Lecture 1 Game Evolution and Game History

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Lecture 1Game Evolution and Game History

• Abdennour El Rhalibi

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Syllabus

• Lecture 1 Game Evolution, Game History
• Lecture 2 Games Genres Arcade games
  characteristics
• Lecture 3 Game Design and techniques
• Lecture 4 Game Hardware evolution Computers
• Lecture 5 Architecture Processor, Memory,
  Cards (Graphics, Sound)
• Lecture 6 Game Hardware evolution Consoles
• Lecture 7 Consoles Performance
  PS2/Xbox/Gamecube

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Syllabus

• Lecture 8 Input/Output game controller
• Lecture 9 Development Tools OS/Programming
  Language Current Development Methods
• Lecture 10 Development Tools Games
  engines/multimedia packages
• Lecture 11 Game Future Trends
  Networking/wireless/Broadband
• Lecture 12 Game Future Trends AI
• Lecture 13 Revision

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Agenda

• Game Evolution
• Graphics
• Sound
• Technology
• Multiplayer
• Controller
• Game History
• Before the Games 1889-1970
• The Games Begin 1971-1977
• The Golden Age 1978-1981
• The Great Crash 1982-1984
• Video Games Are Back 1985-1988
• The Home Market Expands 1989-1992
• The 32-Bit Era Begins 1993-1997
• The Modern Age 1998-1999

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Game Evolution

• In just over 30 years, video games have developed
  from simple concepts like Spacewar and Pong into
  complex multimedia experiences.
• Progress in the areas of graphics, sound,
  technology, multiplayer capability, and
  controllers have affected the way players
  experience video games. Although this progress
  has often been gradual, certain games stand out
  as breakthrough achievements.
• Each of these milestones represents a significant
  moment in video-game history - a time when an
  important gaming concept was introduced to the
  public. The purpose of this feature is to
  document the most notable of these milestones and
  the context in which they emerged.
• In five different categories (graphics, sound,
  technology, multiplayer, and controllers), a
  milestone from the classic and contemporary eras
  has been selected, along with a title that best
  represents that period. It is important to note
  that these games are not necessarily the first of
  their type instead, they are the games that made
  people take notice and, in some cases, launched a
  trend.

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Game Evolution - Graphics

• Graphics
• Classic3D Vector Graphics Battlezone
• The Background
• Vector graphics have a history in the arcades
  that goes back almost as far as video games
  themselves.
• First introduced in 1978's Space Wars, vector
  graphics were a popular alternative to
  sprite-based rendering.
• Instead of dividing the screen area into pixels,
  vector-based games used a light beam that drew
  images onto the screen by rapidly creating a
  series of connected lines.
• The concept was similar to that of a laser show.
  This technique allowed bright, complex images in
  both two and three dimensions. The downside was
  that these visuals had to be composed of wire
  frames rather than of solid objects.

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Game Evolution - Graphics
Battlezone
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Game Evolution - Graphics

• The Milestone
• Atari was fond of vectors, creating more than 20
  games that used the technology between 1979 and
  1985. Its first game was Lunar Lander, a
  simulation of landing a ship on the moon's
  surface. Then came Asteroids, the smash hit of
  1979. The year after that, Battlezone was
  released.
• While Battlezone wasn't the first 3D vector game
  (that honor goes to Cinematronics' Tailgunner),
  it was the first created that had a recognizable
  3D world, complete with mountains, obstacles, and
  even a moon in the sky. As its name suggests,
  Battlezone was a game of tank warfare. Imagine a
  3D version of the tank games in the Atari 2600's
  Combat, and you have a fairly good idea of what
  it was like.
• Your view of the battlefield was from directly
  inside a tank, and your goal was simple Destroy
  as many enemy tanks as possible without getting
  destroyed yourself. Various obstacles,
  represented by cubes and pyramids, stood in your
  way, and they could be used to block enemy fire.
• You viewed the game through a special viewfinder
  that looked like a pair of goggles. This scheme
  blocked peripheral vision, magnified the action,
  and could be considered a precursor to
  virtual-reality headsets. Battlezone also
  featured a unique control system by using two
  joysticks - one for the x-axis and one for the
  y-axis. This allowed for a greater degree of
  control... once you figured out how it worked.

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Game Evolution - Graphics
Star Wars The Arcade Game
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Game Evolution - Graphics

• The Influence
• Although later Atari vector games like Star Wars,
  Tempest, and Major Havoc were more graphically
  impressive, Battlezone was so extraordinary for
  its time that the US Army asked Atari to develop
  a modified version of the game for use as a
  training simulator.
• With the development of polygon graphics and the
  crash of 1984, vector-based games fell out of
  favor and soon disappeared entirely. (The last
  vector game Atari released was The Empire Strikes
  Back in 1985.) However, every modern video-game
  fan can thank Battlezone and vector graphics for
  making the world three-dimensional.

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Game Evolution - Graphics
Tempest
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Game Evolution - Graphics

• Modern Polygon graphics - Virtua Racing
• The Background
• It's hard to believe, but polygon graphics first
  appeared in arcades way back in 1984, in a rare
  Atari-produced game called I, Robot. Like most
  ahead-of-their-time ideas, it was doomed to
  failure. Only 500 units were ever released in the
  US, so very few gamers had any exposure to the
  new technology.
• It wasn't until 1989, with Atari's release of
  Hard Drivin' and Stun Runner, that the public got
  a first real taste of what polygons could do.
• Hard Drivin' was a realistic, but slow, driving
  simulator, while Stun Runner was a futuristic
  racer with an emphasis on speed. Throughout the
  '80s, Atari had proved to be an innovator in the
  arcades, but it would take a game from Sega to
  usher in the new era of 3D gaming.

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Game Evolution - Graphics
I, Robot
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Game Evolution - Graphics

• The Milestone
• The game that started it all was Virtua Racing,
  released in 1992 by Sega's AM2 development team.
• While Hard Drivin' had realism and Stun Runner
  had speed, Virtua Racing had both. Players could
  view the action from four different perspectives,
  ranging from inside the car to from high above
  it.
• In addition to its fluid graphics, Virtua Racing
  combined a force-feedback steering wheel,
  multiplayer options, and blaring sound effects to
  create what was for the time an unparalleled
  experience.
• The game was adapted to several home consoles,
  including the Sega Genesis (with the help of a
  DSP processor built into the cartridge), 32X, and
  Saturn.

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Game Evolution - Graphics
Four players competing at Virtua Racing.
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Game Evolution - Graphics

• The Influence
• The game represented a turning point, proving
  that polygonal graphics were the way to go,
  signaling the eventual death or seeming stasis of
  2D. J
• ust as Battlezone created the possibility to
  create a realistic 3D environment, Virtua Racing
  proved it could be done.
• In the years following its release, Sega
  introduced several follow-ups, including Daytona
  USA, Sega GT, and Sega Rally.

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Game Evolution - Sound

• Sound
• Classic Voice - Berzerk
• Intruder alert!
• The humanoid must not escape!
• The Background
• As in the cinema, sound is an often-neglected
  aspect of video games. Try turning down the
  volume of your favorite game, and in most cases
  you'll find your enjoyment is diminished. Sound
  effects and music heighten the realism of the
  overall experience by drawing you in in ways you
  often don't realize.
• In the early days, video games' sound effects
  consisted of little more than electronic beeps,
  but soon these beeps were strung together to form
  simple tunes.
• The theme songs from Donkey Kong and Pac-Man, as
  basic as they are, have become ingrained in the
  minds of many gamers who grew up in the early
  '80s.
• Beyond music and sound effects, one of the most
  popular and impressive uses of sound technology
  was in the area of digitized voice.
• The first video game to actually speak was 1979's
  Major League Baseball for the Intellivision.
• In 1980, voice was introduced into the arcade
  with Stratovox, a shooter in the vein of Space
  Invaders.

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Game Evolution - Sound
Stratovox
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Game Evolution - Sound

• The Milestone
• Most gamers, however, best remember the sinister
  voices emanating from Berzerk, released later
  that same year.
• The game put you in the role of a human trapped
  in a never-ending maze filled with robots led by
  Evil Otto (a bouncing, smiley face). Armed with a
  laser, you tried to survive as long as possible
  by destroying robots, avoiding the electrified
  walls, and running from Otto, who was
  indestructible.
• Thirty different words were combined to create
  the game's variety of spoken phrases.
• By today's standards, the speech was barely
  intelligible, but at the time, the novelty of
  hearing "Intruder Alert! Intruder Alert!" or "The
  humanoid must not escape!" added greatly to the
  game's atmosphere and was enough to make it a
  popular choice at the arcades.
• Berzerk eventually made its way to the Atari 2600
  and 5200, minus its voice capabilities, of
  course.

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Game Evolution - Sound
Berzerk
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Game Evolution - Sound

• The Influence
• Berzerk's popularity marked the beginning of a
  long line of arcade games that prominently
  featured voice, including Gorf, Sinistar, Track
  Field, Wizard of Wor, and Gauntlet.
• However, voice didn't take hold in the home,
  despite Mattel's attempt to market an add-on
  voice module for its Intellivision.
• Not until the rise of the 16-bit systems would
  consoles have enough power to make
  realistic-sounding voices a possibility.

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Game Evolution - Sound
Atari 2600's Berzerk
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Game Evolution - Sound

• Modern Play-by-Play Commentary - Joe Montana II
  SportsTalk Football
• The Background
• Since 1979's Major League Baseball was the first
  talking video game, it also was the first sports
  game to have some form of spoken commentary
  (which consisted of a synthesized voice saying,
  "Strike," "Ball," "Out," etc.).
• Popular sports games that followed, such as the
  NES' Tecmo Bowl and RBI Baseball, continued the
  trend of including isolated voices interspersed
  with the action.

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Game Evolution - Sound

• The Milestone
• "Welcome to Joe Montana's SportsTalk Football."
  With those simple words, a milestone was
  achieved. From the moment the announcer uttered
  that phrase, no other sports game would ever be
  the same. While the Joe Montana series was not
  much competition for the John Madden series in
  terms of gameplay, SportsTalk Football had one
  overwhelming advantage continuous play-by-play
  commentary.
• Previous sports games, including John Madden
  Football, had featured occasional outbursts of
  speech, but SportsTalk Football was the first
  game to feature an announcer describing the
  action on the field as it happened. For example,
  as you were getting ready to pass, the announcer
  said, "He goes back to pass... " and then gave
  the result of the play, all in real time. The
  number of words and phrases the game contained
  was limited, but every situation had an
  appropriate response in a crisp and easily
  understandable voice.
• As in Berzerk, the commentary in SportsTalk
  Football enhanced the overall experience of the
  game, bringing it one step closer to reality.
  Unfortunately, the game didn't contain real NFL
  teams or players, and its gameplay was relatively
  basic.

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Game Evolution - Sound
Intellivision's Major League Baseball
Joe Montana II SportsTalk Football
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Game Evolution - Sound

• The Influence
• Ever since SportsTalk Football, play-by-play
  commentary has been a required feature of all
  sports games, from football to basketball to
  hockey.
• With the introduction of CD-based games, the
  clarity, number of unique phrases, and fluidity
  of speech has improved dramatically over the past
  decade.
• For instance, Sega's latest football game, NFL 2K
  for the Dreamcast, features three announcers with
  a huge vocabulary, including every player's name.
  And they don't just report what's happening on
  the field, but actually comment on a player's
  excellent catch or particularly brutal hit.
• It all happens so seamlessly that it can barely
  be distinguished from a television broadcast.

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Game Evolution - Technology

• Technology
• Classic Laserdisc - Dragon's Lair
• The Background
• Developed in the early '70s, laser discs were
  designed as a storage media for video and audio.
  Each disc is 12 inches in diameter and holds 60
  minutes of content per side (in CLV mode).
• Unlike CDs, laser discs are analog (with digital
  sound), so in some ways they have more in common
  with LP records. The first laser-disc players
  were released in 1978 - about the same time as
  the VCR. For a variety of debatable reasons,
  laser discs never caught on with the general
  public however, their existence was a step
  toward more commercially successful products like
  CDs, CD-ROMs, and DVDs.
• The development and release of laser-disc
  technology occurred at a time when video games
  were just beginning to take off. In just a few
  years, the industry had transformed from a "fad"
  to a full-blown craze. Arcades were still where
  you could find the best games, with home systems
  striving to catch up. In hindsight, it was only a
  matter of time before someone made the connection
  between laser discs and video games.

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Game Evolution - Technology
Swinging on fire ropes
Dirk the Daring
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Game Evolution - Technology

• The Milestone
• In 1983, programmer Rick Dyer and animator Don
  Bluth introduced the world to Dragon's Lair, the
  first laser-disc arcade game.
• The game itself was about as basic as it got. In
  it, you took the role of Dirk the Daring in his
  quest to save Princess Daphne from the clutches
  of an evil dragon. As an animated sequence played
  onscreen, there were moments in which you were
  required to move the joystick in a certain
  direction. If you succeeded, you moved on. If
  not, you died. Players soon realized Dragon's
  Lair required no real skill, only memorization
  and dead-on timing.
• Featuring rich, colorful animation from Bluth's
  studio, Dragon's Lair was (and still is) an
  amazing sight to behold. The fact that you didn't
  actually have much control over the onscreen
  action didn't seem to matter much... at first.
  Compared with the simplistic graphics of Mario
  Bros. and Spy Hunter (released that same year),
  Dragon's Lair was leaps and bounds ahead of the
  competition. While it may not be fair to compare
  animation from a laser disc to computer-generated
  graphics, the visual impact of Dragon's Lair was
  enough to set the video-game world on its ear.

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Game Evolution - Technology
The Halycon home system
Space Ace
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Game Evolution - Technology

• The Influence
• Shortly after Dragon's Lair, the laser disc was
  hailed as the savior of video games. In just a
  brief period, a handful of companies responded by
  releasing laser-disc games Coleco announced a
  never-released laser-disc add-on for the
  ColecoVision Space Ace (the follow-up to
  Dragon's Lair) hit arcades and Rick Dyer
  developed a short-lived laserdisc home system
  called Halcyon.
• As we now know, laser-disc games were destined to
  remain a novelty. In hindsight, it's still hard
  to pin down exactly why. It could have been the
  games' lack of interaction, the company's high
  production costs, or the decline in the
  popularity of arcade games in general.
  Regardless, Dragon's Lair changed the way people
  thought about video games, proving them to be
  more than a simple collection of pixels arranged
  on a screen.

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Game Evolution - Technology

• Modern CD-ROM - Final Fantasy VII
• The Background
• NEC's TurboGraphx-16 was the first home console
  to use CD media for storage, but it required an
  add-on to do so.
• The first CD games relied on the medium's
  increased storage capacity to "enhance" the
  gameplay experience with video clips, voice
  acting, and high-quality music.
• Games like Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective
  used full-motion video (FMV) as an integral part
  of the gameplay.
• A few years later, Sega introduced Sega CD, an
  add-on for the Genesis. The system relied heavily
  on FMV games, such as Night Trap and Sewer Shark,
  for its software library. Like the laser-disc
  games of the past, these games were heavy on eye
  candy but light on interactivity.
• Later, the 3DO and an add-on for the Atari Jaguar
  also used CD technology, but the former was too
  expensive and the latter didn't receive enough
  third-party support.
• Tellingly, versions of Dragon's Lair and Space
  Ace appeared on all these consoles (except for
  the TG-16).

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Game Evolution - Technology
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective
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Game Evolution - Technology

• The Milestone
• In 1995, the Sony PlayStation arrived in the US.
  Along with the Sega Saturn, it was the first
  console to actually use the increased storage
  space of the CD to its advantage. This was made
  clear by Square's announcement that it was
  abandoning the cartridge-based Nintendo 64 in
  favor of the PlayStation. The company said the
  limitations of a cartridge were too great to
  accommodate its vision of its latest RPG, Final
  Fantasy VII.
• When the game was released in 1997, it was a
  breathtaking combination of epic gameplay,
  stunning visuals, and amazing music. The RPG wove
  together full motion video and polygon graphics
  in a nearly seamless fashion, achieving a
  cinematic-like quality.
• The reason why FFVII was such an achievement was
  that Square understood that the CD medium was
  fundamentally no different from a cartridge the
  only difference was that the CD had a greater
  storage capacity. Other developers had viewed the
  medium as a container that needed to be filled by
  whatever means necessary, but Square saw it
  merely as a tool to create the game it had in
  mind.

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Game Evolution - Technology
Final Fantasy VII
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Game Evolution - Technology

• The Influence
• Final Fantasy VII raised the bar for RPGs and for
  video games, in general. Along with Resident
  Evil, it is one of a handful of titles that
  defined the new standard for gaming in the late
  '90s.
• With the next-generation consoles factoring in
  DVD, FFVII should be used as a model for how to
  use new technology rather than abuse it.

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Game Evolution - Multiplayer

• Multiplayer
• Classic Four-player cooperative - Gauntlet
• The Background
• Multiplayer gaming is nothing new. In fact, from
  Pong forward, playing against a human opponent
  has been an integral part of gaming.
• Early games that allowed two or more simultaneous
  players were not only common, but in many cases
  these games required more than one player. If you
  wanted to play Combat and didn't have any
  friends, you were just out of luck.
• The Atari 2600, the most popular console of the
  late '70s and early '80s, had only two joystick
  ports, but the paddle controllers allowed for up
  to four players at once in games like Super
  Breakout, Warlords, and Video Olympics.

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Game Evolution - Multiplayer
Super Breakout
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Game Evolution - Multiplayer

• The Milestone
• Most early multiplayer games pitted players
  against each other. Atari Games' Gauntlet was one
  of the first examples of a game that required
  cooperation, not competition. Set in a dungeon
  filled with ghosts, ghouls, and demons, Gauntlet
  featured a choice of four characters - Warrior,
  Wizard, Elf, or Valkyrie - and up to four could
  play at once. The goal was to make it to the exit
  of each dungeon level by hacking, slicing, and
  shooting your way through enemy forces, while
  collecting treasure, food, and power-ups.
• Since each character had his own strengths and
  weaknesses, it helped to work together. Warrior
  was best at hand-to-hand combat, Wizard excelled
  at using magic potions, Elf was quick on his
  feet, and Valkyrie was the most balanced
  character.
• First released in 1985 as a quarter-munching
  arcade game, Gauntlet was later ported to the
  NES, minus the four-player ability. In 1990,
  Gauntlet II was released on the NES and took
  advantage of the "4-Score," a four-player add-on
  adapter.

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Game Evolution - Multiplayer
Gauntlet
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Game Evolution - Multiplayer

• The Influence
• In addition to spawning an arcade sequel, a
  Nintendo 64 follow-up, and PlayStation and
  Dreamcast versions (in development at the time of
  this writing), Gauntlet started a trend of
  multiplayer cooperative games.
• Although many of these titles allowed only two or
  three simultaneous players, hits like Contra,
  Golden Axe, Final Fight, and Teenage Mutant Ninja
  Turtles all owe their existence to this classic.

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Game Evolution - Multiplayer
Final Fight
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Game Evolution - Multiplayer

• Modern Four-player competitive - GoldenEye
• The Background
• Like it or not, competition is an integral part
  of just about every video game, whether you're
  battling it out against a computer opponent or
  against the person beside you on the couch.
  Warlords, the first truly competitive four-player
  game, made its debut in arcades in 1980 and
  reached the Atari 2600 a year later. A descendent
  of Breakout, it was unlike previous four-player
  games (like Atari Football, which divided its
  players into two teams), in that it was pure
  one-on-one-on-one-on-one action.
• A few other four-player competitive games
  followed - Demolition Derby and Track Field to
  name a couple - but the genre mostly dried up.
  Then DOOM arrived.
• DOOM began its life as a PC title, but it was
  eventually ported to the SNES, 32X, PlayStation,
  Jaguar, 3DO, Saturn, and N64. Strictly speaking,
  it was not the originator of the first-person
  shooter genre, though it might as well have been.
  DOOM was a revolutionary title, since the PC
  version let up to four players play at once in
  "deathmatch" mode. The game never quite gained
  the same success on the consoles as it had on the
  PC, since none of the console versions were able
  to support more than two players.

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Game Evolution - Multiplayer
DOOM (PlayStation)
Warlords
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Game Evolution - Multiplayer

• The Milestone
• The combination of GoldenEye 007 and the Nintendo
  64's four controller ports meant quality
  competitive gaming had finally come to the
  console world. Based on the 1996 James Bond film
  starring Pierce Brosnan, GoldenEye was one of the
  few movie-based games that didn't come across as
  a rushed hack job released merely to bring in
  some quick green. In fact, the game came out a
  full year after the film's release. And it was
  well worth the wait.
• In addition to being a great single-player
  experience, GoldenEye 007 packed a wealth of
  multiplayer options that would keep gamers busy
  for weeks, months, and even years. In addition to
  the standard deathmatch, the game featured four
  other modes, each named after a Bond flick. The
  goal of The Living Daylights was to hold on to a
  flag for as long as possible Man With the Golden
  Gun featured a golden gun that let you take down
  your enemies with a single bullet License to
  Kill made every shot deadly and You Only Live
  Twice gave each player two lives. You could also
  play in teams.
• Two years after its release, GoldenEye 007
  remains a staple of serious and casual gamers
  alike - it was the best-selling video game of
  1998 and is the second-highest-selling N64 title
  (behind Super Mario 64).

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Game Evolution - Multiplayer
GoldenEye 007
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Game Evolution - Multiplayer

• The Influence
• GoldenEye 007's success opened the door for the
  N64's abundance of four-player games like Turok
  Rage Wars, Donkey Kong 64, and Mario Party, but
  it also points to a future where interacting with
  humans, rather than computer opponents, will be
  the norm.
• For instance, Sega Dreamcast's Internet
  capabilities will eventually make it possible to
  fight, race, and cooperate with players from all
  over the country.

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Game Evolution - Controllers

• Controllers
• Classic NES controller - Super Mario Bros.
• The Background
• When the Atari 2600 debuted, it shipped with two
  one-button joysticks and a set of one-button
  paddles.
• The Intellivision's controller was a combination
  of a 12-digit keypad and a thumb disc.
• The ColecoVision's was similar, but the thumb
  disc was raised slightly, making it more like a
  joystick. The Atari 5200 controller also used the
  same configuration but featured a noncentering,
  analog joystick.
• In 1980, Nintendo began selling the "Game
  Watch" series - a group of handheld games
  consisting of an LCD screen and a few buttons to
  control the action.
• The first of these included basic games with
  short titles, like Ball, Vermin, Fire, and
  Manhole. From there, Nintendo developed more
  complicated games based on its arcade hits. One
  of these was Donkey Kong, released in 1982 in
  Game Watch form. Besides being one of the first
  multiscreen Game Watches, Donkey Kong is also
  notable because it introduced the world to the
  digital-pad (d-pad), which would become the
  dominant control scheme for home console use. The
  control layout of Donkey Kong was remarkably
  similar to what would later become the standard
  Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) controller.

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Game Evolution - Controllers
Donkey Kong Game Watch
50
Game Evolution - Controllers

• The Milestone
• When the NES was released in the U.S. in 1984,
  its controller was different from any other
  console before it. Taking its cue from the Game
  Watch series, Nintendo designed its controller
  without a joystick or numerical keypad. In its
  place was a cross-shaped thumb controller and two
  action buttons, along with start and select
  buttons. Super Mario Bros., the NES pack-in game,
  was the perfect showcase for this new controller.
  
• With a shorter "throw distance" than a joystick,
  the NES gamepad allowed for the quick, precise
  movements necessary in SMB. The two action
  buttons, labeled B and A, meant separate tasks
  could be easily performed without the confusion
  of a numerical keypad. For example, in SMB, B
  made Mario run faster and shoot fireballs, and A
  made him jump. (As if you already didn't know.)

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Game Evolution - Controllers
NES and controllers
Super Mario Bros.
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Game Evolution - Controllers

• The Influence
• Take a look at just about every controller made
  after 1984, and you'll see what an impact it had.
  More buttons have been added over the years, and
  the boxy shape has been improved on, but the
  basic layout designed by Nintendo remains intact.

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Game Evolution - Controllers

• Modern N64 controller - Super Mario 64
• The Background
• The difference between an analog joystick and a
  digital joystick is in the way it processes
  input. A digital joystick detects movement as
  either "on" or "off." If you press a digital
  joystick to the right, your character will move
  to the right at the same speed regardless of the
  amount of pressure you use.
• On the other hand, an analog joystick can detect
  not only "on" and "off" (binary ones and zeroes)
  but also everything in between. This allows
  varying amounts of pressure on the joystick to
  have varying effects on the action.
• The Atari 5200 was the first home system to use
  an analog controller, but it was noncentering.
  (After you pushed it in a direction, you had to
  manually push it back to the center.) Needless to
  say, it wasn't very successful. It would be
  another ten years before analog would hit it big.

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Game Evolution - Controllers
Super Mario 64
55
Game Evolution - Controllers

• The Milestone
• Nintendo had pioneered the use of a digital
  gamepad with the NES and had made only minor
  improvements to that design for the SNES. Other
  game consoles followed suit - even "next
  generation" systems like the PlayStation and the
  Saturn kept the general layout of the original
  NES pad.
• With the N64, Nintendo decided to design a
  controller designed specifically for 3D games.
  The layout of the controller was quite different
  than anything before it. It included both digital
  and analog controls, two action buttons, two
  shoulder buttons, and four "camera" buttons, as
  well as a trigger button on the underside of the
  controller.
• Super Mario 64, one of the Nintendo 64 launch
  titles, proved immediately that an analog
  controller was necessary to control a character
  in a three-dimensional environment. Mario was no
  longer restricted to a 2D side-scrolling
  playfield, and the freedom of analog meant Mario
  could creep, walk, or run, depending on how much
  pressure was exerted on the stick. This made for
  a more natural, intuitive level of control.

56
Game Evolution - Controllers
Black N64 controller
57
Game Evolution - Controllers

• The Influence
• Nintendo had first shown the design of their
  analog controller in 1995, allowing Sega enough
  time to develop their own version for the Saturn,
  which was released almost simultaneously with the
  N64.
• Sony then developed the Dual Shock analog
  controller for the PlayStation, which added two
  analog sticks to the original controller.
  Although it was initially available as an add-on
  peripheral, Sony soon began including the
  controller as a pack-in item.
• For the Dreamcast controller, Sega refined the
  N64 design by placing both the analog and digital
  controls on the same side and including analog
  shoulder buttons.
• The PlayStation 2 controller upgrades the Dual
  Shock design with analog capabilities for all
  buttons (except for start and select).