periodic table of controllers V.2.5 UPDATED

This is V.2 It should be the final Version. Please stay tuned for t-shirts and how to get them if you want them.

I also felt the iphone shouldn't be added just because it is a phone and i'd have to add other phones too because they play games

I didn't add a mouse or keyboard just because this deals with consoles and the PC is more of a platform for everything rather then just a gaming device. Though I would add a standard Keyboard and mouse if I knew exactly what to put (when the first pc game came out that utilized the mouse and keyboard)

I'm not adding the updated controllers (saturn, xbox genesis etc..) Just because I want to show the first controller for that console. Usually the next version of that console has the updated controller on it anyway.

Virtual Boy is now added and for the mac fans also (as I'm one too) The Pippin.

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Comments

isayx3 says:

this is so sweet! pretty comprehensive list....

there was an magnovox odyssey 2 released in 1978 too :)
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

simoncpage says:

You missed a couple lol - nevertheless an awesome design concept.
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

F.man says:

Table of Mendeleeva for a designer! Looks very well)
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

Pixel Fantasy says:

Well there are a lot of consoles out there. a lot. Most of them look exactly alike I think I saw like 5 versions of the Odyssey in one year lol. It's funny to looking at the button placements and only the buttons. I had to sit back and wonder how the hell did I ever learn those controls?
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

isayx3 says:

yes but odyssey 2 was the most popular magnovox system..it went head to head with the atari 2600...i remember those times well :)
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

Pixel Fantasy says:

Well when I get to V.2 i'll have to put that in. I never really knew about the Odyssey until a few years ago when I read about Ralph Baer
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

simoncpage says:

Before my time but just looked up about the magnovox and that is one sweet design!
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

martinjhoward2 says:

Very cool work...
The Design Inspiration page
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

.benben says:

Nice work !
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

® Zù Totò says:

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Schnitzel Workshop, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

nuvoleSW
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

stothemofob says:

this is on a similar theme to a tee i submitted for threadless. but yours is better

www.threadless.com/submission/196875/The_Gami ng_Revolution

sean
x
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

nicoruk says:

clap clap.
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

frymyox says:

This one was also a Sega Saturn controller: images4.wikia.nocookie.net/egamia/images//4/4 c/Saturn3Dco...
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

Pixel Fantasy says:

In the second version I plan to add that along with a bit more linkage to the controller family
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

Richard Faulder says:

don't forget the iPod Touch!
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

ClintonOddfellow says:

Slight correction, Element #23, 3DO, had shoulder buttons :)

Awesome chart!
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

Doctor Memory says:

FWIW: there were two official Jaguar controllers. The "pro" version had six buttons (for fighting games) and shoulder buttons.
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

Kelly Hirano says:

this is awesome! not sure if you want to include official, but secondary controllers. several come to mind:

colecovision super action controller
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Super_Action_Contr oller_Coleco...

atari 2600 paddles
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Atari_Paddle.JPG

nes zapper
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nes_zapper.jpg

and my favorite, the nes advantage
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nesadvantage.jpg
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

TheGooch90 says:

Now you just have to add the iPhone, like a blank space! I think it qualifies as a gaming console! :D
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

wob76 says:

Very nice, but don't forget the Nintendo Game & Watch, the pioneer of handhelds.
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

M.C.Allinder says:

VisualBoy?
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

thinking pixels mediendesign says:

Awesome! :)
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

cheyrou says:

Excellent work. Neo-Geo Pocket Colour!

Neo Geo Pocket Color + Match of the Millenium (1998) by Afrokid

Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

stothemofob says:

gizmondo made very small waves in the handheld market a few years ago
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

Pixel Fantasy says:

I was skeptic on adding Gizmondo just because of all the "questionable" goings on and if indeed it was ever intended to be an actual hand held console. Ha, if it ever makes a comeback i'll add it.
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

Pixel Fantasy says:

I was thinking about the iPhone but I'm not sure. I mean I have the n-gage but the iPhone doesn't seem right yet. I still see it as a phone/mp3 player. While the n-gage was a game/phone system.
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

wob76 says:

Surely you can't deny the Game & Watch?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_And_Watch

Ignore me I just noted your comments on the pic, I think even just including the original Silver game and watch button layout would do.
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

dannydulai says:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TurboExpress

it is the portable TurboGrafx-16
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

rik1138 says:

You _have_ to add the Microvision- the first true cartridge based handheld game:
www.handheldmuseum.com/MB/uVUS.htm
:)

As for Nintendo Game and Watch, just use the first one (Ball), that should represent the line well...
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

wob76 says:

I think the widescreen ones probably best represent the Game & Watch, it was the most common unit (http://www.geocities.com/nintendogandw/PicWi descreen.html)

Personally I would have two listed, one with a single button either side (like widescreen) and one with a D-Pad (like the dual screen) units.

You can see some images of all the differnt types here.
www.geocities.com/nintendogandw/GamdandWatchP ictures.html
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

LasherMyLasher says:

Geektastic! Nice. I'd like to add the Nintendo Virtual Boy.

(couple tiny corrections: Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, GameCube)
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

brownspank says:

Best non-chemistry periodic table yet! :)
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

etoswald says:

This is Great but it will never be complete with out the Power Glove
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

ocnghst says:

Any plans to make a widescreen version of this? The scrunch on my desktop is killing me, Smalls!
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

R2Dork says:

Okay, there's lots of comments on this table, but I think what's really missing here is the body of the controller in addition to the button layout. Maybe just a really transparent or ghosted outline of the controller at least? Awesome idea,btw. :)
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

blatanikov says:

nice!!
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

me2flickr [deleted] says:

Periodic Table of Video Game Controllers. 몇개나 알아보시겠습니까? >.<bbb by 요!쾌남

Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

MEGAFATBOY (Adam Leung) says:

LoL Poor N-Gage...
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

livingtech says:

I side on the "add the iPhone" camp. With the sheer number of games on there, it has, for me, become my favorite mobile gaming platform. (Seriously, I've played my PSP and DS about 10 minutes total since getting the iPhone.)
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

David Hepworth says:

Additional corrections: Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3.
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

JasonBlait says:

An interesting one that you left out was the Virtual Boy () but apart from that fantastic list :d
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

C4NT1 says:

This is pimp! XD
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

vigilante2.o says:

def my desktop background as of now :P
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

mgabrys says:

The Atari 2600 / VCS controller has the fire button on the wrong side. It's supposed to be on the Left. Also the 7800 had 2 controllers - the pro-line and the NES knockoff.
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

BlueisCoool says:

Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

tobor0 says:

Sega made a six-button controller for the Genesis which I thought came bundled with later Genesis consoles. It looks pretty much like the Nomad controller. Good work!
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

willandbeyond says:

Please explain the periodic trends, they are escaping me.
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

Deuce Halo says:

Not to be a geek, but you need to rotate the Atari joystick about 90 degrees. The buttons were on the top left and not the top right. :)
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

joelsuplido says:

Genius. Two presses up.
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

Anonymous Freak says:

If you're going to include the N-Gage, you should include the N-Gage QD and the Tapwave Zodiac. (Pictures of both to be found on their respective Wikipedia pages.)
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

spz80 says:

Awesome work, btw is there a possibility to have the table without the background?
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

Rétrofuturs (Hulk4598) / Stéphane Massa-Bidal says:

Giant
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

virtualheretic says:

Super Gameboy (was a short lived attachment to play Gameboy games in your SNES)

Oh and GREAT work, I like it

ping from [H]ard OCP mainpage
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

visual think map says:

great work, thanks.
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

Maxx + says:

You did great job collecting all the factual material!
Would you mind a suggestion to make this into a truly great chart?

May be I'm missing something on the history of consoles, but I don't really understand why you call this a "periodic table".

As I'm sure you're aware, periodic table of chemical elements is called "peroidic" because properties of the elements are changing periodically. I can see that you arranged your elements in chronological order, but there is no "period" and hence your design does not convey any meaning.

To justify "periodic" in the title and to give your design some logic I would like to see your elements arranged so that there's some similarity between elements in same column. You might discover that you have to break "Mendeleev" grid in the process, but then your layout would also carry a message and the chart will be a piece of great design.
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

Tiger Pixel says:

Man, it's fanboy central here.Give the dude a break and quit suggesting things he decided not to add.It's finished,it's done.Make your own if you think you can do it better.He made something original and awesome and it's been viewed thousands of times since it was uploaded so quit hating! Everyone is like "Oh,I could have done that better".Yeah,but you didn't.
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

Emperor Andrew says:

You forgot the X-Box Controller-S.
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

joetron2030 says:

Amazing work!
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

sagotsky says:

Guitar Hero?
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

Maxx + says:

@Tiger Pixel: Well, I see this is licensed Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative, so I don't think there's not much I could to improve this apart from putting a suggestion to the author. If he chooses to ignore it -- I'll be just fine, thank you.
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

hellboarder says:

The artist in me likes the concept and execution, but the science nerd in me had the same thought as Maxx+ There's strong correlations in the properties of the controllers (shape, positioning, number of elements, keypads, sticks vs pads, analog, spinners, etc.) which would make sense to group structurally, and make this a truly outstanding work. Perhaps for V3?

No hatin', just lovin' and wantin' more...
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

danmanning2001 says:

very cool. thanks for all the effort. very well done.
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

Hanzs says:

awesome
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

Joe the Human says:

Great idea, beautiful execution! I wouldn't get too hung up on the periodicity issue, or should I say, non-issue. Thank you!
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

GaryKato says:

You need to add the side buttons to the Mattel Intellivision controller.
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

lesgeeks says:

- Front buttons of the xbox pad are missing
- Maybe you could add the new street fighter pads with 2*3 buttons on top ?

Nice work anyway ;-)
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

iciio says:

fucking great! +++
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

MattKamineko says:

I am exceptionally relieved that I'm not the only one that's thrown by the absense of any periodicity in this table! (It's more like a chronological list that's roughly in the shape of the chemical PT)

However, if you were to rearrange it into an order more closely resembling the chemical PT, then you'd end up with probably a hideously misshapen 'thing'... say, with increasingly complex directional input methods from left to right, and increasing number of buttons vertically, it would look somewhat like Europe, with the Jaguar way down at the bottom, modern controllers all bunched up at the right, with the Wii's various gadgets taking up a column in the middle.

It just wouldn't look very nice.

The easiest way to get around that would be to get something like this: www.axess.com/twilight/console/ , stick it into a diagram application, tell it to automatically lay out the tree so there's minimal overlapping nodes, and then take a Voronoi diagram of the resulting layout. It would look like stained glass.
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

Mary Joy! says:

I really like your table! There are the little points other have made, but regardless, it's a great idea. Squidspot's Periodic Table of Typefaces is great, too.

I decided to create my own, but for an entirely, ENTIRELY different thing: knitting. Hee hee! It's a work in progress.
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

ModestLife says:

Just ran across your table. Amazing, that is breathtaking! I love how the diagrams for each controller are -sorta- reminiscent of looking at orbitals and the structure of each element! That's genius. Some of the comments from folks would really knock this one out of the ballpark.

But no joke, that more recent shot you've got of the proposed tshirts is sweet. Cool project!
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

the incredible drumming machine says:

great great great great....
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

visual think map says:

more periodics here: visualthinkmap.ning.com/main/search/search?q= periodic

hope you like htem as much as this. again very good
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

~ Ipknoss says:

i just love it! :D
Posted 8 months ago. ( permalink )

PrimeraDivisionGaming says:

mega nice:D
Posted 7 months ago. ( permalink )

shaunstrack says:

someone may have said it already but if you did add some computer gaming reference it could be as simple as a WASD keys and maybe a mouse.
Posted 7 months ago. ( permalink )

cray- says:

Any chance you could share a copy of the Vector artwork?

.EPS .AI whatever. Would love to print out a mega huge one of these.

Great work, love it!
Posted 7 months ago. ( permalink )

Zanthia says:

((:

sooo cool
Posted 7 months ago. ( permalink )

landau'' says:

where's the xbox?
Posted 7 months ago. ( permalink )

kingvidorfan says:

gung-ho!
Posted 7 months ago. ( permalink )

fantucchi76 says:

Fresh!
Posted 7 months ago. ( permalink )

jpiccato says:

Great work !!!!
But you've forgot Game Park (& Game Park Holding) portable consoles:
GP32: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GP32 and
GP2X: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GP2X

Great....
Posted 6 months ago. ( permalink )

fuzzball2k says:

man, if you printed out posters of this, i would so buy one!
Posted 6 months ago. ( permalink )

Leonardo... a veces says:

jajajaja... man... what a nostalgic joke... I used in my days almost every of this controlers... at leats since 1977 to 1995... atari... that´s a nice and old word
Posted 6 months ago. ( permalink )

TabbykatTabasko says:

Wow, a lot of "you forgot and you should have done this" This is his idea/design and it is great in its own way. The concept of using the periodic table was a great way to lay them out, this was meant to be video game geeky not scientifically logical.
Posted 6 months ago. ( permalink )

missStockton says:

this is great!
Posted 6 months ago. ( permalink )

katherine lynn says:

too cool
Posted 6 months ago. ( permalink )

ratsj says:

A whole world I never knew about and kinda wish I didn't now. That really is quite remarkable.
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

K.E.R.F. says:

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called CMYK design, and we'd love to have this added to the group!
Posted 4 months ago. ( permalink )

fuzzball2k says:

Do
You offer a printed version of this? I'd buy a copy
Posted 4 months ago. ( permalink )

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