Like night following day and grass being green, joysticks being on the left-hand side of a controller has been a solid rule in gaming since what seems like forever. While you could argue that the recent shift to twin-stick pads may run counter to this perspective, the left-hand stick is always your primary control input - with the buttons traditionally found on the right-hand side of the pad.
It might seem like this has been the case since the dawn of time, but in actual fact things were the opposite way around many years ago - which makes perfect sense when you consider that the majority of the planet is right-handed, and you'd naturally expect your "strong" hand to be the one making the most precise control inputs.
As you can see in the excellent and informative video above, early arcade machines had the joystick on the right and the buttons (or, as was often the case, button) on the left. This setup was replicated with the insanely popular Atari VCS / 2600, which had a single button on the left of its iconic joystick controller.
So why did things get switched around? According to Larry Bundy, it was because of declining revenues in the arcade sector. Keen to keep their coin-op units as profitable as possible, some canny arcade operators switched the controls around, placing the stick on the left and the buttons on the right.
This move was seen as a way of increasing difficulty, and because it was incorporated into the design of the JAMMA arcade standard, it quickly became accepted as the norm. It was also around this time that home consoles like the Famicom (1983) used this setup; even the handheld Game & Watch series, which featured the world's first D-Pad, placed it on the (you guessed it) left-hand side of the system.
What do you make of this perspective? Does it sound like it makes sense to you, or do you think there's another reason for sticks moving position? Sound off in the comments section below.
[source youtube.com]
Comments 50
To this day I can't play Tron: Deadly Discs because of the right-hand setup. But, I have no problem with regular Tron and flight games like After Burner which also have sticks on the right. It's probably because they have trigger and thumb fire buttons and no left-hand actions (other than a throttle). Weird.
Ever wondered ‘why’ or ‘by’? (In the title)
Definitely wondered though! Especially as I prefer playing as a lefty
That's pretty cool!
Not enough Peter Molyneux jokes here.
I thought the reason was that the Japanese wrote from right to left so they would mostly be left handed, hence the left Dpad on the NES/Game & watch.
@Rhaoulos
I don't believe the incidence of left handedness is any greater in japan. They only write right-to-left when the script goes vertically, top-to-bottom. When writing on a single line the text still goes left-to-right.
I think you need more precision to press buttons rather than to move a stick, I am right handed and I am sure it is easier for us right handed people that way. You also often push buttons more rapidly than you change directions so you both need more strenght and more precision for the buttons I think. Therefore having the stick on the left for us makes sense imo
It’s somewhat intuitive - the left hand guides, while the right hand executes. It’s sort of like swinging a baseball bat.
Ultimately though, I think we’re just trained. My first experience with video games was joystick/control on the left, buttons on the right. So after all these years, that’s just what feels natural.
For me pressing all those buttons is a lot more taxing to my hands than controlling the joystick or d-pad. This is mostly felt by playing fighting games and those classic schmups where you needed to press the attack button every time for each shot. Can you imagine pressing that button a thousand times in a single playthrough with your left hand? I know I wouldn't be able to do it.
So yeah, I still believe that's the reason why the joystick is on the left.
The Atari 2600 joystick was my favourite ever ... and I’m a leftie
That might all be true but here's some logic on my part: If most games have you moving from left to right (and they do), or standing on the left primarily (usually you start as the left player in a fighting game in single player mode for example), then it just makes sense for the stick to be on the left and the buttons on the right because that reflects the same way your movement to actions works: You move your character on the left of the screen to the right and his gun usually fires to the right, or his sword swipes to the right, or whatever; so I think it would feel back to front to have the stick on the left and action/fire buttons on the right in most games.
It would be similar if someone was trying to show you a timeline from the past to the future and they had the past on the left and the future on the right: We read left to right and visualise time as moving forwards from the left to the right too, so a timeline moving from the past to the future should similarly go from left to right.
The same king of thinking applies to controller design and putting a stick on the left imo.
With flight joysticks it makes more sense to have the stick be either right-handed or ambidextrous though because most people are right hand dominant and since you're controlling the thing looking forward from a first person point of view, even in games that go from left to right, you want to just use your best hand at all times. There's no practical benefit to this kind of stick being left handed. And some of the old consoles and PCs had controllers that were very much like flight sticks, so I can see why those would be either ambidextrous or right handed just out of default standard design practices.
But, hey, that's just my logical way of looking at things.
@HappyAxiom And that too: Your left hand is usually more clumsy and less precisely controlled than your right, so you'd want to have the most complex actions and especially things that require rapid button pressing to be assigned to your right hand. I guarantee most people can press a button rapidly much faster with their right index finger than their left, which a lot of old arcade-style games, especially shmups often required. So this is another reason why the stick being on the left and buttons on the right just makes sense.
"you'd naturally expect your "strong" hand to be the one making the most precise control inputs"
I'd argue the right hand has to do more, especially now days that there's right hand joysticks alongside the buttons on that side of the control while controllers with a stick + dpad generally see the d-pad getting allocated less frequently used functions like inventory management etc.
Even back on older NES and SNES titles the left thumb would probably be moving around less than the right hand one which was controlling buttons. A lot of those older titles you were just rocking the dpad left or right to control some 2D title.
I legitimately almost gave up on gaming because of D-pads. Had used the likes of Quickshot and Konix sticks for years (right-handed) before D-pads came along. The Sega/Nintendo controllers just felt so damn alien to me.
Satan rules.
Thank you for adding text to video articles. When I'm at work, or somewhere without Wi-Fi, I always appreciate it.
Yay, Guru Larry! Legend.
I doubt it really matters. You'll get used to it either way. I'm right handed, but the thought alone of using the right stick as the primary one with ABXY buttons on the left, makes me nauseous to the point I could vomit.
It's interesting because while playing around with game development, I often put the controls for movement on the arrow keys while putting actions on ZXC or something, and it doesn't feel any less comfortable than moving with the left hand and performing actions with the right on a controller. I suppose either way would work if enough time was spent getting used to it.
I can play either way. I remember those days.
Grew playing on home computers mainly, rather than consoles. Still think it's hard to beat holding a Zipstick base in your left hand, thumb over the single button, and controlling the joystick with your right. I can barely imagine controlling a D-pad with my right hand, though!
"the recent shift to twin-stick pads"
"the recent shift"
The dual shock came out in 1997. We have had twin-stick pads for roughly half of the life of video games.
Wow Game & Watch had the world’s first D-pad?? Neat to think that my Switch is an evolution of that. Cue the joy-con d-pad complaints...
"It's not probably what you think..."
Huh. Like the old QWERTY keyboard legend.
Being a lefty, it would drive me nuts if I had to use an analog stick to make precise movements with my right hand. That's why I hated when right analog sticks first started showing up. I also think that's why I can't shoot worth a damn when it comes to FPS's.
And another thing. I am really, really good at Tetris. I think being a lefty helps considerably.
Tiger and Nintendo reused the directional on the right concept again in their handhelds and portable devices in the 90s, those were not well receive.
I might have seen this guy's videos before. The drawing of him in the thumbnail rings a bell. It's nice to see NL showcase videos from other channels again, instead of their own.
Even with the arcade games that had the buttons on both sides of the stick, I always ended up using the stick with the left, and buttons on the right as a kid. Just felt more natural. True that being right handed it probably was more reasonable to use that for movements, it just felt more natural because of the quick reflexes needed to use the buttons in some games.
I doubt that explanation is entirely accurate... sticks may have originally been put on the left with the intention of making games harder, but I doubt they would have become the standard for that reason... I'm guessing that they discovered that having the stick on the left was actually better.
It makes sense if you think about it... the dominant hand would be more suited to faster and more accurate actions which would be needed for the button presses... and even nowadays with twin-stick controls, aiming is always handled with the right hand, while general movement is always with the left hand.
That's interesting. When I saw the title, I thought "Well because the overwhelming majority of the world is right handed, so of course the joy-stick is on the left..." Then I watched the video and he even pointed out that some people think exactly that way.
I thought about this before, and it could be my own ignorance as a righty, but my first thought is that with each hand having to do its own work, there's little, if any, advantage to either one. Pressing the buttons is no less important or easier than controlling movement. Though, I can understand the idea of forcing kids in the 80s to use the left hand for joysticks as they would not be trained to use sticks and pads with the left like we are now. They'd probably prefer to use their dominant hands in those days when video games were relatively new. There are a number of reasonable theories as to why sticks and pads are on the left.
It is all conjecture. Arcade owners were modding their games that were no longer popular, but they would do so by buying a conversion kit to change it to a new game (including new artwork and control panel).
I have a Playchoice 10 that is in a converted Pac-Man cab. You can still see the maze burn-in on the screen when the game is off.
And maybe a well established trend by then, but the popularity of Street Fighter would have cemented the idea of the joystick on the left.
Everyone blowing their minds thinking about using the opposite hand for the buttons are forgetting that you would get good at it very quickly (especially if starting young) I'm a lefty and have never had any problems playing complex games in arcades and home consoles. I do remember though when I was very little, we had an Atari at home and I would use my left hand on the stick and twist my wrist to press the button on the top left side, maybe that was an advantage because when we got the NES I had no problems adapting and was king of that machine. A lot of modern games scare me now 😓
Very interesting stuff, never would've guessed that.
Are there joy cons for lefties?
Nice, informational video. I'm just going to drop mine here, as well BWAHAHAHAHA!
https://youtu.be/9_2Zjra62tc
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They weren't always, ask Atari.
I'm offended
This doesn't make much sense. On a typical arcade controller the joystick merely requires you to rest you hand and push in a specific direction, so basically very little dexterity is required from your left hand. On the right you have 4 or more buttons that require precise action from your fingers to control, so much more dexterity required on the right.
Plus, it seems counter-intuitive that arcades wanted to make games more difficult at a point where video games were becoming less popular. More difficult means less time per credit perhaps, but frustration would just turn people away.
Cool story, Bro!
@masterLEON probably one of the best games of all time. I was a beast on tron deadly disc. I believe that would be an instant hit if it was ported to the switch
@Neofan99 I'm wondering if the left thumbstick would be a decent substitute for a spinner that also goes up and down? I'd still buy it, either way.
@chardir "On a typical arcade controller the joystick merely requires you to rest you hand and push in a specific direction, so basically very little dexterity is required from your left hand"
Um, yeah...no. I'll let that slide, though.
For a retro example, I say Donkey Kong is also pretty demanding. Tons of rapid direction changes are involved.
"Plus, it seems counter-intuitive that arcades wanted to make games more difficult at a point where video games were becoming less popular. More difficult means less time per credit perhaps, but frustration would just turn people away."
Arcade operators wanted to rope in the casual crowd and at the same time deter the more dedicated gamers from spending too much time on one credit. Increasing the difficulty, in theory, ensured that coins kept dropping, if even only a couple at a time, while interest in video games started to wane. The arguably 'better' players would then spend more money trying to master the game, in a way like today's 'whales' on mobile games.
In the end, I feel that it really was a deterrent. It's not totally the arcade operator's fault, though. Many games that came out in the early 80's, leading up to the time of the crash, were copycats of each other with little innovation. So fresh experiences were few and far between, and arcade operators became more desperate.
That is, until the mid-80's when better arcade hardware became available (like SEGA's super scalier games) and devs got more creative. That's when new concepts like buy-in features like continues (and games that actually end), extra health (i.e. Atari's Gauntlet), and 'join anytime' co-op play helped increase earnings. I mean, games were still hard. But if you can keep playing without losing progress by dropping another coin, or if a friend or two can help out, then it won't seem so bad and people can still enjoy the game.
@masterLEON Actually, I think that video shows what I was trying to say Obviously to be that good you need both hands to be super-dexterous, but notice how his left hand is always on the stick and doesn't require individual finger movements.
Anyway, since you mention Donkey Kong, that's actually a great example of why this left-side-joystick theory is wrong. Donkey Kong was released in 1981, with the joystick on the left. That's the same year as 'Wizard of Wor' which is the example in the video. Even Space Invaders from 1978 has the movement buttons on the left and fire on the right. There doesn't seem to be this great shift from right to left.
Plus where are the examples of these hacked up arcade units where they moved the controls around?
@chardir Totally agree. The modifications arcade owners would make would be to buy kits to convert old games into more popular/newer games. The kits would contain the new pcbs, new artwork, and new control panels. You can find many cabinets that were officially converted to a different game.
I'm right-handed and hate right sided joysticks.
@chardir I you mean just finger movements, I can understand. Though there's a whole lot of wrist action going on there. And The King of Fighters games, as well as most other SNK fighters, require more accurate joystick movements for the moves to come out, as opposed to say, the Capcom Vs. games and Street Fighter IV (to a degree) where they add more 'shortcuts' and input leniency.
Those modded cabinets were usually repurposed from other original cabinets, or generic ones, to house a new PCB. By now, most of those modded cabinets have been chopped up, destroyed, and lying in landfills somewhere. A horrible practice that I don't completely understand and definitely don't agree with. But owners/operators sometimes destroy old or otherwise unprofitable games because they're taking up space and they really need to get rid of it ASAP but don't want to bother taking the time to sell it, storing it, or whatever that's going to cost more time and money. It even happened as high up as Chuck E. Cheeses where keeping the game selection fresh was a high priority, and those were always originals (I don't recall ever seeing a modded cabinet in a CEC).
Perhaps it started off that way, but once the button inputs became more numerous and complicated, it did wind up making more sense for a player's dominant hand to be used for the face buttons instead.
Interesting.
I remember Beeshu was selling Right-Handed and Ambidextrous Joysticks as "Performance Enhancements" They said you’d get better scores. And I believed it even before I tried it.
Before 1984, when buttons were on both sides, whenever I had a choice. I always preferred stick right, because when you think about it, both hands are equally good at hitting buttons, that’s why people type two-handed. No one used JUST their left or right hand for typing. So pressing a button was just like keyboard typing, equally well with both hands.
That’s why the NES joypad works. There’s some symmetry. Both thumbs are used equally. (or in my case, my left and right middle and index fingers when putting it on the floor) The right weas preferred becuase of more instances of rapid firing than precise frequently-changing joystick moves.
As for fighting sticks, I was able to beat a future famous gamer who appeared on nationwide cable TV between 2003-2009, and so were other common friends of ours, using my ambidextrous joystick in right-hand sitck mode every time, but not at att with a pad, and some people soem times with a left stick. With Street Fighter 2, special moves were the key, and it’s easier to do a dragon punch with a right hand than with a left. Only E Honda, Chun Li, and Blanka had "rapid tap" and Zangief and Blanka had "Multi-Simul Tap". And except in those instances, the game is more joystick heavy than button heavy.
I couldn’t do a dragon punch to save my life without it being "telegraphed" and blocked/dodged with either a pad or a left handed joystick, but with the right handed stick, I could pull off Dragon Punches like no one’s business. Quickly, accurately, and without any "tells".
Remember in the arcade days, the arcade owners were the direct customers of game companies and the player the indirect customer. You’d think with a shift to the home market there’d be more home-friendly setups.
If you want to read who it is and more, visit http://www.56ok.org/Ambidextrous to read my Right Fight Story and the famous gamer I beat before he was famous. And he almost always beat be, so often I remember the few times I beat him, like in the story above. And that probably taught him the lesson to use a fight stick for fight games, and has gotten way better since. Good enough to be a national Cable TV calibur gamer.
After reading all these kids comment i have to say that i am 41 years old and when i was a kid all arcade cabinets had the joystick on the right side and it was like 100 times easier for all my friends like that. Later when they switched it we used to play with our hand crossed but i guess the kids that never saw it on the right side just got used to the left. i never did and because i used to work in one of those places the reason for the switch is exactly for that, to make it more difficult for the players to be good.
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