Slashdot Mirror
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.
game controllers really WERE intelligently designed!
The controllers went, in my mind, from joystick to gamepad... is this an incorrect viewpoint?
but I missed the first one. This actually reminded me of my genesis six-button controller, which was one of my favorite pads before analog got big. The only issue I had with it was the edges on the d-pad would irritate the callouses that my thumbs had formed from the nes pad (overall winner in my book). I'm hoping that when they start coming out with revolution controller add-ons (to do fighters, etc), it's similar to either the genesis pad, or the Dreamcast controller...the grip just seemed right on that.
How Jaded Are You?
Evolution of Controllers
January 30, 2006
by: Sud Koushik
We take a look at the evolution of controllers from the days of Atari to Revolution.
If you approach any avid gamer, and ask him or her what they like best about video games in this time and age, there is a fairly good chance they will respond with something relating to either graphics, or gameplay. While those two criterias are very important to the creation of good video games, we often ignore, and neglect the main aspect that changed the way video games were played. I am of course referring to the main method of input in video games, the controller.
Since the dawn of video games, weve seen controllers ranging from numeric pads, to wireless, rumble emitting, ergonomic controllers. Some have been utter failures, while others have seen runaway success. However, with any successful product, its features and design will be mimicked in the hope of similar success. Thus through countless of variations of previous controllers we have arrived at what we hold and use today.
To show you how video game controllers have evolved from its primitive state, to their modern form, we have compiled an interactive chart of controllers ranging from the days of Atari, to the newest innovation in controllers, the Nintendo Revolution controller.
Atari 2600 Controller
The Atari 2600 had one of the first well known digital joysticks to ever be introduced. Long before Nintendo arrived with the Nintendo 64 and made analog sticks mandatory on a controller, Atari experimented with the 2600 joystick. Unfortunately for Atari, and any of those who tried playing with this controller, it was too bulky and difficult for anyone with small hands to hold. In addition to its large base, the joystick was stiff and often didnt work, and when it did, it was barely useable. The joystick only had eight directions, so in technicality it wasnt an analog joystick. Lastly with all the problems that plagued the controller, the absence of a pause button only made it worse, when the joystick stopped working, you couldnt even pause the game.
Atari 5200 Controller
With the Atari 5200, the joystick method of input returned. However it was accompanied by a numeric keypad positioned underneath the joystick. This joystick turned out to be slightly better then its predecessor, by sporting 360 degrees of complete motion, unlike the 2600s simplistic eight direction joystick. Atari also addressed the complaints of a pause button, and it was included with the 5200. Unfortunately the button placements on the controller were awkward, and lead to frequent hand cramps. There are buttons place in front of the joystick, causing you to have to literally have your hands upside down to press them.
NES Controller
The NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) and Famicom (as it was referred to in Japan) had a rectangular shaped controller with a total of four buttons. There were two circle buttons, A and B along with a Start and Select button. The last feature the controller had was a four way directional D-Pad, which was designed by Gunpei Yokoi, as a superior alternative to the joysticks from Atari. The D-Pad revolutionized the gaming industry forever. It was Nintendos way to revitalize the slowly dying gaming industry and put it on its feet again.
SEGA Genesis Controller
With the release of the Sega Genesis, we see controllers start to have curved handles and a more sleek design. The original controllers that were packaged with the Sega Genesis included the typical A and B buttons that the NES featured, but added on a C button. The D-Pad itself was more of else like Nintendos design with a few alternations to get around the patent. Sega soon changed the Genesis controller to feature a total of six face buttons to coincide with the release of Street Fighter II: Special Championship Edition. Even to this day some fans consider the six button Genesis controller to be one of the best for fighting games.
SNES Controller
The SNES control
"In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act." - George Orwell
I've played lots of gaming platforms and I have to say that, I perfer the original Nintendo controller it was very simple to use, almost an extension of my body while I as playing very little thought had to be done reguarding what buttons to push, also it had alot of control. nowadays you have 1 joy stick that control the camera view and another that control the direction your character is heading, then you have and about 8 - 12 more button for more control but you have to consentrate more on what button you pushing... a big differant from the day is arrow keys, start select, and those great A and B buttons
There are many systems' controllers missing from that list; no Colecovision, Jaquar, Tubografx 16, or any handheld.
For something that talks about the "evolution" of controllers, they could of at least listed paddles and light guns; two staples of controllers from yesteryear.
This isn't complete by a long shot and it certainly isn't front page worthy.
This article skips an awful lot of consoles. Where the heck is the Atari Jaguar controller? Or the Atari 7800 for that matter? Colecovision and Intellivision are also MIA, though their controllers don't look all that different from other systems of their era.
We're missing the TurboGrafx 16, the Neo-Geo, the Sega Master System... and quite a few others.
The original Playstation controller, it fit my hand, and I found it intuitive. I found it so nice I bought a PC version from Gravis
SNES controller - again I liked the fit of the unit.
It is better to be the hammer than the anvil.
A nice VG controller "family tree": http://www.axess.com/twilight/console/
/ 1559252/ 068200
Previous Slashdot blurbs on the subject of controller evolution:
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/09
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/14
rooooar
The article sure does a time-warp and goes directly from Atari to NES. What about the multiple variations of Colecovision controllers and Intellivision controllers?
Remember the Commodore 64 joystick? It was basically the Atari 2600 joystick but with a triangular "stick". The button was mouted in the center (instead of off to the side) making you reach around further to push it. This thing had carpal tunnel written all over it! My hands would ache after just a few minutes of playing. I think I have permanant scars from that thing- or maybe those are from that other hand/eye coordination building technique I learned a year or two later.... Image available at http://www.geocities.com/big_al_1401/c64joy.jpg
Repant. Thy end is sheer.
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.)
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
This article could have been slapped together in a day. "The joystick only had eight directions, so in technicality [sic] it wasnt an analog joystick." Yes-- because it was a DIGITAL joystick as the author pointed out earlier! Then he says the 5200 joystick had 360 degrees of motion! So did the 2600, it just output in only eight directions by using four switches. The 5200 joystick may have been a 16-direction model, at best, but it certainly was not a 360. And the NES controller was also 8-way, not 4-way as described in the model or diagonal movement would have been impossible. Overall, the level of writing in this article is childish and chaotic.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
I forgot to mention. A lot of players mod their Genesis or Nintendo controllers to work with their old 7800 systems. I guess they get tired of playing with the Painline^W Proline joysticks. :-)
The Genesis controller seems to be the most popular as it uses the pins in a similar 1 Pin == 1 Button type of arrangement that the Proline controllers use. The NES uses a serial protocol, making the controller more flexible but much less easy to convert.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
I can't say much about the article, do to a slashdotting. I will take this opportunity to spot off on how much I really think thumbpads are a step backwards from the joystick. I pretty much stop playing console games once the Nintendo became king, because I found the gamepad so frustratingly hard to control. You might think is was lack of experience. However, once computer games came along, I picked up controlling with a keyboard (or the keyboard mouse combination) just fine.
Of course this is just one person's view, and commercial success has proved me wrong. I'm sure many people like the thumbpad controllers better, but I'm not one of them (and I'm not sure I understand why). I will point out that thumbpad controllers do have some pratical advantages. They are certainly cheaper and more compact.
The list should start with Ralph Baer's dual-knob analog design for the original Magnavox Odyssey (one for controlling the paddle, one for the ball's English). It'd be fun to include Atari Pong and a Coleco Telstar unit, too. Anyone remember the triangular Telstar Arcade with the steering wheel, light gun, and paddles? Now that was cool.
Other nifty stuff from the Seventies... the slightly odd Magnavox 2 and Fairchild Channel F. And from the Eighties, what about the famed Tac 2 controller that accompanied so many Commodore 64s? Or the Intellivision/Colecovision/Vectrex. Almost like the list was written by a teenager who doesn't know how to Google.
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:6 289648405&q=nintendo+revolution/
8 385606325&q=nintendo+revolution/
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=679795819
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=206382149
The article made it sound like the Dual Shock 2 was when they first standardized on having the 'rumble'/vibration feature. This is untrue. The original Dual Shock was that (hence the name-- it had two different vibrating motors. (Commence jokes here.))
Also, the "you can push down on the sticks for another two buttons" feature, I believe, first appeared in Dual Shock 1, not 2.
Furthermore, they left out the fact that on the Dual Shock 2, the four buttons (triangle, square, circle, X) are velocity/pressure-sensitive. In other words, games can (if they are programmed to do so) tell how hard you pushed the buttons. This feature isn't used in too many games, but oddly, my copy of Kingdom Hearts seems to NOT BOOT without a Dual Shock 2 (a Dual Shock 1 will not do), and I believe some games in the "fighting" genre use the velocity sensitivity...
With spending like this, exactly what are "conservatives" conserving?
I only read through the 8-bit NES controller before I gave up.
The Atari 2600 joysticks were actually damn good joysticks. There were plenty of knockoff and lookalike joysticks in the aftermarket that sucked, but the actual Atari-manufactured joysticks were of superb quality. They were durable and lasted through years and years of heavy use and abuse. The reviewer probably took some 30 year old worn out third-party sticks and tried them out for 10 minutes before determining that they were inferior.
The NES cross pad was hardly looked at as an improvement at the time. Gamers accepted it because it worked well enough, and it did grant a master very fine control over his game character, but it was less comfortable for long playing than holding a joystick. It was cheaper to manufacture, and due to the lesser stresses involved in the design (the joystick is a lever which magnifies the force applied to the sensors the longer the stick is) and it was smaller and lighter and could be manufactured more cheaply.
The article confuses "analog" and "digital", claiming that the Atari 2600 joystick was not "analog" "because it only had 8 directions". Analog has nothing to do with how many directions, and everything to do with whether you have discrete states or a continuum of potential states in the joystick's range. On a digital stick, you're either applying force in a direction or you're not. On an analog stick, the degree to which your stick is pushed toward the extreme end of the stick's range of motion determines just how "hard" or "fast" you're pushing in that direction.
Modern analog sticks are horrible compared to true joysticks of days gone by. Give me something I can wrap my entire hand around, not some wimpy little "hat" stick controller that I have to diddle with my thumb. The current generation consoles largely suck to play in their standard configuration because they don't give the user a flightstick type control, and the button layouts on flightstick type controls are not well laid out for most types of games outside of flight simulation.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
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.
www.wavefront-av.com
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.
Michael "TheZorch" Haney
thezorch@gmail.com
http://thezorch.googlepages.com/home
Under the Atari 2600 section: Lastly with all the problems that plagued the controller, the absence of a pause button only made it worse, when the joystick stopped working, you couldnt even pause the game.
WHAT pause button? As I recall, there was no pause button on the console either. Good grief - we're talking about a 2600 here. There was no pausing PERIOD back then.
Its a shame that fact checking is SOOOO expensive these days.
The XBox Controller is a very moddable piece of kit.
basically its a USB Hub with a built in joystick
The controller Cable is 5 wire however the yellow wire is only used for a light gun and can be safely ignored.
generally standard usb colours are used so.
here's a hint of what to do.
take the extension cable and split this in half (theres a big ferrite core in the middle which you may be able to dig out the plastic) and take a usb extension cable and split this in half solder the female half to the xbox half and you now have an adapter to allow std usb devices to be connected (keyboard mouse anything else supported by debian). google xbox xebian for details.
The other half of the extension join the male half of the usb connector to it and plug into pc. the xbox controller identifies as a microsoft usb hub in XP drivers are available to make the xbox controller as a std game controller. Xbox Memory cards can be read plugged ino an xbox controller using drivers used by action replay with a modification to the inf file. use USBinfo.exe to find the pid and vid numbers for the particular card.
incidently this hack should work to get a usb stick to be readable on a Pc in Xbox format.
so lets see for one controller extension and one usb extender cable you get std usb port on xbox ability to use usb stick on xbox as a memory card. maybe other types of card too.) a great controller for the PC and a dongle to connect an xbox memory card to the pc.
Blarney Quality Restaurant, Plants