One item that is integral to the video game experience is the controller, used to manipulate the on-screen events. What is a controller exactly? Controllers are devices that allow for some form of interaction with a video game such as moving the paddles in a game of “Pong” or firing a gun in a match of “Call of Duty.” Controllers range in size, shape and functionality and have evolved drastically since their creation, but many of their main features remain the same.
Many of the controllers available for video game consoles today use what is known as a “joystick” to control forms of movement. A joystick is a device that usually resembles a lever and was first used in aviation to control movement in airplanes. The same concept has been adopted for use in video game controllers for the same purpose. According to William Lu’s 2003 essay “Evolution of Video Game Controllers,” a joystick was not the first device used to control movement in video games. One of the earliest video games ever to be popularized, “Spacewar!,” developed in 1962 at MIT by Steve Russel for a PDP-1 (Programmed Data Processor) model computer system, was controlled entirely with the use of four switches. These switches determined whether the ship controlled in the video game would turn right, turn left, fire its torpedoes or use its thrusters. The first joystick would not come until over a decade later when the Atari joystick was packaged with the Atari 2600 home video game console. Even then, the joystick part of the controller could only move in four directions.
The Atari 2600 controller also featured the use of a button that would be used for further interaction with various video games. Generally this feature was used in games that required shooting some form of projectile. For instance, the popular 1978 game “Space Invaders” that tasked players with holding off an alien invasion used the Atari 2600’s button to shoot at the descending aliens. Several buttons have become the norm for video game controllers since. Nintendo’s 1983 console, the Nintendo Entertainment System, featured two buttons labeled “A” and “B” for various functions. As video game controllers have developed to include more buttons, the range of functions for these buttons has increased as well. For example in Nintendo’s 1986 game, “The Legend of Zelda,” players were given the ability to use their character’s sword with one button and operate various special items (bombs, boomerangs, etc.) with the other.
Some controllers take the basic elements present in some of the first controllers and turn them upside down. The Nintendo 64 provided a unique controller design with the use of ergonomic controller grips. The controller was designed for two different configurations for how it could be held, but the three protruding grips only confused players. Sophomore graphic design major Ryan Kachuba dislikes the Nintendo 64 controller since “it had the three prongs on it so you constantly had to move one hand or the other to reach for a different joystick.” Kachuba finds that he enjoys using the Nintendo Gamecube controller the most because “it was a bit bigger so that way it felt more comfortable in the hands than say a Playstation 2 [controller], which was a bit smaller and more compact.”
Some modern controllers are pushing the limits of what should be standard. With the 2006 release of the Nintendo Wii, many gamers were introduced to the motion control trend. The popularity of this trend has faded in recent years with many gamers favoring the traditional controller designs of the Playstation 4 or Xbox One. Some modern technologies have moved controllers into new realms of functionality. With the movement towards virtual reality, gaming controllers are adapting to the new technology. The Oculus Touch controller, paired with the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, combines motion controls with traditional joystick style controls.