15 Video Game Firsts We Take For Granted
11. The Analogue Stick
Remember a time when a controller didn't have an analogue stick, and your only means of movement was the D-Pad?
Before the analogue stick was even a thing, there was the joystick. They were most regularly used on flight simulator games in arcades, as well as on a poorly-received controller released by Atari for their 5200 console.
In 1988, Nintendo released a controller called the NES max, which featured a unique thumb-pad based joystick controller. Hot on their heels the following year, Sega released a controller called the XE-1-AP, which had a thumb-operated control stick.
The first instance of an actual centering digital analogue stick, like we have on controllers now, is attributed to the Nintendo 64's controller. Released in 1996, the controller featured a single digital stick, designed to ape the feel of a computer's mouse movement.
Since then, every console manufacturer has adopted the analogue stick as the best method of movement for both a player, and the camera after the adoption of a second analogue stick.
The PlayStation is the first console to use the dual-stick system that's used most commonly today. It was first introduced on the Dual Analog Controller, released in 25 April 1997 for the PSOne, some two years after the introduction of the console.