Evolution of Video Game Controllers

Ant writes "This Revolution Advanced article takes a look at the evolution of controllers from the days of Atari 2600 to Nintendo Revolution." Tragically the Intellivision controller is missing. But oh the nostalgia.

Comments

Hrm...

[lonasindi]

The controllers went, in my mind, from joystick to gamepad... is this an incorrect viewpoint?

Re:Hrm...

[AKAImBatman]

That's pretty much correct. The article seems highly critical of the joystick controllers, but when Atari was king the joystick was all that anyone had envisioned. The few arcade games that didn't use joysticks (Space Invaders, Asteroids, Galaxian, etc.) used simple cherry-switch buttons instead.

Nintendo was ahead of its time when it developed the NES controller. Instead of a joystick, their extension of the buttons concept to a D-Pad created a huge boon in home gaming. Atari was still using their joysticks at the time (since they'd delayed the release of the 7800 by two years), but they quickly designed a joypad for the 7800 to compete. The joypad replaced the Proline as the standard controller for the European edition of the 7800.

Pretty much all controllers that followed the NES included a DPad. (Including Atari's own Jaguar.) The controller didn't change significantly until Nintendo again changed the landscape with the analog thumbstick. While an analog stick had been tried before on the 5200, it had suffered from two major issues:

1. It didn't center. At all. You had to move it back into place if you wanted to stop your character.

2. It was designed to be held in your hand. This meant that you were applying force across the entire controller, making it hard to hold onto. The thumbstick corrected this problem by using only your thumb for control while the rest of your hand maintained a solid grip on the rest of the controller.

The other issue with the 5200 controller, of course, was that it was simply ahead of its time. When the 5200 was released, analog sensor and ADCs weren't that cheap. By the time Nintendo released the N64, Analog to Digital converters were so cheap that one had to wonder why not to use them.

That being said, I'm glossing over the ADC on the Paddle Contollers, but that's another story all togther. :-)

Re:Relations

[AKAImBatman]

How do you figure? The Revolution controller is a remote gamepad with positional sensors and an optional self-centering thumbstick that can be plugged in. The 5200 controller was a non-centering joystick with a clunky keypad attached.

The Revolution controller is really more like a combination of the NES Gamepad, the Powerglove, and the N64 thumbstick all stuck together in a blazingly white plastic package. (Fruity colors are on their way, I'm sure.)

Actually, it's quite amazing that so many games were played with the Atari controllers. A joystick just wasn't a very good choice for a non-fixed controller, and the microswitches wore out easily. (Try opening up a 7800 Proline controller sometime. That sucker is CHEAP.) The Nintendo gamepad was a serious revolution in gaming for several reasons:

1. You weren't constantly ripping the controller out of your own hand.
2. The switches were replaced with long-lasting circuit switches. Any wear and tear could easily be repaired with new rubber parts.
3. The lack of protrusions made it easier to store and less likely to break.
4. Nintendo could give us a quality controller at a very low price. (I don't even want to think about what the 5200 controller cost per unit.)

Re:Old consoles lacking, new ones only mainstream

[cafard]

No innovative controller???

The Intellivision controller comes neutral towards the player being left or right handed, as the control disc (which recognizes 16 directions, unlike the later 'crosses' of nintendo) is in the middle of the controller, and the two side buttons are present on both sides. It also comes with a numeric pad on top of the disc, which is designed so that you can insert a game-provided plastic card over it. Hence, games can use up to 12 additional buttons, and provide graphical icons to the player so that he doesn't have to remember which button controls which functionality.

That was back in 1980, and modern console controllers are still far from that...

Re:It's just a human interface device

[Mullinator]

You obviously know very little about the controller. Perhaps these mock up videos will calm your fears? First one is an example showing how Half-Life 2 could be played with it along with the nun-chuk attachement. Second shows simple little tech demos with a 3d representation of the controller being used, also note the F-Zero demo:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6797958196 289648405&q=nintendo+revolution/
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2063821498 385606325&q=nintendo+revolution/

Alternative controllers

[Phreakiture]

Also missing from this discussion is any non-stock, third party controller.

Yes, the Atari joystick sucked, and was the same stick also used on several computers (Commodore Vic-20, 64, 128, Amiga, and, of course, all Atari computers) and some other game systems (could be used with ColecoVision, for instance) and was a de facto standard at the time.

That said, you could buy third-party controllers from a number of sources. I liked the SunCom TAC-2 joystick, because it was super-reliable, and it had some swing to it. It also had dual fire buttons, so you could give it to a lefty and they could play pretty well with it.

Then there was the prize of all, the Wico stick. Wico made the josticks found in many arcade consoles, and they used the same design for their game controller, complete with cherry switch buttons. It was mounted in a broad, heavy base, which would sit nicely on a table and give you a pretty realistic feel of an arcade console.

Point is, this analysis is missing a lot.

Turbografx-16/PCE

[TheZorch]

The TG-16/PCE is such an underrated game system. I personally believe it was released too late to make a difference in the market. The system dethroned the Famicom (Japanese NES) from its top spot in Japan with its improved graphics, sound and CD-ROM capabilties. It was the first console that did anti-aliasing.

The controller wasn't revolutionary in the least. It was a two button NES/Famicom look-a-like with a D-Pad, but it was the first controller bundled with a console to have dual turbo-fire selectors. This isn't a major advance, I believe the most significent advancement in game controller design is analog joysticks, as well as button velocity sensors, button presseure sensors, and motion sensors (I've heard the Dual Shock 2 has this feature, and the Revolution's controller will definitely have it). The other major innovation is reliable RF style (non-IR) wireless controllers. Logitech's PS2 wireless controller isn't IR like other wireless game controllers. It works via an RF frequency so if somebody moves in front of the console you don't loose control of the game and you have a longer range than IR permits. The 40 hour battery life is significent also because RF wireless devices, especially wireless mice, have a notoriously short battery life.

Reducing the number of cords and cables used to clutter your living room up is a major plus for the next-gen systems, in my honest opinion.