Controller Hall of Fame

hisnice

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We all love joysticks, buttons, Steering wheels, pedals, spinners and trackballs. And we probably disagree on which joystick or button style or size trackball is the best.

But the arcade industry has also given us some really unique and innovative controllers over the decades. And many of them required some very specific physical behavior and muscle memory to be good at their games.

So what controllers really stand out to you, either for the industrial design and feel of the device, and/or for the physical movements you had to do to use.

A few of my favorites are:
Lunar Lander throttle - beautiful, amazing feel, totally unique

Basketball Champ's hand grip - simple mechanical lever that you had to squeeze at just the right pace and in the right time window to make a basket.

Open The Safe's combination lock dial - This game's being talked about in another thread these days, and it's the grandparent of so many other activities that are not at all obvious games (like Tapper)

Tapper's tapper - This could have been a button, but the controller made the game (and made it more accurate to the job of bar tending).

All of the music games - Anything that plays a guitar or drums or where you do record scratching... Totally different coordination and attracted so many people who don't like most video games. I'm mostly thinking of Rock Band on consoles, but I know there were some arcade games like this, too.

I think honorable mentions can go to things like force feedback for steering wheels or mounting the Q*bert joystick diagonally, but they don't get my vote for this Controller Hall of Fame.

What else should be in it?
 
Caveman pinball had a video screen and a joystick, Tron and the other flight stick-ish games had cool controls

And if we're talking consoles (which we are probably not), that opens up about literally 1,000,000 different wacky official and aftermarket controllers. Power glove!
 
paperboy, mad planets

Paperboy is one of the very best!

Mad Planets is great because of the combo (I think it's the same as Tron?) and it reminds me that Forgotten Worlds had amazing controllers. Basically the Front Line/Wild Western push down spinner with a flight stick.

Yeah, Front Line's spinner should be on the list, too. :)

Oh, also the snap stick on All American Football and various other Leland baseball games.
 
The flight stick on the Thunder Blade deluxe. Moving the stick left and right also moved your seat left and right. Completely mechanical, no motors or hydraulics.
 
Inventions of the TRAK-BALL and SPINNER (optical based). Moved games away from just buttons or a joystick.

TRAK-BALL - Missile Command "big @$$" one (awesome; gives a good workout)
SPINNER - Tempest (simple design; with or without the "brrrrrrrrrr")
ROLLER - Similar to above (best way to play Major Havoc)

HALL-EFFECT STICKS - better control. (used on I,Robot etc)
 
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Twistable joysticks like in Ikari Warriors. I liked it.
Front Line has a rotation spinner that you pushed down to fire, as did Forgotten Worlds. Didn't like that too much.
Discs of tron's spinner that you could also pull up on or push down to raise and lower your aim.
Street Fighter 1's rage-enducing plungers. It was interesting.
Sinistar's layered joystick. I never knew it made a difference in ship speed until I got on this forum!
 
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We all love joysticks, buttons, Steering wheels, pedals, spinners and trackballs. And we probably disagree on which joystick or button style or size trackball is the best.
But the arcade industry has also given us some really unique and innovative controllers over the decades. And many of them required some very specific physical behavior and muscle memory to be good at their games.
So what controllers really stand out to you, either for the industrial design and feel of the device, and/or for the physical movements you had to do to use.
What else should be in it?

Great thread idea!

Some items I thought of...

Kick track ball. Maybe not Hall of Fame worthy, but still should be displayed there. 2-way only track ball. Cool!

Mazer Blazer controls. They hang DOWN from the upper part of the cabinet, rather than a normal control panel which sits up from the bottom part of the cabinet. It kills my back to play it, but it's cool!

Viper & Danger Zone - the control panel is physically attached to the monitor housing. When you move your airplane (or whatever item in the game), your perspective on the screen changes to reflect your movement. Never saw anything like that before.

Badlands (Konami) - how could you not like a control panel which consists of nothing more than a single large button?

Wacko - nothing special on the control panel, but the control panel itself. On an angle. Definitely Hall Of Fame worthy!

Need to think more on this subject.
 
Stunt Cycle motorcycle handlebars

Although the Atari Football trackball was just a trackball, it was the first time I'd ever seen such a contraption.
It is HOF worthy due to all of the blisters and cuts it caused on hands. The Beastmode of controls
 
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I liked the joysticks on Midway's Tron cocktail.

It looks similar to standard Midway Pac-Man style at first glance, except it has a little trigger fire button built into the back side of it.

I think some others used this style too... Satan's Hollow, maybe?

Kyle :cool:
 
I was thinking about the game where you kick the tethered soccer ball, but then saw this flyer.

Oh! And Whack a Mole! Does that count as an arcade game?
 

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I just serviced / partially rebuilt my Sega Hang On control assembly. It's a very robust, well built design that has a lot going on in a pretty small space. Feels great and steers like a breeze now.
 
So what controllers really stand out to you, either for the industrial design and feel of the device, and/or for the physical movements you had to do to use.

What else should be in it?

Probably no one considers this because they are so common and on so many (Atari) games, but I think the good old fashioned Atari lighted cone start buttons are awesome. The click when you press them is just right. Even though common, they are unique to Atari. They definitely deserve to be in any controller Hall Of Fame.
 
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