D-pad

D-pads have appeared on audiovisual device remote controls, calculators, PDAs, mobile phones, and car stereos.

[6][7] The same year, Mattel released the Intellivision with a unique alternative to the joystick, a smooth freely rotating circular pad that registered presses in up to 16 directions.

[8][9] Internally, a metal spring holds the Intellivision's control disc centered above sheets of printed mylar.

[10] Nintendo's familiar "cross" design positioned for the left thumb was developed by Ichiro Shirai and used by Gunpei Yokoi for the 1982 handheld adaptation of the Donkey Kong arcade game.

[14][15] Initially intended to be a compact control method for Game & Watch handheld games, Nintendo realized that a D-pad would also be appropriate for home consoles and made it the standard directional control for the hugely successful Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System (first released 1983) under the name "+Control Pad".

[16] Part of Nintendo's rationale came from the durability of the D-pad and the expectation that controllers would be left on floors and crushed.

To avoid infringing on Nintendo's patent, most controller manufacturers use a cross in a circle shape for the D-pad.

Modern consoles, beginning with the Nintendo 64, provide both a D-pad and a compact thumb-operated analog stick; depending on the game, one type of control may be more appropriate than the other.

In many cases with games that use a thumbstick, the D-pad is used as a set of extra buttons, all four usually centered on a kind of task, such as using items.

Even without an analog stick, some software uses the D-pad's 8-directional capabilities to act as eight discrete buttons, not related to direction or on-screen movement at all.