It took a while for controllers to work as well as they do today without cables.
If you've been a gamer for a while, you might know that wireless controllers have been used as far back as the 1980s. Those who grew up in the PS2/Xbox/GameCube era likely have a different gamepad in mind when they think of early wireless controllers. While wireless pads were tried in various iterations over the decades, they were only perfected within the last few console generations.
The history of non-wired controllers is fascinating. Here's the story of how your current console has unleashed you from the couch.
As a 41-year-old, I'm slightly relieved that the first wireless gaming controller is older than me: enter the Cynex Game Mate 2. Released around 1982, this is an Atari 2600 peripheral widely regarded as the first wireless console-compatible gamepad. It was the debut of an evolving, genre-defying tech, albeit one that wouldn't be fully realized for some time to come.
The Game Mate 2 used radio frequencies. By embracing RF technology, this pioneering pad gave gamers more freedom than lesser IR alternatives that would launch later in the decade. Unlike the Acclaim Remote Controller that launched for the NES in 1989, you didn't need to point the Game Mate 2 directly at your Atari 2600 for its signal to be recognized.
Whereas early infrared pads could easily lose signal if any objects came between their sensors and the receiver on the console (much like IR TV remotes ), the more flexible Game Mate wasn't bound by these restrictions.
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