Gamepad

, a typical modern gamepad A gamepad is a type of video game controller held in two hands, where the fingers (especially thumbs) are used to provide input. Typically the primary input device for video game consoles, gamepads feature a set of buttons and often one or more omnidirectional control sticks. First appearing in the early 1960s with custom devices for games like Spacewar!, the gamepad rose to mass-market prominence during the third generation of video game consoles with the introduction of the NES controller and its iconic D-pad. Since then, the design has undergone continued refinements, including the addition of shoulder buttons, analog triggers, and haptic feedback. While primarily designed for consoles, modern gamepads are also widely used on personal computers and have occasionally been adapted for non-gaming purposes, such as controlling military equipment or submersibles.

, a typical modern gamepad]]A gamepad is a type of video game controller held in two hands, where the fingers (especially thumbs) are used to provide input. Typically the primary input device for video game consoles, gamepads feature a set of buttons and often one or more omnidirectional control sticks. First appearing in the early 1960s with custom devices for games like Spacewar!, the gamepad rose to mass-market prominence during the third generation of video game consoles with the introduction of the NES controller and its iconic D-pad. Since then, the design has undergone continued refinements, including the addition of shoulder buttons, analog triggers, and haptic feedback. While primarily designed for consoles, modern gamepads are also widely used on personal computers and have occasionally been adapted for non-gaming purposes, such as controlling military equipment or submersibles.

Entry into the mass market

]]It would take many years for the gamepad to rise to prominence, as during the 1970s and the early 1980s joysticks and paddles were the dominant video game controllers, though several Atari joystick port-compatible pushbutton controllers were also available. The third generation of video games saw many major changes, and the eminence of gamepads in the video game market. Nintendo developed a gamepad device for directional inputs, a D-pad with a "cross" design for their Donkey Kong handheld game. This design would be incorporated into their "Game & Watch" series and console controllers such as the standard NES controller. Though developed because they were more compact than joysticks, and thus more appropriate for handheld games, D-pads were soon found by developers to be more comfortable to use than joysticks. The D-pad soon became a ubiquitous element on console gamepads, though to avoid infringing on Nintendo's patent, most controller manufacturers use a cross in a circle shape for the D-pad instead of a simple cross.

Continued refinements

The original Sega Genesis/Mega Drive control pad has three face buttons, but a six-button pad was later released. The SNES controller also featured six action buttons, with four face buttons arranged in a diamond formation, and two shoulder buttons positioned to be used with the index fingers, a design which has been imitated by most controllers since. The inclusion of six action buttons was influenced by the popularity of the Street Fighter arcade series, which utilized six buttons. gamepad (Japanese Super Famicom version shown), which popularized the layout used by most modern gamepads]]For most of the 1980s and early 1990s, analog joysticks were the predominant form of gaming controller for PCs, while console gaming controllers were mostly digital. This changed in 1996 when all three major consoles introduced an optional analog control. The Sony Dual Analog Controller had twin convex analog thumbsticks, the Sega Saturn 3D Control Pad had a single analog thumbstick, and the Nintendo 64 controller combined digital and analog controllers in a single body, starting a trend to have both an analog stick and a d-pad. Despite these changes, gamepads essentially continued to follow the template set by the NES controller (a horizontally-oriented controller with two or more action buttons positioned for use with the right thumb, and a directional pad positioned for use with the left thumb).

Three-dimensional control

can also be played by holding it sideways with two hands like a conventional gamepad controller.]]Though three-dimensional games rose to prominence in the mid-1990s, controllers continued to mostly operate on two-dimensional principles. Players would have to hold down a button to change the axes along which the controls operate rather than being able to control movement along all three axes at once. One of the first gaming consoles, the Fairchild Channel F, did have a controller which provided six degrees of freedom, but the processing limitations of the console itself prevented there from being any software to take advantage of this ability. In 1994, Logitech introduced the CyberMan, the first practical six-degrees-of-freedom controller; however, it sold poorly due to its high price, poor build quality, and limited software support. Industry insiders blame the CyberMan's high profile and costly failure for the gaming industry's lack of interest in developing 3D control over the next several years. The Wii Remote is shaped like a television remote control and contains tilt sensors and three-dimensional pointing which the system uses to understand all directions of movement and rotation (back and forth around the pitch, roll, and yaw axes). The controller is also multifunctional and has an expansion port which can be used for a variety of peripherals. An analog stick peripheral, called "Nunchuk," also contains an accelerometer but unlike the Wii Remote, it lacks any pointer functionality.

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