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A Brief History Of Gamepad Development

2024-03-19

The design of the handle has only been paid attention to in recent years. Since the development of the handle is almost perfect, the main issues that designers need to consider now are how to avoid damage to important components and increase the service life; how to make a scientific and reasonable layout so that players can combine buttons coherently and quickly . If you want to know how the handle has come to today, or you have ever wondered why some keys are designed in this way, then we need to trace the origin, take a look at the equipment in the Taizu period, and clarify the evolution of the handle.

The next thing to talk about is the most original form of gaming equipment since the invention of the first computer, not the original form of commercial consoles (such as Atari), and then I will talk about these. Those early, well-known commercial consoles were nothing but the granddaddy of gaming devices, and we're talking about their ancestors now.


Controllers can almost invariably be traced back to one game: Space Wars, the first video game ever 1. Made by three people at the time, the game was inspired by two science fiction novels by Edward E. Smith, PhD: Skylark and Lensmen, in which the protagonist is madly hunted down by a gang of villains that fill the galaxy. There is no way to escape the pursuit. Strictly speaking, space war is already the first air combat game. Players can control different spaceships to attack the enemy while skillfully operating the spaceship to avoid enemy fire.

Space Wars is a two-player battle (commonly known as Local co-op) originally developed by Steve Russell in 1962 to demonstrate the computing power of MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)'s latest computer, the TX-0, but in the end the game was overcast. It was installed on a PDP-1 (Programmed Data Processor) next door by mistake. Players use 4 of the 8 Test Word switches on the PDP-1 to control the ship's left and right rotation (not translation), propulsion, and fire.

This game looks "rough and simple" at first glance, but after a deep understanding of it, it's a blast:


1. It is a two-player battle game that supports local online;


2. The game display effect is almost 1024, the color is gorgeous, and the picture quality is superb;


3. The game settings are against the sky: two people are fighting, and ammunition is limited; there is a star in the center of the screen, you can't just fly and hit it and hang up; don't you hit it? The stars also have gravitational parameters. If they fly too close, they will be attracted by gravity. If you are too far away, the missile trajectory is also affected by gravity. Dead, players who have played Angry Birds Space Edition, please make up your own mind.


I personally think that in the 1962 era, this kind of game setting was advanced enough (the word advanced is inaccurate, because there were no video games before that).


But this game immediately encountered an embarrassing situation. Since the display of this device can only be placed on one side of the console, it is doomed that one player is at a disadvantage in line of sight and has to hook his head to look at the display; in addition, the height of the console is uncomfortable , after playing for a while, your elbows will feel uncomfortable; in addition, the equipment is rare and expensive, and the personnel are so close that one accidentally breaks it, and the main switch of the computer is also on the console, and a mistake will turn off instantly (the buttons are all long In the end, the 4 switches are side by side, and it is difficult for players to remember which switch corresponds to up, down, left, and right, and their eyes can't always keep their eyes on the console. So this game has become a powerful tool for high-level players, and newcomers can't even remember it. When there is demand, there is motivation. In order to solve the above problems of dehumanization, the first generation of game "handle" is about to be born.








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