Wireless Atari 2600 controllers (1983)

Back in the golden age of gaming--and even into the early 1990s, game controller cords were short. The answer for many was to use infrared technology. This worked great for remote controls, but when it came to accurate button presses and directional data, there were shortcomings -- especially if you had the controller sitting in your lap.

Atari's solution was to spin off a set of radio-controlled joysticks, which could be used across the room without a cable. The radio base station they used plugged into the console and a wall power jack, and would allow the controllers to send information even when out of line of site of the base station.

Atari's use of radio frequency instead of infrared led to many modern-day controllers taking advantage of the technology, including Nintendo's Wavebird and the Xbox 360. Other controllers, like Nintendo's Wiimote and the Playstation 3's dual-shock series, use Bluetooth instead, though they retain the capability to play without a line of sight to the console.

September 8, 2009 4:00 AM PDT

Photo by: AtariAge.com

| Caption by: Josh Lowensohn