Controller Timeline By Connor Jeal

Atari 2600 The original year of manufacture for the Atari 2600 and its “Joystick” controller is Its important as it helped define at-home gaming, it used the simple arcade controls such as the joystick used for most games of that era The Atari 2600 has a simple controller consisting of a Joystick and a Button. This has helped the games that are played on it develop as the games played on the Atari only need the simple controls, which is move/steer and fire/jump.

Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) The NES or Nintendo Entertainment System was first released on July 15 th The NES has again like the Atari helped define the gaming industry, however instead of a Joystick they incorporated a Start and Select Button as well as a D-Pad, A and B button. The NES has helped develop the games played on it as they require multiple direction button, jump and another action button. Games like Mario require you to move forward and back, jump and at some points fire.

Sega Mega Drive Sega released the Mega Drive on October 29 th The Sega Mega Drive helped the games industry by incorporating a new controller style with the layout being somewhat similar to the NES but the Mega Drive had 6 buttons labelled X, Y, Z, A, B and C. the D-Pad has been refined more as well it now allowed the user to move in a diagonal direction. The Mega Drive helped the games develop as its controller layout has changed, it now has multiple buttons and allows you to walk in diagonal directions.

PlayStation 1 The PlayStation 1 was first released by Sony Entertainment on December 3 rd The PlayStation 1 has helped revolutionise the gaming industry in a large way, from the controller, games and the general console itself, without the PlayStation 1 we wouldn’t have the PlayStation 2, 3 or 4 nor would we have the Xbox Original, 360 or One The PlayStation helped the games that were played on that console develop as the controller layout was changed and the graphics changed from the 16 BIT to a crisper 32 BIT. The PlayStation’s controller was refined to fit in the hand better as well as incorporating a new Analogue control which allowed the player to walk at different speeds and look around at the world more

Sega DreamCast The Sega DreamCast was first released by Sega on November 27 th The Sega DreamCast had a short lived life, however it’s technology was ahead of the era, it contained games that are considered classics like Crazy Taxi. It also had ports from Sega’s NAOMI arcade, and was the first console to have a built in modem allowing for internet support and online play. The Sega Dream Cast helped develop games as it allowed for online play. This means that some games were developed with a online multiplayer or co-op gaming, this inspired online gaming as a whole on systems like the Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

Xbox (Original) The first Xbox console was released by Microsoft in The original Xbox redefined online gaming with its subscription service “Xbox Live”. Like the Dream Cast it allowed online play but better games were developed like the popular series Halo. The Xbox has helped the games that are played on it as its controller had a new design/layout. In games we were able to do more that jump and fire or steer and drive, we were now allowed to throw grenades, aim and fire with pin-point accuracy.

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 was released to the public by Sony Entertainment in it was a rival to the popular Xbox 360 released in The PlayStation 3’s importance in the gaming industry comes from its free to play online gaming. This helped Sony compete with Microsoft and actually helped them sell more consoles. The PlayStation 3 had a better graphics card than previous gaming consoles meaning that higher resolution games could now be played, games series like Uncharted and Gran Turismo could look more like real life.

Xbox One & PlayStation 4 The Xbox One was released by Microsoft on November 22 nd 2013, and the PlayStation 4 was released November 15 th The importance of these consoles are the same, they both have better graphics cards which allows the graphics to look much better than the last generation consoles. Their online capabilities allowed games like Grand Theft Auto V to offer 31 player lobbies. the RAM is bigger allowing for more DLC and bigger environments to play in. They’ve helped the games on these consoles develop as the games now have a higher resolution and controls have been added/taken away or even re designed. In Grand Theft Auto V the A button which was used for handbrake is now used for ducking in a car or activating Hydraulics.