The original Steam Controller went through countless iterations before Valve landed on the 2015 design, which gradually began to resemble something more familiar to an Xbox controller or DualShock. Although it only had one joystick, for some reason.
One of these early prototypes—Chell, named after the Portal protagonist—had two circular touchpads on either side, with a grid in the middle flanked by the Y, B, X, and A buttons. It's easy to see why Valve ditched this concept, as it was far less ergonomic, with an awkward button placement that would have clashed with anyone's muscle memory. Nevertheless, some of the prototypes were made and have been found in thrift stores over the years by some lucky Valve enthusiasts.
“I can agree that it is worse than the final product”
Just this weekend, Reddit user Waste-Set5032 stumbled upon one of these rare Steam controllers. “This is tricky for me,” they said, adding that their father found it at a Goodwill. “I, as a teenager, wasn't around for peak Valve, so finding things like these really interests me.” For anyone not in the US, Goodwill is a non-profit store that sells donated clothing, furniture and other items at discounted prices.
Valve's idea with the Steam Controller was to make a computer peripheral that fits better, with trackpads that make navigation easier. Even in the latest iteration, there are two stuck awkwardly under the joystick.
Four years ago, Reddit user Creepy-Boss-705 also picked up a Chell prototype at an eBay auction and even tested a few games with it.
“I'd say the strangest thing about this controller is the lack of data on its functionality [sic] after the retail version came out,” they explained, noting that they prefer the touchpads on the Chell prototype over the retail version. “I'm still amazed that Steam recognizes it at all. So far, Steam thinks it's normal [Steam Controller]. The four middle buttons correspond to the joystick, so mapping them is not a problem, although it is strange to me. I can agree that it's worse than the final product, but I haven't really done much with anything that uses gyro.”
Looking at the incredibly awkward knurled circles and unlabeled buttons, it's hard to imagine the controller being much more than a novelty – playing through Dark Souls 2 with the official 2015 version was painful enough. Chell looks to be functionally impossible to beat the game with. But it's a piece of gaming history, so it's fascinating to see one stumbled upon in the wild all these years later.
- Stamp
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Valve
- Original release date
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September 12, 2003
- Original MSRP (USD)
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N/A
- Weight
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N/A
