History of Video Game Controllers

Last year, Entertainment Software Association gathered together recent statistics about the video game industry. One eye-catching statistics was that sixty-eight percent of American households play computer or video games. That is more than half.

Now I've gone into a brief description of the history of video games in my hub How Video Games Have Changed and Influenced Our Lives, but here I want to bring up the perhaps uncommon history of something more specific. If you are a gamer, like me, you use it nearly every day to interact with your favorite game. A controller. For each gaming system, it looks different, with different buttons but they all do the same thing: allow a gamer to interact with and control the game.

The latest war of the consoles is which console can create the best way for a gamer to interact with their games. Each console has it's own style of handheld controllers, but the newest way is to get the player up and moving. Wii has the nunchuk, Playstation has the Move controller and Xbox has the Kinect.

First though, I will like to go back and explore the earlier types of game controllers. To keep this hub from being overlong, I will not be bringing up the more specialized controllers, such as racing wheels or gun-style controllers. Also, in this hub, I will only talk about the three biggest consoles for video games.  The original Nintendo gamepad set the standard for years.

Nintendo was the first of the three giants dominating the video game industry. The controller for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was brick shaped with only a cross shaped directional pad, and four other buttons, select, start, A and B. This style of controller, known as a gamepad, has proved to be very popular, and though drastically changed with extra buttons and features added to, has remained more or less the same until recent years.

With the Super Nintendo (SNES), the gamepad became rounder and added two more action buttons, X and Y. Left and right buttons were added on top. Arcade fighting games, such as Street Fighter, had a major influence on the button additions.

The Nintendo 64 (N64) saw the biggest change yet in the gamepad design, a trident shaped controller that added a Z trigger underneath with an analog stick on the center grip. Four yellow C-buttons were added originally to control camera angles.  This controller was designed specifically for 3D games and seemed to be a test for the analog stick.

The last console Nintendo came out with before their current Wii was the Gamecube. The controller was redesigned yet again before abandoning the gamepad altogether in favor of the Wii's nunchuk and remote combo. Playstation's Dualshock had a great influence on the Gamecube's controller.

The second giant of the video game industry came in the form of Playstation.  Sony at first partnered with Nintendo to be an add-on to Nintendo, allowing them to play both cartridges and CD formats.  Nintendo secretly canceled, allying with a different company instead.

A move I am sure Nintendo now regrets, for Sony went ahead with what they had developed and turned it into the Playstation or PS1.  The PS1 controller reflects that history, being based very obviously on the Super Nintendo gamepad.  Main additions were two extra shoulder buttons and handles for better comfort.

After the less successful Dual Analog controller, Sony redeveloped it and called it the DualShock controller.   Similar to the original, it uses N64's Rumble Pack concept but fitted inside the handles in order not to add more weight. The thumbsticks click to serve as the L3 and L4 buttons.

The Playstation 2 (PS2) controller stay mostly the same but the shoulder buttons and four main buttons became analog.   Playstation 3 (PS3) keeps to the same formula,  mainly adding a 'home' center button,  player number light, and removing the rumble feature.

Enter the third giant, Microsoft's first Xbox controller was basically a slightly redesigned Dreamcast controller. They added a back button and the black and white buttons. Newest idea of any controller so far was a "quick release" cable that would snap apart if the cord was pulled to hard on or tripped over. The Controller S is just a smaller version of the original with the buttons moved slightly.

Xbox 360's controller moves the awkwardly placed black and white buttons to the shoulder pads. The large center button accesses the 360 user interface and allows the controller and console to be turned off or on. It can come wired or wireless.

The gamepad style of controller can only be changed and added to so much.   Nintendo was the first to switch to motion gaming with the Wii.  The Wii remote acts as the main device for the player and becomes similar to the NES gamepad when turned on the side.  The Nunchuk adds trigger buttons and an analog stick.  Together they both provide great tracking and detects movement in three dimensions. Wii has several accessories to play different games, including Zappers, Wheels balance boards and mats. 

The PS3 jumped on motion gaming using the Playstation Eye and Move controller in order to compete.  Each Move controller will feature a different orb color and is highly accurate in detecting movement in three dimensions.   Different shooting attachments are available for first person shooting games.

Using Playstation's Eye idea Microsoft does away with controllers completely with their Kinect.  Instead the player uses their body and voice to interact with games.  The Kinect is capable of tracking up to six people at the same time.  It also lets the users watch movies and video chat.  The Kinect sensor comes with a special USB cable for older Xbox 360 models, but all new 360's are already compatible.

This is by no means a full history of gaming controllers.  I only briefly describe the history of the three big console names of video games and how they have each influenced each other.  Perhaps this has helped you decide which style you would like.

I'll be happy to receive any comments below.