SNES controller the grandaddy of them all?

WOW GUYS THIS IS AWSUM LOL I NVR NEW THAT LOL THX

I wish there would be a return of 6 buttons on the face of the controller just like the N64, that shit was awesome for street fighter 2... not like it ever came out for N64, but I use it through a USB adaptor on my computer. When I first saw the XBOX controller I was excited because it had 6 buttons but who would have figured that those black and white ones would be so akwardly placed to be unusable.

Nintendo should sue!!!

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

No, most things about console controllers' current configuration is owed to the arcade.

One guy - out of 50 so far - pointed this out, and nobody picked up on it. But Nintendo themselves have said that the design of the SNES controller was based on arcade machines of the day, which often featured two rows of three buttons. (The Genesis controller was based on the same configuration, but did the opposite of the SNES controller - it chopped off a row instead of a column.)

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

That's a bit of a stretch. It's like saying "why do we have peanuts? Planter's." Nintendo's implementation may have proven the most popular among modern systems, but lots of companies did "d-pads" before Nintendo, they just weren't called that. And I would call this a fairly obvious feature - I mean Nintendo doesn't have a patent on the d-pad, they've only got a patent on the recessed cross shape - one implementation of the d-pad. The generic d-pad itself is too obvious to patent. (I personally think the cross should be too, but whatever.)

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

See the arcade comments above. Though the shoulder buttons may be the one innovation I'd grant them - I can't really think of an earlier implementation of this, unless you want to stretch it and call the side-firing buttons on controllers from the Atari 5200, Intellivision and Coleco Vision "shoulder buttons". Nintendo may have taken some inspiration from these, though - they certainly took inspiration from the 5200 controller in other areas. (The 5200 did analog and 4 player control long before Nintendo ever did.)

"Why did we go to analog sticks? Nintendo. "

See above.

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

Look up the Atari 2700.

I'm not saying Nintendo didn't popularize some of these things. But it's highly likely that if somebody else didn't do these things first, Nintendo wouldn't have thought to. Nintendo took their inspiration from those that came before, just as other companies now take their inspiration from Nintendo.

But Nintendo is not the first link in the chain; they're near the last. We don't have any of these things "because of" Nintendo.

I've felt that this has been the case for some time now.

The SNES was a sweet pad, but it was the convex X and Y buttons that made it for me, I think. Too bad the Classic Controller doesn't have those.

If you look at only the button configuation, I see a similarity. But what hasn't been copied in all of them is the alternating dimpled/undimpled button surfaces of the SNES controller. That was a great feature which made it easy to memorize the buttons

@stellarburn

Thanks, I was just looking for that link. Great site.

In other news, the sky is blue and rain is wet.

Hmmm...
http://img340.imageshack.us/my.php?image=snespsxcn6.png

Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's pretty obvious where the influence for most modern controllers lies.

WOW!!
That is some mind-blowing investigative ability!
I'm just blown away by these discoveries!
This changes EVERTHING!! LET'S LOOT!

I was going to say what OrganicShadow said... The Playstation controllers are going to obviously mimic the SNES controllers because the PS was originally supposed to be an add-on to the SNES. As for the Xbox controllers... they remind me more of the Dreamcast than the SNES controllers based on the relative locations of the ABXY buttons.

Heh, and I just realized that the company who started the 4 button layout is the only company who hasn't used it since the SNES (not including the classic controller of course). NES, SNES, N64, GCN, and Wii all have different button layouts. The Playstation family and Xbox family have stuck with their original 4 face button layout. It makes me wonder if Xbox 3 and PS4 will still have the same button layouts as their predecessors, while it's obvious that Nintendo will change the controller for Wii's successor... again.

Jeff:
Yes, but there was a transition between arcades and consoles. SNES may have had enough buttons to accomodate Street Fighter II but that was it. Taking into account that arcade button setups (especially Street Fighter) almost required maybe the index and the middle finger to play, it was decided that 6 buttons was too many for one thumb and thus the shoulder buttons are there. They could've done like Sega and been done with it but there is an amount of consideration when transitioning platforms.

Nintendo's D-pad (yes, their invention) was a miniturization of the Joystick so they could put it on Game&Watch.

While the Arcade setup was helped inspire Nintendo's controls, Nintendo has helped evolve the console iterations in their own way.

I wonder what it says about human neurology (or the physics of our hands) that a diamond-shaped quadrant has become the proven way to interact with our right hand, shy the analog control?

And how did Nintendo "stumble" on this?

There had to be some way to translate the increasing buttons of arcade games to a home controller attached to a wire that would fit easily in both hands.

Instead of spreading four buttons across a playing field, they came up with a diamond, taking far less space and having intuitive properties.

It's either brilliant or obvious, I'm not sure, but I'm glad that everyone was smart enough to follow suit.

This is news? Not to spam, but Sock Master told me what I could already conclude from logic and deductive reasoning ages ago, as well as some similarities between controllers that I hadn't previously seen: http://www.axess.com/twilight/console/

They weren't pressure sensitive, they detected if they were held down, how long they are held down, and if you tapped it.

Nintendo just coded to do different things depending how long you held down.

Dual Shock had pressure sensitive buttons, In Zone of Enders 2 for example, you had to tap hard to shoot a bigger bullet, even if you held it long you wouldn't shoot a bigger one.

Don't sweat it though I thought the same thing for years before I learned.

It's obviously true. The SNES was the most revolutionary control pad of them all. Shoulder buttons and the standard four-button layout have stuck for nearly 20 years. Just throw in some more ergonomic designs and some analog sticks and you have a modern control pad.

I think the SNES controller should get some credit. With arcade games before the NES, there were a total of 6 buttons, but it was hard to use a home controlle rwith 6 buttons. Sega tried, but I remember messing up a bit. The SNES made it possible to use 5 of those 6 controllers effortlessly (street fighter, I could never use the left shoulder button).

The design is practical. 2 rows with two columns to use the them, and your index finger for the others.

But that's the past..

Look up the history of video game consoles and you'll see that the NES controller was an evolution of previous controllers. The SNES followed with 6 buttons and a more ergonomic shape. It could be argued that the only reason why the controller had 6 buttons was because of Street Fighter II and other fighting games. For most of the early games the XY buttons just mirrored the AB buttons. Four buttons were plenty for most SNES games.

The Atari 5200 controller was the most advanced controller of the '80s, only hampered by a mushy joystick. The controller was very comfortable and had four shoulder buttons and an 11 digit keypad. Games even had overlays for commands that were mapped to the keypad. Atari baseball for the 5200 is still considered one of the greatest console baseball games ever made.

The NES controller still had the best D-Pad of any controller ever made and Nintendo holding the patent on the cross layout made sure that any other controller would be inferior.

I totally agree that the button layout is simply a product of the most logical design. It just makes good ergonomic sense. If you asked 10 designers who had never seen a gamepad before to create a botton layout nearly all of them would com eup with the same thing. Those that tried to be different failed.

I do hate the Playstation naming scheme. After 10 years I still can't quite grasp the layout. It just doesn't make any sense. XYAB is just easy to remember. The XBOX reverse naming of the SNES buttons drives me crazy too. I always hit them backwards after cementing the Nintendo layout in my youth.

@ Jeff

We do owe our controls to Nintendo, because Nintendo made them work.

Arcade machines are built like a keyboard were you hands are resting, while consoles are built on holding. Sure 5700 pioneared alot of things, but did it sell or catch on? No. What did? Nintendo stuff.

If Nintendo did not populerise it or invent/improve it, it would not be copied or addopted.

Also I hate how gamers are saying its a no-brainer control set up. All no-brainer ideas came with experimentation. You think the annolog stick or a mouse was a no brainer? Think again.

Hey Jeff I looked up the Atari 2700 like you suggested. It was never released, so what's your point?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_2700

Well, its actually the PS1 Button layout that has been copied. not the SNES layout. As one can plainly see.

Actually the Saturn D-pad was superior to the SNES. Xbox 360 is Dreamcast 2!!! FTW

i'm sure its already been said....

it's just too bad they couldn't copy the d-pad too. aside from the original saturn dpad the SNES was the best one. could do dragon punches in my sleep on those things.

WASD !

Wendy's ripped off McDonalds because they both serve burgers, and the Apple vs PC commercials ripped off George Bush since he was blatantly lying and patronizing his audience in his commercials first and blah blah blah....

FFS ppl, companies copy each other all the time. Yes the 4 button configuration is derivative. It works, so why change it? I always liked Sega's 6 button Genesis controller but that was before the PS1 controller was released. (I'd say SNES, but it was always a bit too small for me and lacked ergonomic comfort) Before that the NES controller was just a retooling of a joystick, with an extra button added. So NES ripped off Commodore 64.

I hate to say it, but everyone that responded with "LOL DUH!!" is dead right. I had a PC Gravis pad too (came with Mortal Kombat 1 for PC heh!) and I'm quite curious about which actually came first.

Actually, Scott, I distinctly remember the gravis pad coming after the SNES pad. I got one because I thought it had the same functionality as an SNES pad (stupid 9 yr old observational skills).

@4: Ah, but you forget that the SNES had convex AND concave buttons. The reasoning behind that was so the buttons would feel different to the touch, since they were worried that the SNES had too many buttons. Pretty great idea, and while it all may be common sense, you'd be surprised how many people don't have common sense when it comes to design-related issues.

Ain't broke don't fix it...

"But Nintendo themselves have said that the design of the SNES controller was based on arcade machines of the day, which often featured two rows of three buttons. (The Genesis controller was based on the same configuration, but did the opposite of the SNES controller - it chopped off a row instead of a column.)"

But it's NOT two rows of three buttons. It's a diamond of four.

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

"That's a bit of a stretch. It's like saying "why do we have peanuts? Planter's.""

Or "Why do we have terrible analogies? Jeff."

"Nintendo's implementation may have proven the most popular among modern systems, but lots of companies did "d-pads" before Nintendo, they just weren't called that. And I would call this a fairly obvious feature - I mean Nintendo doesn't have a patent on the d-pad, they've only got a patent on the recessed cross shape - one implementation of the d-pad. The generic d-pad itself is too obvious to patent. (I personally think the cross should be too, but whatever.)"

I'll grant it's obvious in hindsight. Obvious at the time is a little more debatable. Yes, a few companies had been moving in that direction, with circles and four-button combos and such, but the cross shape is Nintendo's. And if it was so damn obvious, how come none of the "lots of companies" who you say "did "d-pads" before Nintendo" came up with it and instead banged their heads against inferior designs?

As for the rest, it's been tackled by other commenters. Yes, there are a LOT of cases where Nintendo wasn't the first to do something, but WAS the first to do it WELL -- analog sticks, wireless controllers, and, yes, motion-sensitive controls. The fact that a product existed previously doesn't mean it worked well.

"Nintendo themselves have said that the design of the SNES controller was based on arcade machines of the day, which often featured two rows of three buttons."

Nonsense. Before Street Fighter, is was extremely rare to see an arcade control panel with more than three,, or at the most four buttons per player. (And even SF only got them because the original pneumatic buttons, one each for 'punch' and 'kick', proved too failure-prone.)

"lots of companies did "d-pads" before Nintendo, they just weren't called that."

Right. They were called "arrow keys". And they were not D-pads in design nor in function.

even the handhelds are going 4 button as well!