Gamepad in the context of "Input device"

Drawing is a visual art that uses an instrument to mark paper or another two-dimensional surface, or a digital representation of such. Traditionally, the instruments used to create a drawing include pencils, crayons, and ink pens, sometimes in combination. More modern tools include computer styluses with mice and graphics tablets and gamepads in VR drawing software.

A drawing instrument releases a small amount of material onto a surface, leaving a visible mark. There are many drawing instruments such as pen, pencils, pastel, crayons, markers, color pencils, water color, and more. The most common support for drawing is paper, although other materials, such as cardboard, vellum, wood, plastic, leather, canvas, and board, have been used. Temporary drawings may be made on a blackboard or whiteboard. Drawing has been a popular and fundamental means of public expression throughout human history. It is one of the simplest and most efficient means of communicating ideas. The wide availability of drawing instruments makes drawing one of the most common artistic activities.

A game controller, gaming controller, or simply controller, is an input device or input/output device used with video games or entertainment systems to provide input to a video game. Input devices that have been classified as game controllers include keyboards, mice, gamepads, and joysticks, as well as special purpose devices, such as steering wheels for driving games and light guns for shooting games. Controllers designs have evolved to include directional pads, multiple buttons, analog sticks, joysticks, motion detection, touch screens and a plethora of other features.

Game controllers may be input devices that only provide input to the system, or input/output devices that receive data from the system and produce a response (e.g. "rumble" vibration feedback, or sound).

The Nintendo Switch is a video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. Released in the middle of the eighth generation of home consoles, the Switch succeeded the Wii U and competed with Sony's PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox One; it also competes with the ninth generation consoles, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.

The Switch is a tablet that can either be docked for home console use or used as a portable device, making it a hybrid console. Its wireless Joy-Con controllers function as two halves of a standard controller and alternatively as individual controllers, featuring buttons, directional analog sticks for user input, motion sensing, and tactile feedback. A pair can attach to the sides of the console for handheld-style play, attach to a grip accessory to provide the form of a separated gamepad, or be used unattached. The Switch's system software supports online gaming through internet connectivity, as well as local wireless ad hoc connectivity with other consoles. Switch games and software are available on both physical flash-based ROM cartridges and digital distribution via Nintendo eShop; the system has no region lockout. Two hardware revisions were released: the handheld-only Switch Lite, released on September 20, 2019; and a higher-end version featuring an OLED screen, released on October 8, 2021.

The D-pad (short for directional pad) is a compact input method developed for video games, designed to translate thumb movement into directional control through a flat, cross-shaped surface that rests on four internal switches. Each switch corresponds to a cardinal direction (up, down, left, and right), while diagonal inputs engage two switches simultaneously, enabling eight-directional control at 45-degree intervals. Beneath the center, a pivot mechanism tilts the pad, preventing all four switches from being pressed at once and enhancing tactile feedback.

When introduced, the D-pad offered a space-saving, precise input method at a time when bulky joysticks dominated the market. Although analog sticks have largely superseded D-pads as the primary directional input in modern gamepads, the D-pad's compact, intuitive, and versatile design has led to its adoption in a wide range of devices, including remote controls, calculators, PDAs, mobile phones, and car stereos.

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists of handhelds, online services, magazines, and other forms of media.

The brainchild of Sony executive Ken Kutaragi, the brand began with the first PlayStation home console released in Japan in 1994 and worldwide the following year, which became the first console of any type to ship over 100 million units, which made PlayStation a globally recognized brand. Since then there have been numerous newer consoles—the most recent being the PlayStation 5 released in 2020—while there have also been a series of handheld consoles and a number of other electronics such as a media center and a smartphone. The main series of controllers utilized by the PlayStation series is the DualShock, a line of vibration-feedback gamepads. SIE also operate numerous online services like PlayStation Network, the PlayStation Store, and the subscription-based PlayStation Plus, which may also offer non-gaming entertainment services; the PlayStation Network has over 103 million active users monthly as of December 2019.

Spacewar! is a space combat video game developed in 1962 by Steve Russell in collaboration with Martin Graetz, Wayne Wiitanen, Bob Saunders, Steve Piner, and others. It was written for the newly installed DEC PDP-1 minicomputer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After its initial creation, Spacewar! was expanded further by other students and employees of universities in the area, including Dan Edwards and Peter Samson. It was also spread to many of the few dozen installations of the PDP-1 computer, making Spacewar! the first known video game to be played at multiple computer installations.

The game features two spaceships, "the needle" and "the wedge", engaged in a dogfight while maneuvering in the gravity well of a star. Both ships are controlled by human players. Each ship has limited weaponry and fuel for maneuvering, and the ships remain in motion even when the player is not accelerating. Flying near the star to provide a gravity assist was a common tactic. Ships are destroyed when they collide with a torpedo, the star, or each other. At any time, the player can engage a hyperspace feature to move to a new and random location on the screen, though in some versions each use has an increasing chance of destroying the ship instead. The game was initially controlled with switches on the PDP-1, though Bob Saunders built an early gamepad to reduce the difficulty and awkwardness of controlling the game.