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@CatPix @Marc Oberhäuser @carlsson Apologies for the tag - I've been digging into keypad controller history, and am wondering about Interton's games - did any of them use the keypad in any meaningful way? I've found that the other early keypad controllers, like the APF, were never really utilized for games, except to enter which game mode to play, number of players, and for gambling games to enter dollar amounts for betting and such. I was curious what the Interton did with it. Thanks for any input you have!

Tron VFD! And it even has tactile orientation, before the 'cross' d-pad

Hey, Majors - I've you're reading the new posts, you've seen that I misread your post - wow that was the Bandai controller? Did you just open your up to take those pics for me? That is so cool, even though I misread it and thought it was the Sears controller, that is a huge bit of info for me, I'd given up on seeing the internals of the Bandai - thank you so much!

Thank you for the correction; so those internals were the Bandai? Gosh, you're right I did totally misread that - thank you for the correction! Very interesting to see that Bandai used the same ball joint pivot that INT used (and Nintendo would later use). Man this thread has been a wealth of info, thx again FDR!

Also - this atari kiosk looks like it is designed to have viewing monitors in that top inverted section, but I don't see any pics indicating such - anyone know?

When Dragon's Lair hit the arcades, it was like a bomb went off. No one had ever seen anything like it, and I remember HUGE crowds of people fighting to get close enough to watch the player play their game. What games do you remember seeing this? Do you know of any pictures of these? I'm trying to find what I can, so I can document this little corner of gaming history.

Exactly, Mr Me - I've been researching d-pad history for my YouTube channel - personally, I think it's ridiculous to exclude INTV from the history of d-pads; yeah, it didn't do it like Nintendo, but it's still a pad shape used for directional control. Of course, I've been ridiculed for it by the Nintendo stands who refuse to acknowledge that Gunpei didn't invent everything. Well this changes everything. Well, not completely - I found another d-pad that predates the Game + Watch on a Tomy handheld. But this is fascinating to learn. Do you know what year the Sears first came out?

Whoa, Majors - I've never seen that before!! I must know more - that looks like a traditional d-pad like Nintendo would do. So was the Sears a standard 8-way d-pad? Do you know what year the Sears first came out? Man I cannot believe this, this is huge.

Ah, thx - I didn't know about the thickness/buttons. Certainly looks uncannily similar for a coincidence. According to others that have posted in this thread, Bandai prob couldn't have had any impact on INTV's keypad, because it was an early part of the controller design and was pretty much finalized in 1977 (for an originally intended 1978 release); I'm not aware of any keypads before that; Interton would've been about that time, i think that was 77 or 78

Yeah, I've tried. It's really rare, couldn't find any "repair" videos on YT, or any websites/pics elsewhere. Really bugs me when there's an unanswered question just barely out of grasp. Elsewhere on the site I saw a repair thread for the Arcadia; that mylar looks similar. Unfortunately I can't see a good picture of the balljoint pivot for the disc; I'm gonna post there and ask.

Wow, Walter - thank you for that awesome info! Some follow-ups - who is Chang? Also, you say the controller design was settled in 1977; so are we to assume that there could be no influence from the Interton VC-4000 (which also had a vertically oriented controller with a keypad)? I had thought that might be the case, but apparently not from your timeline. Can you explain to me what the design flaw actually is that precludes using the control disc and keypad buttons simultaneously?

I think one of the great secrets of the 2nd gen of video games was how groundbreaking the Vectrex controller was, I was wondering if there are any resources someone could suggest to learn more about it?

thank you, Mr. Me. man that is too bad. OMG - that's HIS website? Is someone maintaining that, or saved on the way back machine? Man, I'd hate to see that go away, there's some interesting stuff there. so disappointing how many information black holes there are in 2nd gen console history. We know so much about Yokoi the designer of the NES controller we probably know what kind of toilet paper he used, while people like Dave Chandler fade to obscurity.

Oh man that is awesome! Thank you so much! Man, not sure I've ever heard of him. It'd be a real shame if he's no longer around and was never interviewed.

I think today's retrogamers largely are unaware or disinterested in how big a thing it was when Intellivision introduced it's controller. Are there any resources about it's creation and creator? Does anyone know why the controller for the Bandai Super Vision 8000 which came out the same year) has identical controllers? Bandai later was the JP distributor for the INTV - did they copy INTV's controller? Or vice versa?