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Evolution of Video Game Controllers
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Tue Jan 31, 2006 10:16 AM
from the we've-come-a-long-way-baby dept.
from the we've-come-a-long-way-baby dept.
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.
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blasphemers! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:blasphemers! (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:blasphemers! (Score:3, Insightful)
Because they were Intelligently Designed, you see features appearing de novo with no ancestral features.
If controllers had evolved by natural selection, you'd expect to see incremental change in features that indicated common ancestry.
Ramen.
Re:blasphemers! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:blasphemers! (Score:3, Funny)
Relations (Score:2)
Re:Relations (Score:5, Interesting)
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.)
Parent
Re:Relations (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Parent
Re:Relations (Score:2)
Hrm... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Hrm... (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Parent
/.'d already (Score:2)
Re:/.'d already (Score:5, Informative)
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
Parent
Xbox Controller Mods (Score:3, Informative)
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 an
sure it's dupe-a-licious (Score:2, Informative)
Colecovision (Score:2)
I miss my intellivision (Score:2)
I have the PS2 port of some games, but it just isn't the same
Re:I miss my intellivision (Score:2)
When Intellivision first came out, I worked for the company that repaired them. (We also repaired the Colecovision.) Those controllers were a NIGHTMARE, always failing, although mine behaved perfectly.
the best controller in my opinion (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:the best controller in my opinion (Score:2)
I grew up on the NES, and due to an incredible cheapness on my parents' parts, my brothers and I played NES until the time of the N64. It was a great system, and a great controller yes. The controller was very easy to use (impossible to break,I have holes in my wall to prove it), and once you develope the right hand sideways grip, a natural extension of the body.
But newer systems (with decently designed games) can have the same feel on natural extension. I pla
Not just Intellivision... (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:Not just Intellivision... (Score:2)
Oh, come off it. The only thing anyone will tell you about light gun games of yesteryear is 'I always wished I could shoot that damn dog.' I've seen some reasonable arcade games using light guns, and I'll grant that I've had good times with a Dreamcast, a copy of House of the Dead and playing both players at once with a light gun in each hand, goin
Re:Not just Intellivision... (Score:2)
He's right about paddles though. From arcades, to the Apple II, to the Atari 2600, paddle controllers were a staple. And look at all the classic games tied to paddles--Pong and Breakout for starters--and that paddles served as steering wheels for home driving games (like Night Driver).
Old consoles lacking, new ones only mainstream (Score:4, Informative)
We're missing the TurboGrafx 16 [wikipedia.org], the Neo-Geo [wikipedia.org], the Sega Master System [wikipedia.org]... and quite a few others.
Re:Old consoles lacking, new ones only mainstream (Score:2)
Re:Old consoles lacking, new ones only mainstream (Score:3, Interesting)
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 t
Alternative controllers (Score:3, Interesting)
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 s
3 Best Contollers ever...IMHO (Score:2, Informative)
SNES controller - again I liked the fit of the unit.
Re:3 Best Contollers ever...IMHO (Score:2)
Semi dupe (Score:4, Informative)
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
Re:Semi dupe (Score:2)
http://www.gifford.co.uk/~coredump/gpad.htm [gifford.co.uk]
Aren't we forgetting (Score:3, Informative)
Commodore 64 joystick... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Commodore 64 joystick... (Score:5, Funny)
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 [geocities.com]
I don't know about anyone else, but there's no way I'm clicking on that link
Parent
Re:Commodore 64 joystick... (Score:2)
Re:Commodore 64 joystick... (Score:3, Funny)
Poorly researched. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Poorly researched. (Score:3, Informative)
The 5200 had an analog stick (with no centering and poorly-designed potentiometer rails that made diagonal movements irregular). Are you thinking of the Intellivision's 8-switch, 16-directional digital stick?
The console bias means that all the analog controllers of home computers are ignored by this article. The original IBM PC joystick interface, the one that musicians hung their MIDI interfaces off of in the da
Missing the best part. (Score:2)
Thumbpad vs. Joystick (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
It's like the Seventies and Eighties didn't happen (Score:5, Informative)
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.
N64 was/is the best (Score:2)
They were wrong about the Dual Shock 1 & 2. (Score:3, Informative)
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...
Article is wrong (Score:2)
Heh, Such a Bias (Score:2)
But the bias here is funny, Atari gets bashed for not being "really analog" (duh) in the first generation and only having 8 directions, but Nintendo gets praised for bringing, which while probably an improvement in comfort and some responsiveness, really has about 4 directions, not even 8...
Article is almost completely garbage (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Turbografx-16/PCE (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Re:It's just a human interface device (Score:2, Interesting)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6797958196 289648405&q=nintendo+revolution/ [google.com]
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2063821498 385606325&q=nintendo+revolution [google.com]
Re:Evolution of Slashdot dupes (Score:2)
I'm not really sure why this article exists. The reviewer is probably
Re:Atari 5200? (Score:2)