Electronic gaming has one thing that makes it what it is in the world of entertainment, and that is interactivity. Without being able to influence the outcome of the sports game, or the battle movements of a ninja master, we are just watching a movie. To achieve the interactivity of gaming, engineers had to design a control scheme for instant response. In some cases, these controllers have become icons of the gaming past-time while others have wallowed in obscurity only brought out to be laughed at.
1 Dimensional controllers:
Yes, believe it or not, the first controllers were only one dimensional. What could you do with that one dimension, though? You had a world of Tennis, Hockey, Football and any other sport you could convince people Pong represented. Giving credit where credit is due though, everyone was used to knobs. Knobs exist on stereos and TVs the same skills you used to get a certain station to come in transferred nicely to electronic table tennis. Using the same principals of any other knob (a potentiometer) nothing was really considered for ergonomics or general comfort of the user. Most Pong machines did not even use wired controllers, instead the knobs were usually only on the console itself.
Early Consoles:
The Fairchild Channel F, the first home console to offer interchangeable consoles, debuted in 1976. The Fairchild produced by Fairchild Semiconductor offered a controller that is closer to the Wii nunchaku than any full controller that one can imagine. It has a shaft that is held in the players hand that has no buttons and is only topped with a short joystick. In addition to the movement normally alloted to a joystick, the Fairchild's controller allowed users to both press and pull on the stick to get the “effect” of buttons. Not only was this an unusual option, making any button mashing difficult, this controller is further hampered by being hardwired with flimsy wiring at that.
A year later, Atari released the VCS (Video Computer System AKA Atari 2600) and it came with a controller that really needs no introduction. While still having paddle controllers that were synonyms with Pong, the Atari 2600 Joystick with its rubber grip and bright orange button is a permanent gaming icon. This controller was quite sturdy in design and was not hardwired to the console, however it did only offer 4 directions of control. While the square shape of the base is not exactly built for the human hand, the Atari 2600 Joystick is easily manageable even for marathon gaming sessions. About the only thing that was certainly changed was the idea of the “action” button being positioned on the left.
Next, in 1980 Mattel delivered the Intellivision with a seriously large shift in controller design. In place of any kind of joystick, we have a sort of golden disc that will move your avatar, and for buttons you have an entire number pad and in case you still needed more buttons, four action buttons adorn the upper sides. The golden disk did offer an amazing sixteen directions of movement, however it could not be read at the same time as the number pad that many games used to fire weapons (this meant stopping movement whenever you wanted to fire). This controller definitely was not made with players in mind. Not only with the awkward layout, but with buttons that simply wear the fingers out with the force required to press them. I cannot help but think that simply turning this controller long ways with the disk on the left would have been a move in a better direction, but this move would have to originate elsewhere.
1982 brought two more players to the market, the Colecovision and the Vectrex. The Colecovision had a controller that quickly reminds one of the Intellivision. It too has an entire number pad and side action buttons, but this time we have a real joystick toward the top of the controller. Holding and using one of these controllers again seems as though no human used it before it was manufactured. I know that this was a new market, but aside from the pointless number pads that so many felt their controllers needed, there is no effective and more importantly, comfortable way to use this thing. These number pads were used normally by each game coming with a plastic sheet that fit over them to show the functions (this is also true of the Intellivision number pad).
The Vectrex brought a surprising amount of simple thought to control method. Smith Engineering, the creators of Vectrex, simply tried to bring home the arcade experience by creating a smaller version of the controls everyone loved. While the joystick was rather small, it could be used while easily getting to the four action buttons the controller offered. Not only a sideways rectangle that would become standard, but also action buttons that were clearly labeled
All of this brings us to the home gaming collapse of 1983, I have not touched on every console released, instead just pointed out trends and innovations. Join me next time for the great D-pad invasion and the true begins of what we know as a game controller today.
