What Is A Joystick?

Date First Published: 6th September 2023

Topic: Computer Systems

Subtopic: Computer Hardware

Article Type: Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty: Medium

Difficulty Level: 4/10

CONTENTS

Types Of Joysticks
Advantages and Disadvantages Of Joysticks
History

Learn about what a joystick is in this article.

A joystick, sometimes known as a flight stick, is an input device used to control the movement of a cursor on a computer screen, most commonly for video games. They consist of a base and stick that can be moved in any direction. Joysticks also consist of several buttons, sometimes known as triggers. Usually, the joystick comes with software that allows users to customise the functions of each button.

Most joysticks have at least one button on top of the stick, another button in front of the stick for the trigger, and extra buttons on the base that can be pressed using the hand that is not guiding the stick. They usually connect to a computer using a USB port, but newer ones can be connected using Bluetooth.

Types Of Joysticks

The three most common types of joysticks are:

Digital joysticks - The most common type of joysticks. It has 4 buttons and a firing command. The 4 buttons are left, right, up and down.
Paddle controllers - These consist of a round wheel and one or more fire buttons, where the wheel is typically used to control movement of the player object along one axis of the video screen.
Analogue joysticks - These are a controller input device for two-dimension input. They use analogue signals instead of digital.

Advantages and Disadvantages Of Joysticks

The advantages of joysticks are:

It can provide fast interactions, which are needed in video games and provide a better gaming experience. This is because it is more flexible and offers more control than the keys on a keyboard.
It has a simple design, making it easy to learn and use.
It is not very expensive, compared to other pointing devices.

The disadvantages of joysticks are:

It is less suitable when selecting options from a screen.
Some joysticks limit the direction of movement to forward, left, right, and backward and do not offer diagonal movements.
They are not very durable and can easily break if too much force is applied to them.

History

The first joystick was invented at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory by C. B. Mirick. It was patented in 1926 and developed for military purposes as a way of controlling the direction, altitude, and angle of aircraft. Since then, it has been used for a wide range of activities that require precision and fast response times, such as flight, racing, and other action games.