Page "Joystick" Paragraph 12

Ralph H. Baer, inventor of television video games and the Magnavox Odyssey console, released in 1972, created the first video game joysticks in 1967.

They were able to control the horizontal and vertical position of a spot displayed on a screen.

The earliest known electronic game joystick with a fire button was released by Sega as part of their 1969 arcade game Missile, a shooter simulation game that used it as part of an early dual-control scheme, where two directional buttons are used to move a motorized tank and a two-way joystick is used to shoot and steer the missile onto oncoming planes displayed on the screen ; when a plane is hit, an explosion is animated on screen along with an explosion sound.

In 1970, the game was released in North America as S. A. M. I.

by Midway Games.