joystick for other uses see joystick disambiguation video game joystick elements 1 stick 2 base 3 trigger 4 extra buttons 5 autofire switch 6 throttle 7 hat switch pov hat 8 suction cup a joystick is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling a joystick also known as the control column is the principal control device in the cockpit of many civilian and military aircraft either as a center stick or sidestick it often has supplementary switches to control various aspects of the aircrafts flight joysticks are often used to control video games and usually have one or more pushbuttons whose state can also be read by the computer a popular variation of the joystick used on modern video game consoles is the analog stick joysticks are also used for controlling machines such as cranes trucks underwater unmanned vehicles wheelchairs surveillance cameras and zero turning radius lawn mowers miniature fingeroperated joysticks have been adopted as input devices for smaller electronic equipment such as mobile phones aviation cockpit of a glider with its joystick visible a prototype project gemini joysticktype hand controller 1962 computer port view of the atari standard connector 1 up 2 down 3 left 4 right 5 pot y joysticks originated as controls for aircraft ailerons and elevators and are first known to have been used as such on louis bleriots bleriot viii aircraft of 1908 in combination with a footoperated rudder bar for the yaw control surface on the tail the name joystick is thought to originate with early 20th century french pilot robert esnaultpelterie there are also competing claims on behalf of fellow pilots robert loraine james henry joyce and a e george loraine is cited by the oxford english dictionary for using the term joystick in his diary in 1909 when he went to pau to learn to fly at bleriots school george was a pioneer aviator who with his colleague jobling built and flew a biplane at newcastle in england in 1910 he is alleged to have invented the george stick which became more popularly known as the joystick the george and jobling aircraft control column is in the collection of the discovery museum in newcastle upon tyne england joysticks were present in early planes though their mechanical origins are uncertain the coining of the term joystick may actually be credited to loraine as his is the earliest known usage of the term although he most certainly did not invent the device electronic joysticks history the electrical twoaxis joystick was invented by c b mirick at the united states naval research laboratory nrl and patented in 1926 us patent no 1597416 the germans developed an electrical twoaxis joystick around 1944 the device was used as part of the germans funkgert fug 203 kehl radio control transmitter system used in certain german bomber aircraft used to guide both the rocketboosted antiship missile henschel hs 293 and the unpowered pioneering precisionguided munition fritzx this german invention was picked up by someone in the team of scientists assembled at the heeresversuchsanstalt in peenemnde here a part of the team on the german rocket program was developing the wasserfall missile a variant of the v2 rocket the first groundtoair missile the wasserfall steering equipment converted the electrical signal to radio signals and transmitted these to the missile in the 1960s the use of joysticks became widespread in radiocontrolled model aircraft systems such as the kwik fly produced by phill kraft 1964 the nowdefunct kraft systems firm eventually became an important oem supplier of joysticks to the computer industry and other users the first use of joysticks outside the radiocontrolled aircraft industry may have been in the control of powered wheelchairs such as the permobil 1963 during this time period nasa used joysticks as control devices as part of the apollo missions for example the lunar lander test models were controlled with a joystick in many modern airliners aircraft for example all airbus aircraft developed from the 1980s the joystick has received a new lease on life for flight control in the form of a sidestick a controller similar to a gaming joystick but which is used to control the flight replacing the traditional yoke the sidestick saves weight improves movement and visibility in the cockpit and may be safer in an accident than the traditional control yoke electronic games ch products mach 2 analog joystick as used with many early home computer systems the small knobs are for mechanical calibration and the sliders engage the selfcentering springs ralph h baer inventor of television video games and the magnavox odyssey console released in 1972 created the first video game joysticks in 1967 they were able to control the horizontal and vertical position of a spot displayed on a screen taito released a fourway joystick as part of their arcade racing video game astro race in 1973 the atari standard joystick developed for the atari 2600 released in 1977 in 1985 segas thirdperson arcade rail shooter game space harrier introduced a true analog flight stick used for movement the joystick could register movement in any direction as well as measure the degree of push which could move the player character at different speeds depending on how far the joystick was pushed in a certain direction a distinct variation of an analog joystick is a positional gun which works differently from a light gun instead of using light sensors a positional gun is essentially an analog joystick mounted in a fixed location that records the position of the gun to determine where the player is aiming on the screen saiteks cyborg 3d gold around the 2000s note its throttle its extra buttons and its hat switch during the 1990s joysticks such as the ch products flightstick gravis phoenix microsoft sidewinder logitech wingman and thrustmaster fcs were in demand with pc gamers they were considered a prerequisite for flight simulators such as f16 fighting falcon and lhx attack chopper joysticks became especially popular with the mainstream success of space flight simulator games like xwing and wing commander as well as the six degrees of freedom 3d shooter descent however since the beginning of the 21st century these types of games have waned in popularity and are now considered a dead genre and with that gaming joysticks have been reduced to niche products since the late 1990s analog sticks or thumbsticks due to their being controlled by ones thumbs have become standard on controllers for video game consoles popularized by nintendos nintendo 64 controller and have the ability to indicate the sticks displacement from its neutral position this means that the software does not have to keep track of the position or estimate the speed at which the controls are moved these devices usually use potentiometers to determine the position of the stick though some newer models instead use a hall effect sensor for greater reliability and reduced size arcade sticks arcade controller an arcade stick is a largeformat controller for use with home consoles or computers they use the stickandbutton configuration of some arcade cabinets such as those with particular multibutton arrangements for example the six button layout of the arcade games street fighter ii or mortal kombat cannot be comfortably emulated on a console joypad so licensed home arcade sticks for these games have been manufactured for home consoles and pcs hat switch hat switch at top in green a hat switch is a control on some joysticks it is also known as a pov point of view switch it allows one to look around in ones virtual world browse menus etc for example many flight simulators use it to switch the players views while other games sometimes use it as a substitute for the dpad computer gamepads with both an analogue stick and a dpad usually assign pov switch scancodes to the latter the term hat switch is a shortening of the term coolie hat switch named for the similarlooking headgear in a real aircraft the hat switch may control things like aileron or rudder trim de9 joystick de9 often called as atari type connector was the most common connector during the 1980s pin atari 800atari vcs atari 78001 atari st vic20c64c64gs2 amiga cd323 amstradcpc msx mastersystem4 megadrivegenesis4 saturn4 sinclair6 1 up up up up up up up up up up gnd unused 2 down down down down down down down down down down down common 3 left left left left left left left left left 1y left up unused 4 right right right right right right right right right 2y right vcc button 5 paddle b button right button 3 button 3 poty button 3 poty shift load out button 3 vcc vcc 5v vcc 5v select out 1 up 6 button button button 1 button 1 button 1 fire clock out button 2 button 1 tl a tl a b select out 2 right 7 vcc 5v vcc 5v vcc 5v vcc 5v vcc 5v vcc 5v button 1 button 2 th unused th select out right left 8 gnd gnd gnd gnd gnd gnd gnd row 9 5 strobe out gnd gnd left common 9 paddle a button left button 2 button 2 potx button 2 potx serial data in gnd row 6 5 gnd tr b tr start c vcc down 1 the atari 7800 buttons require special wiring 2 for the second buttonright mouse button the pot x line is used and for 3rd buttonmiddle mouse button poty which different to the other lines must be pulled to vcc via the button 3 the cd32 supports game pad mode and uses pin 5 to switch to it it is pulled to active high by the cd32 actual cd32 controllers have active components regular atari joysticks will work at the cd32 but cd32 controllers will not work at eg a c64 4 the sega controllers can not be converted into atari joysticks simply by rewiring them unlike regular atari sticks they contain pullup resistors for each signal line which might interfere with scanning the keyboard on c64 and some controllers may contain active circuits and will not work without the vcc the megadrive controllers use an active circuit the saturn controllers also contain an active circuit and are wired up completely non standard 5 the respective gnd lines are pulled low to select the respective row regular joystick uses row 9 6 pinout refers to the interface two sinclair aka 3 industrial applications in recent times the employment of joysticks has become commonplace in many industrial and manufacturing applications such as cranes assembly lines forestry equipment mining trucks and excavators in fact the use of such joysticks is in such high demand that it has virtually replaced the traditional mechanical control lever in nearly all modern hydraulic control systems additionally most unmanned aerial vehicles uavs and submersible remotely operated vehicles rovs require at least one joystick to control either the vehicle the onboard cameras sensors andor manipulators due to the highly handson rough nature of such applications the industrial joystick tends to be more robust than the typical videogame controller and able to function over a high cycle life this led to the development and employment of hall effect sensing to such applications in the 1980s as a means of contactless sensing several companies produce joysticks for industrial applications using hall effect technology another technology used in joystick design is the use of strain gauges to build force transducers from which the output is proportional to the force applied rather than physical deflection miniature force transducers are used as additional controls on joysticks for menu selection functions some larger manufacturers of joysticks are able to customize joystick handles and grips specific to the oem needs while small regional manufacturers often concentrate on selling standard products at higher prices to smaller oems assistive technology specialist joysticks classed as an assistive technology pointing device are used to replace the computer mouse for people with fairly severe physical disabilities rather than controlling games these joysticks control the pointer they are often useful to people with athetoid conditions such as cerebral palsy who find them easier to grasp than a standard mouse list of computer hardware aircraft flight control system the arcade joystick flight simulator game controller gamepad gravis pc gamepad kempston joystick tac2 yoke aircraft wikimedia commons has media related to joystick this article is based on material taken from the free online dictionary of computing prior to 1 november 2008 and incorporated under the relicensing terms of the gfdl version 13 or later vtevideo game controllerscontroller types arcade controller balance board digital camera dance pad fishing rod gamepad gaming keypad interactive urinal joystick keyboard light gun microphone motion controller mouse musical instruments nunchaku paddle racing wheel remote control throttle quadrant virtual reality headset wired glove controller partsphysical buttons analog stick arrow keys circle pad dpad discpad face button scroll wheel select button shoulder button start button telephone keypad trigger turbo button sensitive accelerometer haptic technology stylus pen touchpad touchscreen trackball related multitap rob vtebasic computer componentsinput devices keyboard image scanner microphone pointing device graphics tablet joystick light pen mouse optical pointing stick touchpad touchscreen trackball refreshable braille display sound card webcam softcam video card output devices monitor refreshable braille display printer speakers plotter sound card video card removable data storage optical disc cd dvd bluray disk pack floppy disk memory card usb flash drive computer case central processing unit cpu hdd ssd sshd motherboard network interface controller power supply randomaccess memory ram fax modem expansion card ports ethernet firewire ieee 1394 parallel port serial port ps2 port usb thunderbolt displayport hdmi dvi vga esata audio jack 