SNES controller the grandaddy of them all?

by Kevin Kelly { Apr 30th 2007 at 5:14PM }

Shamoozal takes a look at the layout of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System controller, and compares it to just about everything that's come since. There's no doubt that it's been highly influential, but did it directly shape the Xbox 360 or PS2 controller you just let go of, or are about to pick up?

They make a good case for it, going as far to suggest that the 360 and PS2 / PS3 controllers are basically Voltron-esque versions of the SNES one, with new features like analog sticks, pressure-sensitive buttons, rumble, and more being added on as time goes by.

Give it a read and see if you agree. Those button shots alone sold us.

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

samfish @ Apr 30th 2007 5:21PM

Well...yeah. No duh. Every major system since the 5th generation, save the Saturn, has ripped off the SNES controller.

MowDownJoe @ Apr 30th 2007 5:24PM

Hell, if you use the Super Famicom button layout, you'll also notice that the Dreamcast and all XBox iterations use the same colors. Hell, the Dreamcast's color pattern is the Super Famicom's rotated one notch clockwise.

sheppy @ Apr 30th 2007 5:22PM

And the SNES pad has roots in a third party NES knockoff controller. I remember I had one. It was shaped like the NES Max but had a d-pad and angled buttons. Above those were "Turbo" buttons that were B and A.

But even if we ignore that, wouldn't this qualify as a "no duh" moment rather than "Hey, I never realized that?"

OrganicShadow @ Apr 30th 2007 5:43PM

I fail to see why both the Xbox and 360 are both shown, but alrighty....

I think Sony took that concept(obviously since they were working on the SNES CD add-on device thing which turned into PlayStation when they got screwed by Ninty) and wanted to make it more of a plus sign with the Y/A(square and circle) buttons closer together. One thing I have felt while playing PS controllers is that I never felt like any two of the face buttons were "paired". I always felt like A and B went together, and X and Y weren't used as often, kinda like "secondary" face buttons, but with PS controllers all the face buttons were "independent" I guess, and while X was usually the primary, I still used the other three equally.

I dunno, call me crazy but that's how my brain is wired. For some reason though I didn't feel the same way about the DC controller. Never really liked it. That's one of the reasons I like the R2/L2 triggers on the sixaxis so much because they feel like buttons when my fingers are resting on them, but pull like triggers when pressed.

OhJustSomeRandomGuy @ Apr 30th 2007 5:31PM

This isn't an issue of one inspiring the others.

How many other configurations are there for lining up 4 buttons? Aside from lines, which waste a craplod of space, there aren't many. Putting them in a square/diamond is simply the most efficient usage of space. So Nintendo actually used it on a controller first. It's common freaking sense. Might as well just go ahead and give Nintendo props for the convex buttons, tying their shoelaces, and not wetting the bed, too.

Plus, the article shoehorns the Xbox controller into the list, and blatantly ignores the "White" and "Black" buttons on the Xbox controller so it can try to make its point.

Sorry. This is pretty lame.

CaptNink @ Apr 30th 2007 5:31PM

Well duh!

:P

Aex @ Apr 30th 2007 5:34PM

Before the SNES Nintendo did the MAX! Like Sheppy said, it all spawned off this little guy.

http://www.syntaxerror.nu/joy026.jpg

I wouldn't agree with the "ripped off" thing seeing how most things are "ripped off". I'd say more like improved upon. Nintendo ventured away from it, and look what we got... the N64 controller, then back to a similar scheme with the GC controller, then back to greatness with the VC controller.

Andre @ Apr 30th 2007 5:36PM

Gotta love how everyone uses the SNES' button layout, exept for the company that invented it.. :)

MJ @ Apr 30th 2007 5:36PM

Wonder why they didn't use this layout for the GC? I really like the Wavebird, but the button layout is awkward... and it only makes sense to have the buttons like that because of the way your thumb is laying on the pad.

havoc @ Apr 30th 2007 5:38PM

Who gives a shit?

Kye @ Apr 30th 2007 5:35PM

*mouth open in mock-surprise*
...*rolls eyes*

AirIntake @ Apr 30th 2007 5:37PM

The original xbox controller (the Duke), had the buttons in an elongated diamond, with the black and white up top right. This was actually closer to the Sega Genesis 6-button controller than to the SNES pad. But people like what they are used to so MS changed to the standard square diamond for the controller-s.

I think I was the only guy that liked the Duke, but I did own a Genesis and not an SNES, so there you go.

AirIntake @ Apr 30th 2007 5:41PM

@havoc

You, because you read at least some of the article an took the effort to post a comment.

Paviel @ Apr 30th 2007 5:41PM

I do think that the Super Famicom controller is probably a better candidate for "granddaddy of them all" because of the colors (and because I'm pretty sure that Japan got the SFC before America and Europe got the SNES).

Of course, red, yellow, blue, and green seem to be pretty common colors, so it might just be a coincidence. Then again, the Xbox and Dreamcast didn't have to use those colors, since the American SNES didn't. (I think the European SNES controller looks like the SFC's.)

NintendoFanbot @ Apr 30th 2007 5:42PM

Even if MS stuck with the original Xbox Hamburger the buttons gave me blisters. Black/White on the original Hamburger were practically useless as well.

---------------------------

"Gotta love how everyone uses the SNES' button layout, exept for the company that invented it.. :)"

Heh. :P

TomC1234 @ Apr 30th 2007 5:43PM

Let's not forget the L and R buttons!
Also the button configuration might seem "obvious" now but I'm sure it wasn't before. Take a look at the Genesis and 3DO controllers for example. 3 buttons in 1 row and 6 buttons in 2 rows!

ALH @ Apr 30th 2007 5:44PM

I think this is a fitting time to confess that even now there are times when i have trouble telling the difference between circle and square on a playstation controller, especially if theyre flashed up at my face quickly in an active time segment or rhythm game. Not only are they similar in shape, but theyre also near identical in colour, so if you're sitting pretty far from a pretty small screen things can get confusing fast. Its not like they follow a logical sequence like AB/XY or ABCD either :(.

Mr Khan @ Apr 30th 2007 5:44PM

Post SNES controllers that HAVE ripped off

1. PSX
2. 3D0
3. Dreamcast
4. Xbox
5. PS2
6. GameCube
7. 360
8. PS3
9. Virtual Console (arguable though, since its kind of meant to be a ripoff)

Post SNES controllers that HAVEN'T
1. N64
2. Atari Jaguar
3. Sega Saturn
4. Wii

It seems like all the winning consoles have had the 4-button format, and most of the losers have not

almost makes you worry about the Wii...

But i always thought this was painfully obvious

stellarburn @ Apr 30th 2007 5:48PM

A better site than the article:
http://www.axess.com/twilight/console/

Mystic @ Apr 30th 2007 5:47PM

Hasn't Nintendo pretty much pioneered everything in the industry? Shoulder buttons, analog control, rumble, etc.

Phil @ Apr 30th 2007 5:52PM

Wow, you guys sure are a tough crowd.

Am I saying the SNES controller is the greatest controller of all time? No, but I am saying it seems to have a great influence on things.

As for "ignoring" the black and white buttons on the Xbox controller to help prove my point, well I tend to liken them to the "z" button on top of the Gamecube pad. Those two buttons are not part of the face buttons much the same way that the z button isn't really part of the trigger/buttons on the Cube pad.

For those that actually got what I was trying to say and enjoyed it, thanks for reading.

Aex @ Apr 30th 2007 5:52PM

@Mystic

I'd say they have pioneered alot, but not everything. Then after the pioneering, other companies come in and improve upon greatly, and instead of improving on their own pioneered technology, they leave it weak and dying and go out to pioneer something else.

required @ Apr 30th 2007 5:54PM

I wonder who came up with cord attachment placement

Zertoss @ Apr 30th 2007 5:57PM

"It seems like all the winning consoles have had the 4-button format, and most of the losers have not"

The Gamecube, while it does have 4 buttons, does not use the same layout as the SNES/Super Famicom. It had the large A button in the center with the small B button off to the left and the bean-shaped X and Y buttons above and to the right.

And the Gamecube was hardly a winning console. Sure it had quite a few good games, but not enough to bring it above dead last in sales.

Kelvin @ Apr 30th 2007 6:01PM

This has gotta be a joke, I mean seriously

The design is the from arcade machines, with two buttons taken off.

ITS THAT SIMPLE.

Shawn P @ Apr 30th 2007 6:09PM

This is one funny article only because i was thinking the same thing today way before i saw this article.
weird.....

Thad @ Apr 30th 2007 6:10PM

Wow, you know, I never noticed that.

Because not only am I under 20, I am also blind and stupid.

JodyAnthony @ Apr 30th 2007 6:12PM

a huge LOL at the people actually getting worked up over this little piece of silliness.

Doug @ May 1st 2007 8:08AM

Dont forget the 4 colors on the PAL snes version were important too =D

Corbo @ Apr 30th 2007 6:27PM

The way I understand it, the current Playstation controller is very much a product of the SNES lineage. The Playstation started life as an add-on for the SNES and if you look at the original PS controller, it's pretty much a SNES pad with two prongs and a couple of extra shoulder-buttons. Sony later added a pair of analogue sticks and rumble and they've stuck with the same basic shape ever since. (A point actually made in the main article)

I'm not knocking them for it, though there could be arguments made that it might have been better to try things anew with the PS3 at least. I'm just saying that if you follow the project history, then an explanation becomes apparent.

Microsoft, entering the market when they did, were obviously going to take some features from previously successful consoles and build on them. Actually, that pretty much explains practically any entry. Again, I'm not saying that it's a good or bad thing, but it's no huge surprise.

What is interesting to note is how Nintendo, the ones behind the layout, have not used it so much. I never had much of a problem with the N64 controller but looking back with larger hands and cynical eyes, it probably wasn't the best design out there. That said, I found the GameCube controller by far the most comfortable of the last generations of pads. The Classic Controller, as said in the article, is the clearest evolution. Of course, it was designed to allow SNES/NES era games to be played on it, so that's probably a much more deliberate design feature than most.

It certainly was a long-lasting design.

Chris Putnam @ Apr 30th 2007 6:28PM

It's true that Nintendo has been the pioneer behind just about all of the controller innovations. The original PSX controller was basically an SNES controller with 2 extra shoulder buttons and a more ergonomic design, and in turn it's been the model for just about every controller since.

Something I find interesting is how the analog sticks were hastily slapped onto the original PSX controller, more or less ruining the comfort of the handles - and yet this stopgap design's been carried unchanged through 2 more iterations of the PlayStation, apparently for purely nostalgic reasons. The controller is long overdue for a redesign, but as soon as the possibility comes up (the boomerang), people start an uproar.

The standard next generation is almost sure to be a wiimote-style controller, making Nintendo the pioneer once again. Once developers get past the feeling that they need to base every game around tacky motion controls, they'll realize that the split wand+nunchuk setup gives all the features of a traditional controller plus a lot more.

And maybe we'll finally see a new damn style for the Dual Shock.

Gozan @ Apr 30th 2007 6:30PM

"It seems like all the winning consoles have had the 4-button format, and most of the losers have not"

Hmm...

"1. PSX
2. 3D0
3. Dreamcast
4. Xbox
5. PS2
6. GameCube
7. 360
8. PS3

1. N64
2. Atari Jaguar
3. Sega Saturn
4. Wii"

Wii's sold more than PS3 and is set to surpass 360 by Christmas, Saturn's sold more than 3D0 (who hasn't?), and N64 sold more than XBox, Gamecube and Dreamcast. So basically, you post boils down to "PS1 and PS2 had SNES type layouts."

hegemonyhog @ Apr 30th 2007 7:47PM

Everything about console controllers' current configuration is owed to Nintendo.

Why did we go to the D-Pad? Nintendo.

Why did we have a four-button standard face with L and R shoulder buttons? Nintendo.

Why did we go to analog sticks? Nintendo. (We also have two sticks as a standard through a refinement of the N64's C buttons.)

Why did we go wireless as a first-party standard? Nintendo.

Al2x @ Apr 30th 2007 6:48PM

The Super Nintendo controller DID have pressure sensitive buttons.

thoms3 @ Apr 30th 2007 6:51PM

if you look at history you'll see nintendo's controllers are the basis for every game controller except the joystick, the new d-pad, the snes 8 button controller the n64 with the odd thump stick that's on every controller now, and probably in the future you'll see controllers like the wii.

the common cold @ Apr 30th 2007 6:54PM

Chris Putnam:

Amen.

Alex @ Apr 30th 2007 7:02PM

Ironic how some people disclaim Wii as a real next gen system because of its inferior graphics when in fact it's the only system who's made a revolutionary step forward in the industry, breaking away from a traditional scheme that Nintendo themselves have built.

The hidebound "don't fix it if it aint broken" argument has been disproven time and time again with the analgue stick replacing the dpad, the disk replacing catrige, and now the Wii remote will replace the Snes rip-offs, whilst the graphics branch as always been just a suspected advancement.

Markham @ Apr 30th 2007 7:06PM

Aren't all buttons pressure sensitive?

Alex @ Apr 30th 2007 7:07PM

Also worth noting is that when MS and Sony's own controller ideas are pushed to the industry, they are rejected by the masses. The Xbox's duke controller sucked and had to be replaced by the S, and Sony's boomerang didn't even get a release date before it was torn to pieces and replaced by a downgraded version of its preceding controller (I say down graded because it has no rumble)

Rubang B @ Apr 30th 2007 7:14PM

Although some of you might find either or both of the N64 and GC controllers to be disgusting, they do have some great ideas behind them.

The N64 had the 3 prongs because Nintendo didn't expect 3-D gaming to completely replace 2-D gaming as fast as it did. They figured you'd use the analog for 3-D games and the D-Pad for 2-D games. They wanted the controller to do everything at once. But then everybody stopped making 2-D games (those evil bastards), making the left prong with the D-Pad pointless.

The GC controller is based around the fact that every game has one primary button, so they made it big, green, and in the middle. This is the jump button, the gas button, the go button, the action button.

Iwata/Miyamoto in their market-expanding wisdom wanted to make a controller that anybody could use. You tell people "Just press the big green button." It's almost as easy as saying "Just swing the remote." They were much more successful this time around with the much larger risk of the Wii remote.

That is all! Good day!

AirIntake @ Apr 30th 2007 7:22PM

"The Super Nintendo controller DID have pressure sensitive buttons.

Posted at 6:48PM on Apr 30th 2007 by Al2x"

Are you sure? Do you have a link where it shows this? This link: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_SNES.html shows the buttons as digital, not analog.

just a guy @ Apr 30th 2007 7:23PM

What? Nobody is going to mention the Gravis Pad?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravis_PC_GamePad

It's interesting to note that many controllers use the Red-Yellow-Green-Blue colors for the buttons, but no two companies put the colors in the same positions. I wonder if that is intentional.

Angusailde @ Apr 30th 2007 7:25PM

I thought this was a given?

Alex @ Apr 30th 2007 7:29PM

Thanks Ruban, I never knew that about the N64 controller, just thinking about, I did rarely use the left prong, and I remember when people would mock the controller as one for mutants with three hands and how the heck are we suppose to hold it, ect.

syco @ Apr 30th 2007 7:31PM

I like pieces and parts of the controllers that have come and gone. The Gamecube controller was nearly the best controller ever designed, I think, as it had a primary and secondary joystick that was differentiated, a primary and secondary face button, with two auxillary buttons. And the shoulder buttons were the best on any controller, ever. Except Z. I don't know wtf was going on with Z.

The Dualshock/SixAxis/Wii classic controller style is also very functional and works better for 2D games, fighting games, and sh'mups. Not to mention they allow for extra shoulder buttons.

I hate the dreamcast controller with the burning passion of a million suns.

Asok @ Apr 30th 2007 7:35PM

First of all, I've always noticed this kind of thing. I've been in love with the SNES controller ever since I first picked one up. But the one thing they got rid of that I've always missed is the indented X and Y buttons. All of them are round nowadays. It had the perfect feel to it, and I wish they'd bring it back, at least in some 3rd party controller.