The History of the Controller

[THATinkjar]

I spotted this over at Kotaku: Sock Master's Game Console Controller Family Tree. Thought some of you might find it interesting, perhaps.

http://www.axess.com/twilight/console/

[kirin jensen]

Seems incomplete, to say the least.

No mention of the mouse (first designed back in the 60s if my memory serves me right).

No mention of the Odyssey control setup.

No space devoted to the trakball.

No mention of the O2 joystick.

But it's got a good beat and you can dance to it! :D

[puxley]

Well, the site's creator fully admits that it is a work in progress. Send him your additions!
I think he's done an absolutely swell job so far - a very interesting topic and great execution. I really enjoyed it.

I always felt that the Virtual Boy had a really well-designed controller, I'm kind of surprised that Nintendo never played around with that design again.

Cool link!

[Vectorman0]

That's a cool diagram. It really shows how the controllers evolved physically. It would be even cooler if they included pictures of the actual insides as well. It needs Neo-Geo controllers too.

[legov8]

A pretty good website.

[Ed Oscuro]

No mention of the mouse (first designed back in the 60s if my memory serves me right).
1968 I believe it was, yeah.

[tholly]

pretty nice site so far....i can only imagine that it will get better once it gets a little more filled out

[Speedy_NES]

I agree, that's the most interesting Family Tree I've ever seen ;) I'm definitely looking forward to the evolution of this project :)

-Speedy

[THATinkjar]

I think we should probably e-mail him our thoughts and suggestions and words of encouragement. It's always nice to have these point of interest sites.

[hydr0x]

if you want a History of the Controller go learn German and buy the book "Joysticks" by Winnie Forster and Stephan Freundorfer :D