The PlayStation controller was almost a flat SNES like controller without the now iconic protruding grips, it's been revealed.
Teiyu Goto, a designer who has worked on every PlayStation console to date, told Famitsu the story of how the PlayStation controller came to be.
"The Super NES was a huge hit at the time, and naturally we wanted SNES gamers to upgrade to our system," Goto said.
"That's why the management department didn't want the controller to be a radical departure, they said it had to be a standard type of design, or gamers wouldn't accept it."
But Goto ignored management's request for a flat pad and came up with a design that had grips on both ends.
He showed it to Norio Ohga, Sony's president at the time, who liked the grips according to Goto.
"Management", however, still didn't like Goto's crazy ideas:
"They told me that the grip design was simply no good, that gamers wouldn't like it," Goto said.
"We did wind up switching to a flatter controller design, and that survived all the way to the point where it was time to start making molds."
But when Goto came to do a presentation in front of Norio Ohga with the flat controller, the Sony pres hit the roof.
"Ohga was totally livid at me, 'This is no good! Change it! What was wrong with what you showed me earlier?'" Goto said.
"It was a huge boost for me, him saying that in front of everybody -- it made me feel like I had it right all along."
As for the X, circle, square, triangle combination that's become a PlayStation trademark now, it wasn't random at all. In fact, you might say it was needlessly over thought:
"Other game companies at the time assigned alphabet letters or colours to the buttons. We wanted something simple to remember, which is why we went with icons or symbols," said Goto.
"I came up with the triangle, circle, X, square combination immediately afterwards. I gave each symbol a meaning and a color."
"The triangle refers to viewpoint; I had it represent one's head or direction and made it green."
"Square refers to a piece of paper; I had it represent menus or documents and made it pink."
The circle and X represent 'yes' or 'no' decision-making and I made them red and blue respectively."
That explains the reversal of convention in Japanese developed games when it comes to using X to select and circle to go back then.
These days we've got a whole new controller in our hands with the PlayStation Move. We've got one. Check it out here if you haven't already.
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/ar ... ?id=262047
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Never got on with Nintendo controllers, so I'm happy
