Marie Lazar ITGM 750 14 January 2011
Art Review 1: The Joystick The origin of the joystick is, at best, hazy. It was standard in aircraft long before it ever graced a computer console, but finding the exact inventor or date of origin is a guessing game. The first appearance of the term is found in the diary of Robert Lorainne who wrote in 1910 "...In order that he shall not blunder inadvertently into the air, the central lever - otherwise the 'cloche', or joy-stick is tied well forward." This places its chronological origin sometime before World War I, but a Confederate submarine with joystick-like controls would seem to place its birth as early as the American Civil War.
The etymology of the name is equally unknown, but its resemblance to the word "Joyce-Stick" suggests that its namesake and inventor may have been none other than inventor and early aviator James Henry Joyce. Of course, it's only slightly less likely that the name is, as popularly believed, a crude reference to its phallic shape and location between a pilot's legs. On the other hand, Michael Quinion, editor of worldwidewords.com, suggests a more innocuous origin. "Joystick" may, after all, be a simple reference to the joy of flying, as in "joyride". Types: Joysticks can be classified as either analog or digital, based on what kind of input they are sensitive to. Of the two, digital joysticks are simpler and recognize only binary on/off states. Digital joysticks work as thus: pushing on the stick in a certain direction presses down on a metal button on a circuit board in the base. The button completes an electrical circuit and sends a signal to the computer, which interprets the data and incorporates it into the program being run. In the simplest joysticks, only one direction can be read at a time. More sophisticated joysticks can respond to two directions at once, doubling the number of directions the stick can potentially recognize.
Digital joysticks were perfectly adequate for early games like the ones made by Atari in the 80's,
but their inability to differentiate small pushes from strong ones limited their usefulness. Over time, more sophisticated analog joysticks replaced digital ones.
Analog joysticks work on similar principals but use different technology and are more expensive to build. The shaft of an analog joystick rests on two sliding shafts, one that rotates in the xdirection and one that rotates in the y-direction. The shafts are each linked to a potentiometer, which create resistance to an electrical circuit proportionate to the degree the potentiometer is rotated. The electrical current gives information about the location of the stick on both the x and y-axis, but it needs to converted it into a digital value by the computer before it can be read by software. This conversion can be slow and inaccurate, so instead many newer joysticks use a system of optics instead. These joysticks use photocells exposed to pulses of LED light instead of potentiometers. The number of pulses created is proportionate to how far the stick is rotated, and photocells convert these pulses into electrical current which the computer reads as a digital value. In the world of digital games: The joystick's use in video games is as old as video games themselves. It was first used as a controller in the 1970's by Ralph Baer. Baer (who would later create the Magnavox Odyssey) used two analog joysticks for a simple chase game where players hunted each other across the screen. Joysticks would become an early standard in video and arcade games, but they were predated in the home gaming market by paddles. (Baer's chase game was never published.) Game paddles were essentially one-dimensional joysticks, and were popular in early Pong-style games where players only needed to move in two directions- either up and down or side to side. Joysticks didn't appear again as game controllers until the Fairchild F (1976) the Odyssey2 (1987), and the ColecoVision (1982). Easily the most iconic of all the early joysticks is the Atari 2600's joystick (1977), which was paired with a single red button for a simple, yet efficient, interface. At the same time, games were also exploring other means of directional input. The Intellivision (1980), for example, opted for the compactness of a directional pad over a joystick. Another contender was the trackball, making its appearance in arcade games like Centipede (1980) and Marble Madness (1984).
(The Atari 2600 joystick. Image from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joystick)
A good joystick was a joy to players and a tribute to the medium, but in the early days of sink-orswim competition among consoles, a bad controller was the kiss of death. The Atari 5200, for instance, was afflicted by an analog joystick that did not spring back to central position when released. Its poor make was a key factor the 5200's undoing.
Joysticks were popularized as peripherals for computer games in the 80's and early 90's, but faded from the computer game scene as first-person shooters like Doom(1993) and strategy games surpassed simulations and arcade games as the dominant genres. Developments: Yet, further developments in joysticks were still to come. Joysticks were improved with the addition of buttons such as the "top-hat"- a smaller, 8-direction analog stick that sits on top of the joystick shaft and is used to shift camera views or navigate menus in-game. Joysticks were also given more ergonomic, form fitting grips and easily-accessible buttons. Modern joysticks were marketed for their "three-dimensionality"- the third dimension, in this case, being rotation around its axis. The concept was hardly a new one, and had roots as far back as the Fairchild F released in 1973. The Fairchild also had a joystick that could be twisted, and could be best described as the combination of a joystick and a paddle.
(Above: The Logitech Extreme 3D Pro (2010) and the Fairchild Channel F (1976) are both twist-sensitive joysticks, but only one wins for ergonomics. Images from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairchild_Channel_F and http://www.logitech.com/en us/gaming/joysticks/devices/291)
Perhaps one of the most interesting developments in joystick technology is the addition of force-feedback systems. Force-feedback affects the movement of a joystick by rotating it with motors in its base to create vibrations, simulating turbulence or the jolt forward upon crash landing.
(Above: The future is in your hand. Image from http://www.virtualworldlets.net/)
Debuted in 2007, the Novint Falcon is possibly the most advanced example of force feedback to date. Not only does it offers the truest form of 3d input, letting the user move the knob in all directions in space, it accurately recreates textures like roughness or stickiness. Of course, as a force-feedback controller it also creates physical resistance in the form of pushing and pulling the knob away from the player. One example, using a modded version of Half-Life 2, attempts to simulate knockback for each gun and the force of being shot. While lack of integration with current games limits its use, the Falcon stands as a fascinating technical demonstration of what the future may hold for analog controllers.
The joystick's design has persisted for the past hundred years because it is a natural, intuitive form of input. Although the traditional design has fallen out of popularity and is generally reserved for flight sim games and actual cockpits, the spirit of the joystick lives on in the analog stick, which is all but ubiquitous in modern game controllers. The comfort and control of the joystick's design has also proved to be a natural fit for helping the disabled. Joysticks are still a key component for controlling electric wheelchairs, and they make effective substitute mice for people with poor muscle control, such as those affected by muscular dystrophy or cerebral palsy.
Finally, just in case anyone thinks that touch-based platforms like the iPad are the final nail in the joystick's coffin, ThinkGeek is marketing a aluminum joystick peripheral for the iPad so hipster-retro aficionados can still get their arcade fix.
(Image from http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/cellphone/e75a/)
Clearly, the joystick has plenty of joy still to give. Works cited: Edwards, Benj. "The Right to Baer Games - An Interview with Ralph Baer, the Father of Video Games." Gamasutra 23 Mar 2007: 1. Web. 16 Jan 2011. <http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/1690/the_right_to_baer_games__an_.php>. "Fairchild Channel F." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 7 Jan. 2011. Web. 14 Jan. 2010. Gross, Patrick. "Whatever Happened to the Joystick?." MSN 9 Aug 2009: Web. 15 Jan 2011. <http://tech.uk.msn.com/features/articles.aspx?cp-documentid=149574771>. "Joystick." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 29 Dec. 2010. Web. 14 Jan. 2010. Quinion, Michael. "Joystick." World Wide Words 17 Jul 2004: n. pag. Web. 16 Jan 2011. <http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-joy1.htm>. Rosenberg, Adam. "iPad Joystick Offers Another Option For Retro Gaming." MTV Multiplayer. MTV, 12 Jan 2011. Web. 16 Jan 2011. <http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2011/01/12/ipad-joystick-thinkgeek/>. Zeller, Tom. "A Great Idea That's All in the Wrist."New York Times 5 Jun 2005: n. pag. Web. 16 Jan 2011. <http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/05/weekinreview/05zeller.html?_r=1&ex=1275624000&en=127d9054 b0921b1d>.