Deconstructing Product Design

Joystick CX40

Atari, 1977

1. The joystick has proven to be an effective interface for translating gross human movements into machine movements. A primary control device for aircraft since the early 1900s, the technology was first adapted for video games in the late 1960s in the Magnavox Odyssey. However, it was not until the introduction of the Atari 2600, equipped with its two CX40 joysticks and popular arcade-style games, that video gaming really took off. The controller is about as simple as a controller can be — a stick mounted to a square with a button — but it is this simplicity that may well have been the key factor in growing a nascent and struggling video game industry. Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari, comments: “In the beginning, ...