Gamepad

Gamepad
Developer	Gunpei Yokoi, Nintendo R&D1, R&D2
Publisher	numerous, see below
Systems	numerous, see below
Released	1983-present
Added to Museum	numerous, see below

A gamepad or game pad is a video game controller that is held by both hands and is controlled by pressing buttons primarily by using thumbs.

History

Gunpei Yokoi, the then-manager of Nintendo Research & Development 1, created the directional pad, or D-pad, for the Ball Game & Watch system in 1980.

The first gamepad was the controller for the Family Computer, which was designed by Nintendo Research & Development 2 and released by Nintendo in Japan in 1983. It used Yokoi's D-pad design on the left half of the gamepad for control, two action buttons on the right half, and a select and start button in the center.

The original Family Computer controllers were hardwired, but for the console's international redesign, the Nintendo Entertainment System, the controllers contained plugs so to make them interchangeable. The Nintendo Entertainment System was released in North America in 1985, followed by other markets in the following years.