Have you ever experienced “gamer hands”, the medical condition where injury or injury occurred in your hands and wrists from too many video games? No? Good, because I made that term. But it is not to say that there is any truth to the idea. Lots of controls, especially during the classic and retro era, had some strange patterns that resulted in pain or discomfort, even after mild use.
And although gaming controls even today can be uncomfortable (looking at you, Switch Joycons), the average gaming experience is still much nicer on our hands than they used to be. Don't believe me? Just look at these digit destructive console checks from previous generations.
Nintendo Entertainment System
At the NES time, gaming console designers led stuck in the traditional game control format. Movement to the left, buttons to the right. But it still left much to be desired.
The sharp rectangular shape either meant that your hands penetrated and tried to hold it in your fingers, or the 90-degree angles that were dug on the sides of the hand. It worked, but it became uncomfortable quickly.
Tubrographx-16
The tubrographx-16 control unit is very similar to one, but with an important difference: height. The extra mass above the buttons meant that it was more “natural” to keep the controller lower, which meant more effort to reach the D -pad and buttons.
The result was more fatigue in the thumb and tight muscles in a shorter period of time. But hey, at least it's still a normal form of control.
Gakken Compact Vision TV Boy
Some may consider its horizontal control stick and handle schedule for their time. Others can consider it a shock concept that will be hell on their arms after 30 minutes of play. The controller encouraged parallel hand placement, resulting in curved shafts and troublesome elbow positions.
Fortunately, not many people will have experienced discomfort. This only Japan console fought to compete against NES, which caused low sales and short-lived support.
Atari 7800
Atari is known for its joystick -based game, especially during the increase in console games. 7800 tried to build on the classic 2600's joystick by making it nicer and adding a second button on the opposite side.
In reality, this made the second button difficult to press while keeping the controller. The shape also encouraged to keep the controller at an angle, making some controls unclear or confusing.
The controller proved to be so uncomfortable that Atari was pressured to release a traditional form of control in the EU, more related to the NES form.
Atari 2600
Speaking of 2600. This All-Star Game Console stood out from the crowd because of its arcade gap and the unique controller schedule, which put a primary focus on a single full-handed joystick and an action button.
The problem: Keeping the damn thing. The larger size and blocked shape made it more bulky than the average control unit. The increase in hand fatigue is aggravated by a hand to, more or less, withstand the slope of the joystick hand. It is an effective design, but it makes you fight yourself for control, and it causes terrible muscle tension after a while.
Coleccision
If coleccision were known for something, it should be for its complete breach of ergonomics in favor of ingenuity. The controller is a perfect example of that. With a rotating bud on top and a 12-button number pad on the bottom, this enabled exponentially more measures than any other control on the market, at the expense of comfort.
There is no pleasant way to keep this controller. Either your dominant hand controls the steering wheel for fine -tuned controls, or your dominant hand holds the controller and stretches the thumb to reach one of the different buttons. Regardless of which tribe of trying to keep the controller still at the same time reaching each button and controlling the steering wheel for an allocation challenge and an overexenized thumb.
Philips CD-I
This may not be the fair item to this list. CD-I, while remembered for video games, was intended as a multimedia device that could handle many different digital tasks, such as sales technology, corporate education and education. It even came with a relatively normal game control … usually.
But believe me when I say that there are few control units more horrible than the CD-I 550's paddle control. Probably intended for business presentations, this one -handed controller had zero ergonomic layer for games, with a layout that was extremely slow to use in one hand, but almost unimaginable to try to use both hands with.
Fairchild channel f
One of the earliest attempts to develop a joystick-based gaming experience, the channel F used a large joystick bud at the end of a posture. It also includes control functions for turning the steering wheel, as well as pressing it or out of the controller.
Although it has an affordable level of functionality, it ended up becoming more uncomfortable than you would think. The triangular buds would dig in their hand if held too hard, but loose grips would easily result in accidental turns or pressure, which triggered the extra controls. The hard plastic really didn't help.
Magnavox Odyssey
One of the real OG home controls, Magnavox Odyssey was before anyone really knew how to do a good controller. The technology at that time was also extremely limited, and often relied on very basic actions and Cling-on movies for giving “graphics”.
The control unit was a box of two (technical three) rings, one on each side. The intention was to rest the box on a table and use a dial in each hand. This did for an extremely stiff experience, where it is difficult to use the controller when it did not rest against a table top. Good that the big news in home games compensated for the narrow wrists.
Nintendo 64
Listen, we all knew where this list would. Of every classic game console in history, only one of them had legitimate medical problems from people who used it. Nintendo 64 used a unique three -part control unit with a joystick in the middle. The intention was to keep the different ways, depending on the game.
The problem was partly due to the hard plastic used for the joystick, which would carry the skin after extended use. This then paired with the extremely popular Mario Party, which included a mini game that quickly rolled the joystick in a circle. The popular method was to place the joystick against the palm and rotate it that way. This led to the plastic rubbing abstainly against the soft skin of the palm, which led to damage. This was a problem that almost all N64 owners became acquainted with at least once.
