The types of Joystick

Introduction to joysticks:

There have been many different types of game controllers used in the history of computer games. The most popular controller has been joystick, which is simply a box with a button and sticks to control the motion in the game. But there have been many types of joysticks.

Different joystick types:

Digital Joysticks:

The most common joystick type in home computers have been Atari-style digital joysticks. Those joysticks are called after Atari, because this joystick type was first introduced in Atari 2600 videogame and then adopted to the home computers. The joystick itself consisted of five  which are arranged to that four of them told about the joystick direction (UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT) and one was for fire button.

The nicest thing is that those joysticks were standard and there were joysticks available from many manufacturers.

Paddle controller:

is a simple controller which consists of one knob which is used to control the game. Paddle controllers were used in video games since the first TV-games to control the racket on the screen.

Paddle controllers use analogue principle for control, and they simply consist of one potentiometer and button in one controller. The analogue information from potentiometer has to be converted to digital  in order the computer to use that information.

Analogue joysticks:

were like a combination of ideas of both joystick and paddle. The idea was that potentiometers were used to measure the movement of tick (instead of switches like in digital joystick). Digital joystick made is possible to have more accurate control, which was needed in flight simulator programs.

Analogue joysticks have been used in Apple, Amiga and IBM PC, which only had analogue joystick inputs. Analogue joysticks are not so standardized as digital ones. Each manufacturer had its own specifications of the stick and their own connector model.

PC analogue:

Joystick Nowadays the most common analogue joystick type is PC analogue joystick. This joystick model was presented by IBM together with their first IBM PC computer. The joystick is just a basic analogue joystick with two buttons.

Later time some manufacturers put two connectors to their interface card and some card manufacturers implemented only one joystick input. The joystick interface card was designed to be as simple and cheap as possible.

Nowadays there are so called PC digital joysticks. Those sticks have implemented some other way than through PC joystick card interface to avoid some of the common PC joystick problems and providing faster access for joystick for game programs. The way how those digital PC joysticks communicate with PC is not standardized and possible methods are keyboard connector, serial port or proprietary serial protocol through old joystick interface.

Bluetooth gaming controllers:

Whether you’re a PC or a mobile gamer, there are some games that just play better on a controller. A mouse and keyboard might be more accurate, but are slow to use with limited space or on a sofa. Touchscreen controls don’t require any peripherals, but aren’t accurate or pleasant to use.

But not all Bluetooth game controllers are created equal. Some are designed specifically for Android devices, and others are true console controllers that work across all platforms, to help you make the decision, we’ve put together a list of the best Bluetooth controllers for Android and PC gaming.

For more information: https://www.androidauthority.com/best-bluetooth-gaming-controllers-403184/

For more information: https://www.epanorama.net/documents/joystick/intro.html