the joy of pads...

like many of the things i'll be adding to this site in the near future, they date back to a distant time and thus are in need of refreshment. for instance, how can any joypad guide be complete without mention of microsoft's truly magnificent xbox 360 pad? such amendments will occur, i assure you.

From some time early 2004
"Us gamers are a fickle bunch. Never happy with what we’ve got, we’re constantly forking out forty notes on a sequel to a game we bought less than a year ago simply because it offers twice as many polygons per car or hairstyle, a couple of extra options on the menu screen or updated names and facial likenesses. That’s because we’re constantly striving for perfection. Yet imagine if in some mystical corner in the back of your socially deprived mind that one day you actually did come into possession of the perfect piece of gaming hardware, say the Playstation 7 or the Gamecube 12. Also imagine for a moment that also in your possession was a copy of the perfect game, the pinnacle of video gaming ingenuity (which in this case would be Mario 262144 for your new Gamecube 12). Gaming ecstasy would surely be only as far away as the power button on that console (although to be perfect surely it could be turned on with the power of the mind?).

A perfect picture, no? (Alright, imagine Anna Kournikova posed seductively on the coffee table beside you as you play, telling how she loves to watch you play games - now that’s perfect). Yet imagine now that connected to your console was a joypad from an Atari 2600. Mario 5.5 would suddenly become the shittest game in the world, and your dream console totally worthless (but at least you’d have Anna!).

The point of this manic rambling? To illustrate that your gaming experience is only as good as the joypad that you have in your hands. The joypad is arguably the most crucial link in the gaming chain. In an ideal situation you would control your gaming with the power of thought alone (or maybe in an ideal situation you’d be out doing things for real?). Since this is not currently possible you need a device to transfer what your brain wants your gaming character to do into your console’s CPU, which in turn makes the character behave as you wish. The joypad therefore is your point of contact with the gaming world. Only when a gamer is at one with his peripheral can true gaming masterdom be achieved. So in this feature I’d like to look back on the joypads that have touched my life, some for the better and some for the worse, and hopefully we’ll see how this most crucial of gaming accessories has developed over the years.

The NINTENDO ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM (NES)

A grey box, four buttons and a cross. In principal the very antithesis of design. In practise however, and in the 1980’s, this device was possibly the most high-tech piece of technology known to man (at least in my mind, that of a pre-teen). Nowadays design such as this would be scoffed at. Today we want contours that glide like jelly around the calluses of our hands, but the NES joypad did the job admirably.

What made it stand out most from its contemporaries was the excellent response from the buttons and D-pad. Whilst analogue technology was years away in console gaming, everything on this pad was solid and satisfying to press. The D-pad had just the correct amount of resistance, and the button response providing the user with a gratifying and responsive press. The angular edges would carve crevices in the hands of those prone to more prolonged gaming sessions, but to the initiated these battle wounds were merely physical proof of the trials endured in completing Super Mario Bros using the warp zones in 15 minutes flat, to be paraded with pride like the scars of a distinguished soldier after battle.

Although it cannot be considered a joypad, the Nintendo Powerglove was controller porn in my youth. Although I understand it was quite awkward to use on a practical level, I knew that if only I were to acquire one then I could indeed become the king of geeks. Alas, it was not to be.

The SEGA MASTERSYSTEM

In the same that way ‘spending time with yourself’ does the job but ‘spending time with a lady’ does it far better, the Master System’s pad, though acceptable, was poor compared to the NES’s pad in every way. This pad is a GoBot whilst the NES pad a fully armed Transformer, this pad a She-Ra figure, the NES He-Man himself. Cheaper build quality and a shocking D-pad were mainly to blame, but even lesser details like the response of the buttons were far less satisfying than the its counterpart. A shame when the Mater System itself housed a few decent arcade titles.

The SUPER NINTENDO ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM (SNES)

Now this pad was the business in every way. Possibly the greatest digital pad to grace this earth, the SNES controller was every bit up to the task of controlling such gems as Super Mario World and Super Mario Kart. Not only was it aesthetically pleasing, but Nintendo had managed to put all eight buttons (which was a huge amount at the time) in the perfect place to allow the user easy access. This was the first console pad to feature shoulder buttons, and thus modern joypads owe a great debt to this design. The rounded casing fitted snugly in the hands and button response was spot on.

You could argue that the shoulder buttons were a little loose and they did tend to be first component to fail. In fact, if one criticism were to be levelled at the pad it would be the build quality. Whilst it was satisfying to hold and robust to handle, the SNES pad often doesn’t survive the test of time as well as some other models, such as the Megadrive’s joypad. And whilst the button layout was a delight it was clearly not suited to Street Fighter 2. Of course you adapted to it with practise but it was never as satisfying as the Saturn’s pad when it came to playing Capcom’s masterpiece of fighting.

The SEGA MEGADRIVE

The Megadrive’s pad was a sturdy piece of kit. After WWIII the world is destined to be populated by cockroaches and Megadrive pads. Still, with only half the number of buttons sported by the SNES pad there was never really any competition between the two. If you thought SFII was tough on a SNES pad, then you should try it on one of these! The d-pad was solid but sometimes movement was not as defined as on the SNES and whilst the button presses were satisfying and responsive they still weren’t quite as sharp. It was also bizarre that whilst the casing was curved on top the underside of the pad was more or less flat meaning that prolonged sessions could result in quite a bit or soreness. A six button variant on this pad was released later on in the console’s lifespan and was an excellent pad, making Street Fighter on the Megadrive the best version of its generation. However, few games ever utilised this improved pad to its full potential.

The SEGA SATURN

The Saturn was home to three pads of varying quality. The Japanese got a quite swanky slimline version featuring a similar layout to the six button Megadrive pad. The bottom three buttons were pitted and the top three buttons raised. This was an excellent design feature meaning that during intense gaming sessions you were instantly able to tell upon which buttons your fingers were wandering. The rounded casing again meant that this pad was very comfortable to hold. On the downside the button housings were a little woolly and did tend to shake quite loose over time. European gamers were treated to a hideously large bastardisation of the Japanese pad, apparently due to our larger hands. The casing was more rounded and actually proved quite satisfying to hold. The d-pad design was very different for some reason, with grooved out circular points at each of the compass points. Many gamers reportedly preferred it though in my experience it very much depended which title you were playing as to which d-pad was preferable. By far the weakest aspect of the Euro pad was the shoulder buttons. Not only was their position ill defined, designed to blend into the contours of the pad, but their press was far less satisfying than the more standard versions on the Japanese version.

Coinciding was the release of the magnificent Nights Into Dreams, Sega released the first analogue pad for the Saturn. Despite sporting a bulk that rivals even the Xbox’s pad, the Saturn 3D pad is probably my favourite pad of all time. Boasting an unprecedented build quality, the housing was superbly solid and the unit as a whole immensely satisfying to grasp. Whilst the six face buttons were no longer raised and grooved, they sat firmly in the casing and responded perfectly to the touch. The analogue shoulder triggers were also a first of their kind and sprung pleasingly under your finger. Ironically the analogue stick itself was the weakest part of the design. Not so much a stick as a ball with a mounted thumb pad, it was hard to manipulate with any accuracy and quickly became slippery when introduced to even the slightest amount of moisture or grease.

The NINTENDO 64

The 64’s pad was the first to introduce an analogue stick as we know it. Whilst it kept the traditional Nintendo d-pad this joypad was the first example of Nintendo introducing more originality into it’s designs.

In what is still probably the most radical departure from the traditional pad model to date, the majority of games required you not to hold onto the pad on either side as seemed natural but instead to grip the centre column of the controller with your left hand (using the real central trigger in place of the left hand shoulder trigger) and the right column with your right hand. In practise this meant that your thumb was not allowed to approach the stick at a natural angle and accurate manipulation, though possible, was definitely an acquired art.

The button layout was also a break from the norm with a nod toward the two-button configuration of the very first NES pad, despite featuring ten buttons. Whilst the A and B primary buttons were prominent and easy to use, the further four face buttons were smaller, closer together and all yellow. Obviously designed for controlling the now standard 3D camera (they were in fact called the C buttons) they often proved tricky to use for games that preferred to utilise them in the more traditional manner.

Also the first pad to feature an expansion port, various add-ons would protrude awkwardly from the back often disrupting the balance of the unit. Cheap third party rumble packs would often rattle annoyingly in the mounting during play.

The SEGA DREAMCAST

Despite being incredibly comfortable to hold, the Dreamcast pad remains somewhat of an oddity up until this day and is surely a device that never fulfilled it’s potential. The solid casing, palm-friendly casing, sensible analogue stick placement and ideal width meant that prolonged gaming sessions always remained comfortable. The brightly coloured, well spaced face buttons and good trigger buttons on the shoulders offered good response when pressed and were great to handle.

However, with only seven buttons this pad was always at a disadvantage compared to its competition. The most glaring omission was a second analogue stick. Whilst no other pads featured this at the time, no other systems were as powerful either and had Sega have had the insight to include this extra stick, the extra versatility may have bestowed the system with a greater life span than it actually enjoyed.

The add-on housing at the top of the unit was far more secure than that on the N64’s pad, though if no extra’s were attached it did mean that the pad was not only hollow in the middle but also slightly too light than it would be ideally. Aside from the rumble packs, the main addition for the pad was the much-hyped VMU (Virtual Memory Unit). Initially lauded as a Gameboy pretender, this glorified memory unit was also a self-contained gaming device complete with buttons and small LCD screen. Whilst great in theory, the combination of poor screen resolution, limited storage capacity and terrible battery life meant that very few developers bothered with it.

THE SONY DUELSHOCK 2

The PS2’s Duelshock 2 is an evolution of the original Playstation’s Duelshock pad. It’s a pad of firsts, being the first to boast built in vibration and dual analogue sticks. Fittingly, considering the market strategy Sony has employed since introducing the Playstation in 1994, the Duelshock boasts none of the quirkiness of its predecessors and instead aims to look like serious piece of consume technology. It’s no bulkier than it needs to be, boasts a minimalist use of colour and bases it’s design around the aesthetically pleasing concept of symmetry.

Looks aside, the Duelshock 2 is a great pad to use. With ten buttons (eight of which are analogue) strategically placed around its body, it really is the jack-of-all-trades offering a standard generic layout that any game genre can adapt itself to. It’s solid on the whole and fits excellently in the hands.

However, being the jack-of-all-trades also means it’s the master of none. Whilst all of the buttons respond well to presses, their analogue capacity is hard to judge meaning they generally can be pressed either softly or hardly, and not much in between. Games like Mad Maestro demonstrate this all too well with the medium strength presses required proving tricky to deliver. The same problem arises when trying to control the amount of throttle in games like Gran Turismo 3 or Colin McRae 4.

Having two shoulder buttons on either side is an excellent feature on the whole, but due to the way some gamers prefer to hold the pad it can be difficult when you’re required to press both shoulder buttons on one side of the pad simultaneously. The weakest aspect of the pad is probably the analogue sticks which although comfortable and easy to manipulate do lack precision of control.

THE GAMECUBE

Carrying on the quirkiness inherent in its N64 joypad, Nintendo has improved on that design with the excellent Gamecube pad. Like all modern pads it fits excellently into the hands and can be held comfortably for hours. Like it’s predecessor, this pad has obviously been designed with Nintendo games in mind (which is lucky really, considering the lack of third party support for the ‘Cube) that gives it a really original look. The fact that it still sports the same d-pad as was featured on the NES pad all those years ago is a testament to the original design.

Whilst the left analogue stick is situated nicely for your thumb and handles well, the right stick is more nipple than stick-like and can prove tricky to use if anything more than shifting a camera is required. The face buttons feel good and press well, but the main shoulder buttons don’t travel as sweetly as you’d hope and can feel a little scratchy. If you’re playing games like Zelda or Mario Sunshine then this pad is absolutely ideal. Stray away from such titles and it sometimes doesn’t feel quite as at home. Play games like SSX3 or any FPS title and the ‘Cube’s pad starts to feel a little less sublime.

THE XBOX

The pad that Microsoft initially shipped with the Xbox must have been a mistake. There is no other explanation for the beast that was that joypad. Not only was it gargantuan with a huge ugly logo in the centre, but the buttons were deformed, poorly laid and too closely situated. All the more alarming considering that Microsoft has been making the Sidewinder range of pads for years.

Thankfully Microsoft more than made amends for their error by releasing the S Controller, which is the best of the current generation of joypads. Amazingly solid and comfortable, there really is no better pad to have in your sweaty grasp.

All of the buttons are firmly situated, offer a responsive press and have a far better analogue response than the Duelshock 2. The shoulder triggers in particular improve upon even those of the Saturn’s 3D pad. Arranging the face buttons on a vertical as opposed to horizontal plane works surprisingly well, as do the excellently situated analogue sticks which are very easy to manipulate and offer precise levels of control.

The vibration function of the S pad is maybe the weakest of the three current pads and can rattle a little at certain levels of shake; I find that certain tracks in Project Gotham 2 consistently cause an annoying rattle. Also, the black and white buttons are a little too small and slightly too far from your thumb which can be a little difficult on some titles.

Where next?

On the whole though Microsoft’s offering represents the very pinnacle of joypad development and demonstrates how far design has come since the days of the NES and Master System pads. Now that we have surely hit the upper limit of how many buttons a joypad can comfortably hold (it’s unlikely the Duelshock’s ten buttons can be pushed much further) it will be interesting to see how the manufacturers attempt to advance joypad development in the next generation of consoles.

It may well be that the joypad as we know has gone as far as it can, and the future lies in the augmentation of more innovative devices. As well as the current trend for dance mat gaming, Sony’s Eye Toy certainly represents an evolution in the interface concept - control without a controller. Some at Sony have already hinted that the PS3 may integrate an Eye Toy like technology into the hardware itself and that it may be able to read your expression, determine your mood and adjust your gaming experience as necessary. Whilst this sort of technology in reality may be some way off, you can bet money on Microsoft and Nintendo developing rival technologies some time in the near future."