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A Brief History of Controllers: A & B

gangles.ca — There’s always been a minor niggle at the back of my mind when I played the Nintendo DS. “They’ve got it backwards,” I thought. A speedy investigation showed that my memory was a little foggy, and that the answer was significantly more interesting than that.

Who dugg this? Made popular Oct 12, 2008

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  • benzzene, on 10/11/2008, -0/+80That issue of Japanese games having O=confirm / X=Cancel and Western games the other way around on the PlayStation controller really messes with my head. I always seem to instinctively press the wrong button after finishing one game and changing to another with the opposite setup. It takes a long time to reconfigure myself and there's a hell of a lot of frustration in the meantime. I wish they had made a worldwide standard.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2008, -9/+73WTF is a niggle?
  • ZombieSociety, on 10/12/2008, -8/+69I thought it was, like, a black midget.

    I'll be going now.
  • TheTjalian, on 10/12/2008, -0/+60The most interesting comment on that page was this:

    -----------------
    Jonathan Says:
    September 23rd, 2008 at 2:06 am

    Regarding the PlayStation controller, I read the following today :

    circle = one stroke
    cross = two strokes
    triangle = three strokes
    square = four strokes

    Which then seems to align it with Nintendo’s layout.
    -----------------

    Which seems plainly obvious, but I've never really thought about it like that. It seems to make perfect sense.
  • badassninja, on 10/12/2008, -1/+56Dugg for the D pad. May it live on forever.
  • KaiUno, on 10/12/2008, -0/+40I read and I read and I read hoping to get an answer to why Nintendo did it backwards. "and that the answer was significantly more interesting than that"... that's what kept me going. There was nothing to find.
  • Doomsan, on 10/12/2008, -2/+34Say what you will about Nintendo, but they've always been ahead in term of controllers.
  • hartley, on 10/12/2008, -0/+27Fun Fact:
    Nintendo actually owns the rights to the term "d-pad".
    Everything else is a directional pad.
  • hoodedrobin, on 10/12/2008, -1/+24Hmm I always liked it when O represented confirm and X was cancel... MGS brings back memories.
  • Shadic, on 10/12/2008, -1/+24BA forever, screw AB.
  • Crazd, on 10/12/2008, -1/+22I never got why the X was ever used for accept. Why did they change it for the West? When choosing a symbol to represent cancel, I think an X wins out over an O.
  • kakwakas, on 10/12/2008, -0/+17Another name for Tic-Tac-Toe AND an interrobang?
    You just confused the hell out of me.
  • Brododium, on 10/12/2008, -1/+15Umm... to fidget, or a persistent problem.

    Edit: When in doubt, Google --> "define: (word)"
    http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=define%3A+ ...
  • DelMonte, on 10/12/2008, -0/+14I think that the reason is that A is the "main" button where your thumb's joint rests, while B is the secondary button as the end of your thumb as a tendency to be lifted and not rest on B. For most people it's easier to press A without hitting B by mistake than the opposite.

    Look at the Gamecube controller, where the A button is larger.
  • mitch37, on 10/12/2008, -0/+13Well I suppose Japan was first, so why did American game designers swap to X/O.
  • skywake, on 10/12/2008, -2/+15yeah what were they thinking? an analogue stick? they should have known it would never take off
  • crownedgriffin, on 10/12/2008, -0/+13That's because it's a copy of the Dreamcast controller.
  • Konstantino, on 10/11/2008, -0/+13It's not down for me, loaded up instantly!
  • TheKitchenSinkX, on 10/12/2008, -0/+11Oh boy, are the MGS menus awkward to navigate. I forgot about that.

    Also, though, a lot of times the triangle button is used to go back, I've found. Or a least it used to; while it used to be ubiquitous on every PS1 game I played, nowadays it's almost always O.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2008, -0/+11it's two different metaphors - in one case, the 'X' is like crossing something out, like DO NOT WANT, but in the other, the 'X' is like a checkbox that's been selected, as opposed to the open/unselected box 'O'.
  • cschoeps, on 10/12/2008, -1/+11I believed that to be a niglit.

    Or maybe niglit is another name for African American Literature...
  • absentmindedjwc, on 10/12/2008, -3/+13japanese read from right to left (take a look at a random manga next time you are at a bookstore and you will see)... may be as simple as that
  • ChromaVita, on 10/12/2008, -1/+10Yes, but they should have put the O in the X location. The bottom button seems to be the general location for the accept button.
  • twiztidsinz, on 10/12/2008, -0/+9@ChromaVita: But again....
    O = Accept = positive = top
    X = Cancel = negative = bottom
    They got it right in Japan...
  • fxu1989, on 10/12/2008, -1/+10So EVERYTHING is backwards in Japan, eh?

    No wonder they're the country whose major export is "WTF?"
  • aussieNickuss, on 10/12/2008, -0/+8I always thought that it was because X is closest to your right thumb when you're gripping the controller.
  • avatarroku1, on 10/12/2008, -0/+8Its as simple as this, guys. BA = Bad Ass
  • arcticblue, on 10/12/2008, -1/+9No, they read left to right. They read the rightmost page first though. If text is written vertically (which doesn't seem to be used as much as horizontal text), you start with the rightmost column and read top to bottom.
  • SpeedSteamBoat, on 10/12/2008, -1/+9Also, Nintendo and Sony own the patents to the good d-pad designs, hence the horrible 360 directional pad.
  • TheKitchenSinkX, on 10/12/2008, -1/+8Same thing with languages
  • warsongs7, on 10/12/2008, -1/+8The answer is a keypad configuration menu. if they can do it on the PC why can't they make it available for more console games? The entire cultural barrier can be broken with a simple feature.
  • fxu1989, on 10/12/2008, -0/+7Maybe they thought of the X as a check?

    When you are filling out forms and there are check-boxes, you either do ✓ or X. It's uncommon to check/confirm with a ○
  • gigad0m, on 10/12/2008, -1/+8That's quite clever. I would have never of thought of that!
  • BootsElectric, on 10/12/2008, -0/+6I still use my "Duke" to this day, looks ugly, feels great.



    yeah yeah, "that's what she said", haw haw digg, funny.
  • ByronT, on 10/12/2008, -0/+6JUST BECAUSE WE USE CHEATS DOESN'T MEAN WE ARENT SMARRRRRRT
  • ryansimbalist, on 10/12/2008, -0/+6He was also left handed.
  • jggube, on 10/12/2008, -2/+8It's crazy how it all started from "AB". I've owned most of the console systems since the Family Com, and when I think about it - I can't imagine not have 4 buttons, 4 triggers, and two thumbsticks.
  • ObeseSnake, on 10/12/2008, -4/+10Niggle please!
  • akshay626, on 10/12/2008, -1/+7What always confused me was that Xbox/360 X button was placed in a different spot than the PS2/3's X button. When I play on the 360 and someone says press X, I always go for the A button because that is where I'm used to it being.
  • MadHarvey, on 10/12/2008, -1/+7@absentminded

    The answer given for the purpose of the explanation with respect to the original intent of the topic, was rightfully dismissed as inapplicable to the question requiring explanation.

    Yes. That is what you sound like.
  • sparsely, on 10/12/2008, -0/+5Athough I see the point the blogger is making, I think the position and button mapping have more to do with frequency of use.
    If you're going to find yourself pressing a particular button most often (A), it makes sense to position it closest to the thumb of the hand holding responsible for button-mashing.
    The nomenclature (B/A) may seem counter-intuitive, but when you're playing a game, you're relying on muscle-memory and reflex, not reading.
    Personally, I like the agnostic style of the PS controls, which abandon common language (freeing up the brain from previous associations) and using simple symbols instead.
  • BlackMidget2, on 10/12/2008, -1/+6That's our word!
  • Brododium, on 10/12/2008, -1/+5How do the Japanese play Noughts and Crosses‽
    It'd be totally backwards!
  • ogore, on 10/12/2008, -0/+4The x and y are switched in their positions on the Xbox from the way nintendo have always done it
  • Gir53457, on 10/12/2008, -0/+3I have big hands, so I need my duke to be big too.
  • dhVyse, on 10/12/2008, -0/+3Yes, that thing is totally awful. 360 controller is perfect.
  • camino262, on 10/13/2008, -0/+3SEGA! - ABACABB Start.
  • arcticblue, on 10/12/2008, -3/+6Yes, the analog stick was good, but 3 handles? I only have 2 hands. Going from the joystick to the d-pad is terrible on that controller.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2008, -0/+3I always thought that code ended A B select start. No wonder it never worked :-(
  • redneckblues, on 10/12/2008, -0/+3It's big and black.
    All joking aside, I like it better than the S controller.
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