April 16, 2009

Game Controllers Tabled

by Nick Montfort · , 10:06 pm

The periodic table of game controllers is clever – and collapses the history of controllers in an interesting and probably typical way. For each system, only one controller is represented. Although both paddle controllers and joysticks shipped with the Atari VCS, only the joysticks (with their buttons in the wrong place) are represented. Certainly there is no hint that odd things like the Joyboard (ancestor of Wii Fit) or Kirby Tilt n’ Tumble (ancestor of the Wiimote) existed. On the other hand, the table does represent the way that many people think about game controllers, and it’s not uninteresting as a piece of graphic design.

One Response to “Game Controllers Tabled”


  1. Chris Piuma Says:

    I always wish these mock periodic tables actually kept the, you know, *periodic* part of the periodic table.

Powered by WordPress