The Playstation Dual Shock

Long time video game players and fans of the Sony Playstation consoles in particular are surely familiar with the Dual Shock. There have been three versions of the Dual Shock available so far, each offering advancements on the previous design.

Originally, the Dual Shock did not come with the first Sony Playstation. At the beginning, Sony offered a very basic game-pad, which lacked even the dual-sticks that players are now accustomed to. Subsequently, Sony added those in response to the analog stick on the Nintendo 64 controller, but this was still not yet the first Dual Shock. Finally, in 1997, two years after the U.S. launch of the console, Sony released the Dual Shock and began phasing out the previous designs. It was named that way because it included a “rumble” feature, in response to the separate “Rumble Pak” accessory that Nintendo had unveiled for their controllers. It offered an improvement on the Nintendo incarnation, since the feature was actually built in to the controller and didn’t require AA batteries as the Rumble Pak did.

The Dual Shock 2, for the Playstation 2, offered some very minor adjustments, such as slightly more accurate control sticks. For the Playstation 3, Sony initially released only a “Sixaxis” controller that included a motion “tilt” function, but no vibration; this was partially because Sony was still resolving a lawsuit regarding that functionality. Eventually, this was settled, and Sony released the Dual Shock 3 with both the Sixaxis’ tilt and original vibration functions enabled, as well as the wireless capability of the Sixaxis. The Dual Shock has come a long way over the last 14 years.