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Ananalog stick (analogue stick in British English), also known as acontrol stick,thumbstick orjoystick, is an input method designed forvideo games that translates thumb movement into directional control. It consists of a protruding stick mounted on a pivot, with movement registered through continuous electrical signals rather than discrete switches, allowing for greater nuance than traditional digital inputs.
UnlikeD-pads, which rely on fixed electrical contacts, analog sticks usepotentiometers to measure their position across a full range of motion. Many models allow the stick to be pressed down like a button, allowing users to execute commands without removing their thumb from the stick. Since its introduction, the analog stick has largely replaced the D-pad as the primary directional input in modern game controllers.
The initial prevalence of analog sticks was as peripherals forflight simulator games, to better reflect the subtleties of control required for such titles. It was during the fifth console generation thatNintendo announced it would integrate a small stick into itsNintendo 64 controller, a step which would pave the way for subsequent leading console manufacturers to follow suit.
An analog stick is often used to move some game object, usually theplayable character. It may also be used to rotate thecamera, usually around the character. The analog stick can serve a great variety of other functions, depending on the game. Today many analog sticks can also be pushed in like conventional face buttons of a controller, to allow for more functions.[1] With the prevalence of analog sticks, the aforementioned limitations of the D-pad ceased to be an issue.
Two analog sticks offer greater functionality than a single stick. Importantly, it allows for the direction of anplayable character to be controlled by one stick and the orientation of thecamera by the other, allowing players to look one direction, while moving in another. Sony'sDual Analog andDualShock controllers, released in 1997 were the first to feature two sticks, and the design later earned aTechnology & Engineering Emmy Award.[2]
On some moderngame controllers, the analog sticks are "staggered", such that the left stick is positioned to the upper left of the D-pad while the right stick is positioned to the lower left of the face buttons. The controllers of allXbox consoles (Xbox controller,Xbox 360 controller andXbox Wireless Controller), as well as controllers forNintendo'sGameCube andSwitch (GameCube controller, the dualJoy-Con Comfort Grip and theNintendo Switch Pro Controller), utilize a staggered analog stick layout.
Other controllers instead have the two analog sticks in a symmetrical configuration with a D-pad on the left thumb position and face buttons at the right thumb position, with analog sticks below and closer to the center on both sides.Sony'sPlayStation-series analog controllers—theDual Analog Controller,DualShock,DualShock 2,Sixaxis,DualShock 3,DualShock 4 andDualSense—all use this configuration, with the remainder of the controller layout closely resembling the original digitalPlayStation controller. TheClassic Controller for theWii also uses this configuration. The original configuration of theWii U GamePad controller had twin analog "Circle Pads" positioned symmetrically above the D-pad and face buttons, but was reconfigured to have twin clickable analog sticks several months ahead of the system's planned launch.[3] This setup also carried over to theWii U Pro Controller.
With genres such asaction,adventure games,platforming, andshooting, the left stick normally controls the character's movement while the second stick controls the camera. The use of a second analog stick alleviated problems in many earlier platform games, in which the camera was notorious for bad positioning. The right stick not only allows for camera control in third-person games, but is almost essential for most modernfirst-person shooters such asHalo, where it controls the player's gaze and aim, as opposed to the left stick, which controls where the player moves. In Namco'sKatamari Damacy and its sequels, both analog sticks are used at once to control the player's character.
In spite of widespread adoption of dual analog sticks, a few modern video game systems are designed without a second analog stick, namely the Wii's standard controller (whose lone analog stick is implemented in theWii Remote'sNunchuk attachment), Sony'sPSP and Nintendo's3DS. While the Wii's abovementioned supplemental Classic Controller accessory and its initialbackwards compatibility support of the GameCube controllerallow for dual-stick control schemes in certain games, the PSP's complete lack of a second analog stick[4] and later the 3DS' initial lack of such feature have been criticized. Nintendo has since released an add-on for the 3DS that adds, among other things, a second analog "circle pad". The follow-up to the PSP, thePlayStation Vita, features dual analog sticks. It is the first handheld game console to do so. TheNew Nintendo 3DS line of systems added a second analog controller, known as the "C-Stick" to the right side of the device.[5]
To operate properly, an analog stick must establish a neutral position, a special, unique position which the stick must maintain that the controller would interpret as an intentional cessation or absence of in-game movement. Ideally, this would be the stick's very center when it is not touched or moved. Whenever the controller is activated or the system it is connected to is powered on, the current position of its analog stick(s) become the established neutral position. If the analog stick is moved away from its center during a time while it is established, the neutral position would shift to some place away from the center of the stick, causing the controller to interpret the center motionless position of the stick as in-game movement, since it is not the neutral position as it should be. This phenomenon, commonly calleddrifting, causes undesired gameplay effects, depending on the current game's controls, such as constant movement of the player character in a single direction or the game camera being skewed towards one particular angle while the affected stick is unmoved, and can only be corrected by performing particular actions that would restore the affected analog stick's neutral position back to the center of the analog stick. For Nintendo controllers with analog sticks, this would involve holding down a certain combination of buttons while the affected analog sticks are untouched.[6][7][8][9][10]
Shortly after the introduction of the firstmicrocomputers,Cromemco introduced aS-100 bus card containing ananalog-to-digital converter, and shortly after, a card with two of these and an associated analog joystick, the JS-1. This is the first known example of such a device for personal use.[11]
The first consumer games console which had analog joysticks was thePrinztronic/Acetronic/Interton series, launched in 1978. This system was widely cloned throughout Europe and available under several brand names. The 2 sticks each used a pair of potentiometers, they were not self-centering in most models[12] but some, such as those of the Interton VC4000 models did self-center.
When theApple II was released, it shipped with an analogpaddle controller as a standard input, but these failed to meetFCC emissions guidelines andApple Inc. was forced to stop selling them. This left hundreds of games unable to be used, and this problem was quickly rectified by 3rd party suppliers. Not long after, these same companies began producing analog joysticks for the system, but these took some time to become popular.[11]
In 1982,Atari released a controller with a potentiometer-based analog joystick for theirAtari 5200 home console. However, its non-centering joystick design proved to be ungainly and unreliable due to the filing,[13][14] alienating many consumers at the time. During that same year, General Consumer Electronics introduced theVectrex, avector graphics based system which used a self-centering analog thumbstick.
In 1985,Sega'sthird-personrail shooter gameSpace Harrier, released for thearcades, introduced an analog flight stick for movement. It could register movement in any direction as well as measure the degree of push, which could move theplayer character at different speeds depending on how far the joystick is pushed in a certain direction.[15]
Sega's analog Mission Stick was released for theSaturn console on September 29, 1995.[16] On April 26, 1996,[17] Sony released a potentiometer-based analog joystick for use in Flight-Simulation games. The Sony Dual AnalogFlightStick featured twin analog sticks and was used in games such asDescent to provide a much greater degree of freedom than the typical digital joysticks of the day.
TheNES Max, released in 1988, is the first instance of a thumb pad-based joystick controller. The Quickshot Chimera 2 is another example of an early thumbstick controller available to the NES.
In 1989, the Japanese company Dempa released an analog thumbstick controller called the XE-1 AP for theSega Genesis console and several Japanese computers.[18] It was intended to replicate theHOTAS controls found in Sega’s arcade games at the time, such asAfter Burner II. This controller included a thumb-operated control stick which allowed for varying levels of movement and near-360-degree control, translating into far more precise movements than what is possible with a D-pad. It was released twice, with a price drop upon its re-release in 1994. A few games on the Genesis (as well as theSega CD and32X add-ons) supported the controller’s analog stick functions, including some of Sega’s first-party games for the system.
Initially announced in late 1995,[19]Nintendo released theirNintendo 64 controller on June 23, 1996, in Japan.[20] The new controller included a thumb-operatedcontrol stick which, while a digital stick[21] (the analog stick operated on the same principles as amechanical ball-type computer mouse), still allowed for varying levels of movement and near-360-degree control, translating into far more precise movements than were possible with a D-pad. For three generations, Nintendo's control stick was distinguished from analog sticks used in other major consoles by its surroundingoctagonal area of freedom that assisted players in perfectly aligning the stick with any of the eight directions achievable with a D-pad. Nintendo would eventually change this octagonal area to the circle widely used in other console controllers during theeighth generation starting with the Nintendo 3DS andWii U.
On July 5, 1996,Sega releasedNights into Dreams for theirSaturn console in Japan; bundled with it was the Saturn 3D control pad which featured an analog pad intended to give the player more fluid control over that game'sflight-based gameplay. The analog pad used magnet-basedHall effect sensors, which was a unique implementation of the technology that was carried forward into the design of theDreamcast controller as well.[citation needed] The Saturn's analog controller was previously mentioned in the June 1996 issue ofComputer and Video Games magazine.[22]
On April 25, 1997,Sony introduced the world's first dual stick controller for its game console,PlayStation. Based on the same potentiometer technology that was used in the larger Dual Analog Flightstick, the SonyDual Analog Controller featured rumble (removed in overseas versions), three modes of analog (Flightstick, Full Analog and Analog-Off), and dual plastic concave thumbsticks.[17][23] It also added two new buttons, L3 and R3, under the thumbsticks, which could be used by pressing down on the sticks.
On November 20, 1997,[17] Sony released their third analog controller to the market: theDualShock. The controller featured similar twin analog sticks to the Dual Analog, although they featured convex rubber tips rather than concave plastic ones. It also removed the third analog (Flightstick) mode and added two rumble motors.
In 1999, Sony'sApe Escape became the first video game in history to require the use of two analog sticks.
In the console generations thatfollowed, manyvideo game consolecontrollers have included two analog sticks, with the exception of the SegaDreamcast controller andNintendo'sWii Remote controller. Other exceptions to this dual-stick rule are Sony'sPlayStation Portable andNintendo's3DShandheld game consoles aside from theNew 3DS (although the former may be upgraded to dual-stick functionality through the use of an accessory), which both feature only a single small, flat sliding analog "nub".
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