Where Employed
Paddles first appeared in video arcade games with Atari Inc.'s Pong in 1972, while the first console to use paddles was Magnavox's Odyssey that same year. The Atari 2600 used paddles for several of its games, as did early home computers such as the Commodore VIC-20. True (potentiometer-based) paddles are almost never employed any more because they stop reading accurately when the potentiometer contacts get dirty or worn, because turning them too far can break them and because they require more-expensive analog sensing, whereas quadrature encoder-based controllers can be sensed digitally. Any recent game that has paddle-type control uses a quadrature encoder instead, even if the game uses paddles on screen (like Arkanoid).
Read more about this topic: Paddle (game Controller)
Famous quotes containing the word employed:
“And if the civilized man’s pursuits are no worthier than the savage’s, if he is employed the greater part of his life in obtaining gross necessaries and comforts merely, why should he have a better dwelling than the former?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“We are here lounging our time away, doing nothing, and having nothing to do. It gives me great regret to be passing my time so uselessly when it could have been so importantly employed at home.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)