BACHELOR PAD

How the Xbox controller became the PC's de facto input method

- Phil Iwaniuk

The mouse and keyboard will always be PC gaming's mitre and sceptre. There's nothing more indicative of our platform's culture than using peripherals designed for typing and clicking on desktop icons for 360 noscopes, and as such they'll be on desktops forevermore. But for the last 20 years, they've had some company there.

It wasn't a sudden shift, like 1080p monitors, or Al-laden graphics cards. Instead, the Xbox controller's invasion was slower and sneakier. It crept up behind enemy lines, tiptoeing across from the console downstairs, arranged itself enticingly on our desk and just waited until the next time we wanted to play a racing game or a platformer.

It seemed to happen almost by accident. Indeed, when Big Billy Gates and his team decided a Microsoft home console might be a decent idea, they also decided to use a proprietary modification of USB as a connection for its peripherals, which meant they couldn't also be used on PCs. The most likely explanation? They probably just didn't think people would want to use them that way. And they were probably right.

Indeed, when the first Xbox launched in 2001, using a controller input with PC games was distinctly uncommon. Look at the biggest releases of that year on the platform and you'll see the likes of Black & White, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Operation Flashpoint and Civilization III - games for whom plugging a pad in offers no obvious benefit.

Worse, games of this era didn't ship with default controller mappings, partly because we didn't demand such a luxury in great numbers, and partly because there was absolutely no consensus as to what a controller should be. How many buttons, D-pads, analogue sticks and triggers: these things were all up for debate.