WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.640 Picture a gamepad. You know, kind of wide, two handles, two thumb sticks, 00:00:04.480 --> 00:00:10.280 some face buttons, a D-pad, and you know, some shoulder buttons, too. That's 00:00:08.560 --> 00:00:15.640 basically every controller ever at this point, right? But what if I told you 00:00:13.760 --> 00:00:20.360 that not only did some foresee this future over 20 years ago, we hit a lot 00:00:18.400 --> 00:00:24.520 of wacky potholes on the road to modern perfection. There's no shortage of 00:00:22.840 --> 00:00:28.720 fodder for a video like this. So, for today, we'll be ignoring intentionally 00:00:26.480 --> 00:00:32.400 weird controllers like chainsaws, katanas, and hip-hop logos. And instead, 00:00:31.280 --> 00:00:37.800 we're going to be sticking with some more technically and historically interesting specimens. Starting with the 00:00:35.960 --> 00:00:40.440 most historically interesting of the bunch. 00:00:46.320 --> 00:00:53.400 This absolute unit is called the XE-1AP, 00:00:50.680 --> 00:00:56.880 developed by Dempa Micom Soft in 1989 for the Sega Mega Drive and MSX 00:00:54.960 --> 00:01:00.360 compatible home computers. They're still around, by the way. One of 00:00:58.520 --> 00:01:03.360 their most famous products was actually the Framemeister, which has sadly been 00:01:02.040 --> 00:01:07.720 discontinued. The XE-1AP notably served as the 00:01:05.519 --> 00:01:12.040 inspiration for Sega's 3D control pad for Saturn, which [music] in turn was 00:01:09.840 --> 00:01:16.080 made into the Dreamcast controller, which inspired the original Xbox 00:01:13.720 --> 00:01:19.840 controller. Don't believe me? Check out these concept sketches from Xbox 00:01:17.720 --> 00:01:24.240 co-creator Seamus Blackley. That's right. You can trace the modern Xbox 00:01:21.880 --> 00:01:28.680 controller all the way back to this thing. 00:01:25.520 --> 00:01:32.360 But, uh, it's substantially bigger than 00:01:28.680 --> 00:01:34.200 even the Duke. So, how the heck do you 00:01:32.360 --> 00:01:38.080 do you even hold this thing? What works best for me is index and 00:01:36.280 --> 00:01:43.200 middle fingers on the shoulder buttons, thumbs on the sticks, and ring and pinky 00:01:40.640 --> 00:01:47.680 fingers holding the grips. It's not the most ergonomic setup in the 00:01:45.600 --> 00:01:52.920 world, but considering this had never been done before, it's not bad. That's 00:01:50.720 --> 00:01:56.800 right. Not only was this the first use of an analog thumb stick as we know them 00:01:54.760 --> 00:02:01.480 today on a controller, it was the first use of shoulder buttons and grips, too. 00:01:59.320 --> 00:02:05.920 Predating the Super Nintendo by a year, the N64 by 6 years, and the DualShock by 00:02:04.320 --> 00:02:11.280 8 years. Now, true 3D games weren't a thing on 00:02:08.640 --> 00:02:17.280 the MSX or Mega Drive in 1989, but Sega's 3D-like arcade games use analog 00:02:13.880 --> 00:02:20.120 controls. And home consoles didn't have 00:02:17.280 --> 00:02:22.120 analog controls, so Dempa made their own. 00:02:20.920 --> 00:02:26.520 The way the stick functions is shockingly simple. On the inside, the 00:02:24.400 --> 00:02:29.520 stem slips into two split half rings that overlap each other and connect the 00:02:27.880 --> 00:02:33.480 two potentiometers representing each axis. All that moving the joystick 00:02:32.120 --> 00:02:37.520 actually does is turn those potentiometers. The right stick only has 00:02:35.760 --> 00:02:41.840 one axis that serves as a throttle in most cases. And if you want to use it in 00:02:40.360 --> 00:02:46.520 a different orientation or even invert it, you can do that by simply 00:02:43.720 --> 00:02:50.640 twisting it. Neat. The controller itself has six face 00:02:48.720 --> 00:02:54.600 buttons, four switches, and four shoulder buttons. 00:02:52.080 --> 00:02:58.280 If you're keeping track at home, Sega pads at the time had four buttons, and 00:02:56.640 --> 00:03:02.080 later seven buttons was the best you got. The two face buttons on the right 00:03:00.800 --> 00:03:05.480 share the A and B buttons with the shoulder buttons on the same side, and 00:03:03.960 --> 00:03:11.480 the buttons on the left shoulder handle C and D. Now, D isn't a normal button on 00:03:09.760 --> 00:03:14.680 the Sega Genesis controller, and while it shows up in the options menu, it 00:03:13.040 --> 00:03:20.320 doesn't actually do anything that I can tell. The rest, I think, are for the MSX. A 00:03:18.320 --> 00:03:24.680 handful of Mega Drive games did support it, but because it didn't get released 00:03:22.680 --> 00:03:29.440 outside of Japan, and the Mega Drive was well behind both Nintendo and NEC there, 00:03:27.520 --> 00:03:34.680 it didn't gain widespread support. Unlike orders from lttstore.com, we got 00:03:31.920 --> 00:03:38.360 your back. Well, Dempa stuck to Japan. Advanced Gravis Computer Technology, 00:03:36.520 --> 00:03:42.480 founded right here in British Columbia, was far more prolific in the west, 00:03:39.960 --> 00:03:47.600 specifically in the PC peripheral space, with [music] the Gravis gamepad being 00:03:45.160 --> 00:03:51.720 the quintessential PC controller of its time. So much so that it was available 00:03:49.800 --> 00:03:56.600 for the Philips CDI, for better or worse. But, this test-like gamepad, while 00:03:54.560 --> 00:04:01.280 historically significant and interesting with its flippable controls, isn't as 00:03:58.880 --> 00:04:06.480 interesting as the PlayStation-like gamepad pro. While it was available in 00:04:03.960 --> 00:04:11.120 USB, the white game port version was special in what it did with a far more 00:04:08.600 --> 00:04:16.680 limited interface. I mean, look at it. 10 buttons. That alone is weird. Because 00:04:14.680 --> 00:04:22.560 the old PC game port can only support up to four axes and four buttons at best, 00:04:19.480 --> 00:04:25.880 half that at worst. How does it do it? 00:04:22.560 --> 00:04:28.640 Using what they called GRIP, or G R I P, 00:04:25.880 --> 00:04:33.960 which, as French blogger PolkoMandy discovered, is a 5-bit I squared C style 00:04:31.560 --> 00:04:38.640 interface using the first and second buttons for clock and data transfer. 00:04:36.800 --> 00:04:42.960 This means that not only does it only need up to 11 of the 15 pins on the 00:04:40.680 --> 00:04:48.640 port, it can theoretically support up to 11 buttons, 15 if you include the D-pad, 00:04:46.520 --> 00:04:53.440 and it can support multiple gamepads at once. Yeah, this was a big deal back in 00:04:51.800 --> 00:04:58.320 the day. Because of the way game ports worked, two controllers via a Y splitter 00:04:55.680 --> 00:05:01.720 would be limited to two buttons each. But, with GRIP, the second controller 00:05:00.360 --> 00:05:07.120 uses the buttons that would normally be used for the second controller for an additional serial connection. 00:05:05.200 --> 00:05:10.720 Gravis even made a four-controller hub using this technique, with each 00:05:08.360 --> 00:05:13.760 controller having eight buttons. Get subscribed, by the way, because we're 00:05:12.120 --> 00:05:17.960 going to look at a keyboard that has this kind of plug-in approach to 00:05:16.080 --> 00:05:21.480 peripherals for it that you're not going to want to miss. 00:05:19.760 --> 00:05:25.480 If you're wondering why I care about all this game port nonsense, it's because 00:05:23.160 --> 00:05:28.760 that USB just didn't catch on for game controllers in the early days, because 00:05:27.760 --> 00:05:33.560 well, you didn't have all that many ports. I mean, maybe you had two for your whole 00:05:32.440 --> 00:05:38.320 PC. Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback Pro, 00:05:35.920 --> 00:05:42.240 probably the best joystick of its time, only supported the game port, and also 00:05:40.760 --> 00:05:45.880 had a special mechanism created by Creative Labs to use the MIDI 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:50.280 capabilities of the game port for bidirectional communication, rather than 00:05:48.200 --> 00:05:54.040 the traditional joystick protocol. It's that bidirectional communication 00:05:52.040 --> 00:05:56.840 that made force feedback possible, something Microsoft was pushing pretty 00:05:55.560 --> 00:06:00.120 hard at the time. Unlike Nintendo's contemporary Rumble 00:05:58.560 --> 00:06:04.960 Pak, which had a vibrating motor like we're all familiar with in modern controllers, the Force Feedback Pro had 00:06:03.480 --> 00:06:09.040 directionality and texture to its impulses, actually shaking the stick in 00:06:07.120 --> 00:06:12.960 response to in-game action. While the game port was seriously old by 00:06:11.160 --> 00:06:16.760 the time Microsoft finally retired it with Windows Vista, the effort that went 00:06:15.280 --> 00:06:20.760 into extending and improving it with features like this isn't talked about 00:06:18.680 --> 00:06:24.880 too often nowadays. But, they were vital in cultivating PC gaming around this 00:06:22.680 --> 00:06:28.120 time, and led to big features we'd see come back later. 00:06:26.360 --> 00:06:32.880 Speaking of which, a friend of mine from junior high actually owned a Freestyle 00:06:30.040 --> 00:06:38.760 Pro, a boomerang-shaped monstrosity that had terrible D-pad, but an extremely 00:06:35.400 --> 00:06:40.520 interesting analog control. Motion. 00:06:38.760 --> 00:06:44.840 Wikipedia describes it as similar to the six-axis controls found on PS3 and later 00:06:43.040 --> 00:06:48.920 Sony controllers, and I'd say that's about accurate. It was difficult to get 00:06:46.880 --> 00:06:53.560 used to back in the day, but it gave the controller a lot more utility than it 00:06:50.720 --> 00:06:58.240 had without it. And likely planted some seeds in future Sony engineers' minds. 00:06:56.600 --> 00:07:03.160 It straddled the line between USB and game port, and was one of the many controllers of its time that hedged its 00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:06.840 bets by including a game port to USB adapter in the box. 00:07:04.880 --> 00:07:10.760 Microsoft had a lot of other wacky ideas in the pre-Xbox years, but few others 00:07:08.960 --> 00:07:14.800 truly caught on. Let's come back to the Sega days for our 00:07:12.480 --> 00:07:20.520 final controller. You ever get fatigued when playing games? You know, cramps, 00:07:17.600 --> 00:07:25.920 blisters, numb thumb? Well, the Turbo Touch 360 from Triax is 00:07:23.840 --> 00:07:30.240 here to save the day. This was available on the NES, Genesis, and Super NES, and 00:07:28.160 --> 00:07:34.680 did away with Gunpei Yokoi's historic invention entirely, replacing it with 00:07:33.160 --> 00:07:39.520 this thing. "No need to push," they say. "This 00:07:38.040 --> 00:07:42.520 technology breakthrough NVIDIA game control uses a capacitive touch sensor 00:07:41.400 --> 00:07:47.960 instead." Otherwise, it's pretty much a standard Genesis controller with nuclear yellow 00:07:45.720 --> 00:07:50.880 90s styling and turbo switches. Clearly, Triax was confident in this 00:07:49.560 --> 00:07:55.360 technology, though, with their higher scores or your money back guarantee as 00:07:52.760 --> 00:08:00.720 seen on TV style marketing. So, hey, maybe it's better than I let on. 00:07:58.480 --> 00:08:04.760 So, compared to a regular controller, this gives you way finer control. Like, 00:08:02.840 --> 00:08:09.200 I can adjust the throttle any way I want. I can go pretty much wherever I 00:08:06.800 --> 00:08:12.880 want immediately on the screen. Whereas before, with a controller, doing that 00:08:11.160 --> 00:08:16.920 kind of stuff, like holding right here, would actually be kind of difficult. The 00:08:14.800 --> 00:08:20.040 thumb stick is really tall, actually. So, that makes it a little bit awkward, 00:08:18.840 --> 00:08:24.880 aside from all the other things that make it awkward. But, can't argue with 00:08:22.480 --> 00:08:28.560 the results. It works. Like, that's pretty good first three stages, I think. 00:08:26.760 --> 00:08:32.039 But, yeah, holding it for extended periods of time like this, or at least 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:36.360 holding it up like this, probably not the best idea. It's not ergonomically 00:08:34.479 --> 00:08:39.640 sound, and it is, uh, pretty pretty heavy. But, yeah, I kind of feel like 00:08:38.159 --> 00:08:44.800 I'm just you moving a mouse and clicking on stuff. This is ridiculously easy 00:08:42.520 --> 00:08:48.680 compared to, uh, using a gamepad with a regular D-pad. All right, let's switch 00:08:46.960 --> 00:08:53.160 to the other controller, then. Let's, uh, let's start with the Turbo 00:08:50.480 --> 00:09:00.381 Touch. See how this compares to the, um, XE-1AP. 00:08:55.040 --> 00:09:02.040 Uh, okay. Oh. Oh, no. Uh, 00:09:00.381 --> 00:09:06.880 [laughter] I, yeah, th- this this doesn't feel like 00:09:04.320 --> 00:09:09.960 I have any control at all, actually. I I touch it, and it's 00:09:10.120 --> 00:09:15.960 I mean, the controller works. I think my thumb is just too fat. It's like 00:09:13.320 --> 00:09:18.760 triggering multiple directions. But, uh, hey, at least I didn't die for the first 00:09:17.480 --> 00:09:23.000 three stages. Uh, significantly worse score. Uh, 00:09:20.800 --> 00:09:27.040 that's that's a thing. Yeah, like I basically never get an 00:09:25.360 --> 00:09:30.960 opportunity to lock on and fire anything, because I'm not actually able 00:09:28.880 --> 00:09:33.400 to point at anything. Yeah, I think there is something where I'm going to 00:09:31.920 --> 00:09:37.200 probably have to open this up and tweak those potentiometers. 00:09:35.040 --> 00:09:41.720 Uh, and if you rest your thumb on it, it's like, okay, kind of kind of works, 00:09:39.760 --> 00:09:47.240 but like now I'm constantly actuating something, so 00:09:43.880 --> 00:09:49.200 I can't I can't sweep my thumb in the 00:09:47.240 --> 00:09:53.760 kind of directions they say you can, like circular motions are easier now. 00:09:51.800 --> 00:09:57.360 That doesn't feel like it's a thing. I I don't know. 00:09:55.440 --> 00:10:01.200 It was not better than I let on. But, hey, that's not to say that the 00:09:58.880 --> 00:10:04.600 technology is bad necessarily. We're seeing its descendants make its way into 00:10:02.920 --> 00:10:09.480 controllers like the DualSense and Steam's upcoming Steam Deck. So, the 00:10:06.760 --> 00:10:12.880 idea was sound, it just it's not good for this purpose. If you 00:10:11.680 --> 00:10:17.920 open it up, you can see the metal capacitive plates that you're actually interacting with under the D-pad, as 00:10:16.360 --> 00:10:21.760 well as potentiometers you can tweak to adjust their sensitivity if need be. 00:10:19.960 --> 00:10:25.320 It's a pretty complicated PCB compared to most controllers of the time, but 00:10:23.640 --> 00:10:30.760 unfortunately, that didn't save it from bombing. It's conceivable you could get faster 00:10:28.440 --> 00:10:34.640 input if you got used to it, but at $15 more than a first-party 00:10:32.520 --> 00:10:38.880 controller, it was a steep ask to give up tactile feedback in the name of 00:10:36.280 --> 00:10:42.160 faster actuation. Come to think of it, gaming keyboards 00:10:40.840 --> 00:10:45.840 have been doing that for a while now, too. I maybe they were just too ahead of 00:10:44.760 --> 00:10:51.800 their time. There's far more controllers like these than we have time to talk about in one 00:10:49.000 --> 00:10:55.360 video. Like this Jet Fighter controller. And not all weird controllers are from 00:10:53.400 --> 00:10:58.520 the '90s. I just happen to own a few of them. Let us know what you think are the 00:10:57.040 --> 00:11:01.240 weirdest controllers, and maybe I can convince Linus to do another video like 00:11:00.040 --> 00:11:06.720 this one. But I don't need to convince him to let me do a sponsor segway to iFixit. 00:11:05.320 --> 00:11:10.200 Thanks to iFixit for sponsoring today's video. iFixit makes it affordable to fix 00:11:08.960 --> 00:11:14.360 or upgrade your devices using their custom fix kits. 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All of these should work 00:11:46.880 --> 00:11:51.760 in Linux with adapters. So, go check out my how to install Linux video because 00:11:50.280 --> 00:11:55.480 it's getting way more relevant as the Steam Deck gets closer to release.