Summary
- Game controllers used to vary widely in design, with arcade cabinets pioneering unique and immersive layouts.
- Flight sticks and arcade sticks offer a different gaming experience than traditional gamepads.
- Using a different control method can help break you out of a rut where all games start to feel the same.
Video game controllers have become all but standardized, but things used to be pretty different. If gaming has started to feel very samey to you, a look back might provide some inspiration to move forward.
Before Gamepads Were the Norm
Video game controllers haven’t exactly evolved along a straight line. With many arcade games, designing the controls was an integral part of designing the game itself. That not only led to some pretty wild differences from one cabinet to the next at your local arcade, but it added to the immersion of the games in ways that the graphics and sound could not.
Just look at something like the command center-style layout for Missile Command, or the many games that used a realistic flight yoke or steering wheel to put you in the pilot or driver’s seat.
The influence of arcade games also cast a long shadow over home video game consoles. The Atari 2600 may have primarily used a joystick, but it also had paddle controllers that allowed for more arcade-accurate ports of games like Breakout and Warlords. Nintendo made its own arcade-style joystick for both the NES and SNES, and Sega continued to make its own arcade sticks up until the Dreamcast, as home versions of arcade games continued to be popular throughout the 90s.
Controllers for home computers evolved along their own path over the years and branched out in different ways than home game consoles. The earliest computer joysticks were limited to just one or two buttons and were as simple as you could get.
Far more elaborate flight stick-style controllers gained widespread popularity in the 1990s, largely due to games like X-Wing and Mech Warrior that made the most of them to deliver a more immersive experience.
Expanding Your Options
It’s the experience of playing those types of games with a Microsoft Sidewinder joystick back in the day that led me to recently pick up an inexpensive Thrustmaster flight stick. You can easily play those games with the controls mapped to an Xbox gamepad or other modern controller—or even sit back on the couch and play them on a big screen TV instead of having your eyes glued to a computer monitor—but that’s not what I was after.
And while a flight stick is a great way to better appreciate older games, they’re not exactly relics of the past just yet either. There are still plenty of flight sticks (also called HOTAS, for Hands On Throttle And Stick) being sold today, and games that can take full advantage of them. Microsoft Flight Simulator may be the most well known, but there are plenty of space simulator games like Star Citizen and Elite Dangerous, and mech combat games like Mech Warrior 5 that offer an entirely different experience than what you’ll get playing with a gamepad.
Controller setups for those games can get pretty advanced (not to mention expensive), but even a basic flight stick is enough to make for a substantially different experience than a gamepad, and give you another option to reach for when you’re feeling a bit of gaming burnout.
The same thing can also be said for traditional arcade (or fight) sticks. Whether you’re playing Street Fighter II or Street Fighter 6, it’s not necessarily better to use an arcade-style stick instead of a gamepad, but it is certainly a different experience.
An arcade stick may also provide the impetus you need to revisit classic arcade games that just don’t feel the same when played with a gamepad, or be a way to get closer to the original arcade experience if you’ve never had a chance to play the games that way in the first place.
A racing wheel and pedal setup is another option to consider if you’re particularly interested in racing or driving games (and have the space), although it’s admittedly a bit less practical for casual gamers. There are even things like head and eye tracking devices, which aren’t just used for VR and can add to the immersion of flight simulators and other simulation games.
A Controller That Fits the Game
Of course, the brilliance of modern gamepads—and the reason they’ve become the norm—is that they can be used to play such a wide variety of games. There is something to be said for straying from the one-size-fits-all approach from time to time, though.
A flight stick or arcade stick may be far less versatile, and will even likely go unused for extended periods, but they can be the perfect fit when paired with the right game.
