Control Pad
A basic rectangular game controller with a directional pad and two buttons. Quite typical for the era, with quite simple controls and non-ergonomic controllers.
Description
The Master System controller is a rectangular wired pad with an 8‑directional D‑pad on the left, two primary action buttons on the right. Its layout and membrane switches were developed to support the platform’s predominant genres: platformers, action and sports. It’s built with a hard plastic shell that was highly durable and its straightforward construction made replacement production inexpensive.
As the standard input for nearly the entire software library, the pad’s success rests on familiarity and durability: it became the accepted baseline for the platform, was widely reproduced by third‑party manufacturers, and lasted as the default controller through multiple hardware revisions and bundled SKUs.
There are several revisions of these, mostly differentiated by the side the cable comes out at and support for a mini arcade stick ‘thumbstick’. I have a box of Master System hardware that needs to be re-catalogued, as my records are inaccurate.
