Game Controller Family tree

Want to learn when the analog stick’s speciation from its ancestor the d-pad? or how about where the mutation known as shoulder buttons came from? Well, fear not, all your game controller evolution questions are answered in Sock Master’s Game Console Controller Family Tree. Starting with the classic Atari joystick, and Nintendo’s Game and Watch (alright I admit it, the only reason I know what that is, is Mr. Game and Watch and his flipping bacon from Super Smash Brothers) it covers everything up to the just released PS3, 360, and Revolution controllers, clearly illustrating the Nintendo, Sony, and Sega/XBox lineages along the way.

I was also glad to see that I’m not the only one that finds the original XBox controllers less intiutive and more badly mishappen than I’d hope. Fun fact for the day:

In what has perhaps become an industry first, the original Xbox controller has largely been abandoned in favor of the Controller S, which has now been adopted as the controller of choice.

I’ll just pretend that they left all these original controllers in the stores, and thats what I keep getting stuck with whenever I play the demo for five minutes, succeed in shooting everything but the alien, throwing a grenade not quite three feet, killing myself, and in short realizing I still don’t quite feel the need to buy an XBox just yet.