/vr/ - Retro Games

take off the nostalgia goggles, these things were always shit

On the one hand, yeah, the Xbox and Dreamcast gamepads are pretty similar. Why MS would copy a design from a failed console maker, I don't know. On the other hand everyone was copying everyone. Outside of a few outliers whose influence is questionable (Fairchild Channel F, Radofin 1292, etc.) there are basically only two branches of the gamepad family tree:

Atari VCS/2600 descendant controllers and NES descendant controllers

The former is a dead branch. Picture related. The mainstream 'controller with a full sized joystick', which borrowed its design from arcades, died out in the 80s. To be clear, I'm not talking thumbsticks. There have been official and 3rd party versions since but I don't know of a single major console that shipped with one as the default since the Atari 7800.*

*The Neo Geo controller is a different beast. It is not a gamepad. You don't hold it in your hands when you play. It is what modern shitheads have labeled a 'fightstick'.

Other controllers, like the Vectrex, never had much influence on the market. No one copied them. There have been many variations of the Atari type of gamepad. Some used joysticks that are held in the hand, others with just the tips of your fingers. They all descended from the VCS controller and its immediate successors. Just look at time lines of console releases from 1976 to about 1986 and you will see its legacy.