A Brief History of Controllers: A and B

I meant to post this interesting little history lesson on controller mapping since the NES a few weeks ago, but an ill-fated department camping trip to the wilds of SoCal got in the way; Matthew Gallant of the aptly named 'Quixotic Engineer' takes us down memory lane and on a flying tour of the evolution of various controllers:

There’s always been a minor niggle at the back of my mind when I played the Nintendo DS. “They’ve got it backwards,” I thought, “The A button should be on the left and B on the right. That’s how it’s always been… I think.” A speedy investigation showed that my memory was a little foggy, and that the answer was significantly more interesting than that. Therefore, I present to you a brief history of gamepad button mapping.

It's a short and sweet look at how our controllers have evolved (or not) over the years — including issues of localization. Some questions are still unanswered (like where the 'A' and 'B' designations originated from, though it would appear that the NES was the first), but an interesting little wrap-up nonetheless.
Source kotaku

The pads and mods on flickr

The interesting thing about flickr is the amount of pics people show of their mods and rare controllers.

The most interesting find is this large NES controller in early progress.


Not much info as yet, but hopefully a Nes version of the SNES version posted on here last month. The modder mrdodd, has also put up a mp3 player inside a nes controller.
What ever the case we'll keep you posted.

Some other interesting pictures of this agetec Dreamcast stick mod, by zapeipaa.




"I switched the crappy joystick for a Seimitsu LS-32-02 and I love it so far. This is the guide I used (thanks to GaijinP for the link):

www.geocities.co.jp/AnimeComic-Name/4989/dc/dc.html

The guy uses a Sanwa stick, which is smaller. I had to cut off all plastic around to mount the LS-32-02. Also, the Seimitsu harness has different colors, so I had to do trial and error to find which wire to attach to which. Thanks to the landlord who lent me his awesome tools, without them I couldn't have done it."

NES Controller Socket Lets You Control Your Mods with Nostalgia

Parallax has just released their NES controller socket to the delights of modders everywhere. Instead of forcing them to chop up an old NES to get the 7-pin socket, Parallax has made it available for only $2 on their site. The NES controller would be great for all kinds of little projects, from robots to old-school gaming devices, and we're really looking forward to seeing what inventive modders can do with the humble and much-loved controller.
Source Dcemu.

NES crammed into a light gun

[GonzoMPM-1] Has gutted an NES knock off called Super Joy III and crammed it inside of a light gun. Inspired by a daughter that loves duck hunt, he wanted to consolidate the package and make it more portable. He's managed to pull off some nice finish, it look almost professional in the picture above. The unit is powered by 3 AAA batteries in the handle. The game system works just fine, and he claims that the controls are actually more responsive now. The light gun works as well if you have a CRT television around. You many notice that there is no cartridge slot. There really isn't a need for one in this mod. The Super Joy III comes equipped with 76 games on the board. He notes that he can make an external cart at some point, but may leave it off in favor of the compact design.While he acknowledges that this is not a completely self contained gaming device, we feel it earns honorable mention for being cool.

Source http://www.hackaday.com/2008/07/21/nes-crammed-into-a-light-gun/