German.wmv

The proud history of the numeric keypad

[Webmonger]

This article's gripe about numeric keypads on console controllers is reasonable, I guess. But the keypad has done much good service as a video game controller.

Back in the days when PC XTs roamed the earth, the numeric keypad, in its arrow-key form, was the standard way to control direction using a keyboard.

The 'wasd' layout for directions came much later, around the time of first-person shooters. I don't remember whether it was Doom or Quake.

Re:Please, this is a nerd site.

[Psykechan]

You can't mention the Saturn 3D controller on a nerd site without mentioning the fact that the cord is removable and it looks like the Reliant from Star Trek II.

I feel so dirty.

Re:Game Cube Controllers

[MrJack5304]

Sometimes I think I'm the only person who absolutely loved the gamecube controller. It fits my hands so perfectly and the trigger shoulder buttons have always been a pleasure to have around. As a matter of fact, if I could take the gamecube controller and somehow merge it with the N64 controller I'd be in heaven. On another note I have total faith in Nintendo to reveal something completely new. Even if it does seem gimmicky at first they will support it and show the masses why it is so great. When it comes to innovation Nintendo never disappoints.

Re:Game Cube Controllers

[realityfighter]

You're complaining about the ergonomics of the Cube controller? The only controller to put the A,B and X buttons on the same axis as the arc of your thumb movement? The only controller to make the buttons different shapes so you could FEEL your way around the controller instead of having to "hunt and peck" for the right buttons? The only controller with analog shoulder buttons, which, by the way, exhibit the kind of resistance you were talking about - it actually feels like you're pulling a trigger when you push the button down. And while we're on the subject of those shoulder buttons, notice how they're dropped down to be exactly where your index fingers naturally land when you grip the controller? On a dual shock the L&R buttons are on stilts above the controller that force you to extend your fingers, and that hurts. (When you strain your index finger, it affects muscles all the way up your arm too.)

When I hold the GC controller, it's designed so that I only need to press together with my palms to hold it firmly, leaving the rest of my hand free to move. Try doing that with a dual shock - doesn't work, your hand only contacts at one point so the whole thing feels unbalanced. The Cube controller can also rest prefectly balanced on my middle fingers - again, the dual shock can't. The drops for the L&R 2 buttons get in the way of me curling my fingers up to meet the bottom of the controller; It will balance if I straighten my fingers, but that requires me to let go of the controls. The only option is to grip the dual shock tightly with your fingers already extended across the controls. The Cube controller actually allows you to relax your grip without feeling out of control. (I would compare with an Xbox controller, but I don't have one.) I've seen a lot of people say, "My hands are too big for the cube", and I'll give em that...but bad ergonomics, or unplanned ergonomics?? Surely you jest, sir. The ergonomics on the Cube controller are a work of art.

Either you or your hands must be insane

[LKM]

Well, controllers are learly a very subjective matter, but since you so nonchalantly hand out awards, I'll do the same myself and thus officially give you my "most insane person on slashdot" award. The PS2 controllers are extremely unergonomic. They give me the cramps. Weird shape, no actual, real, usable analog shoulder buttons (which are great for racing games), stupid symmetric analog sticks which makes using the left analog stick even more cramped, all the buttons look the same (so no primary/secondary/back button) and are placed awkwardly and to top it all, no letters to name the buttons, but geometric shapes. Bad controller.

Controller Family Tree

[iridium_ionizer]

Here's a link to a fairly comprehensive video game controller family tree (complete with thumbnails).

http://www.axess.com/twilight/console/

The article just seemed a little too verbal when a good summary graphic could have guided readers that might not have a clue about some of those systems.

Numeric Keypad... please!

[Red Flayer]

"And just as long as there's no numeric keypad, we should be okay."

I hope they do include a numeric keypad. I'm an accountant -- I could treat it as a business expense and save some money on my taxes!

Now, if only Nintendo put out a green see-through visor as an accessory...