* Gamepad
A gamepad, also known as a joypad, is held in both hands with thumbs and fingers used to provide input. Gamepads can have a number of action buttons combined with one or more omnidirectional control sticks or buttons. Action buttons are generally handled with the digits on the right hand, and the directional input handled with the left. Gamepads are the primary means of input on most modern video game consoles. Due to the ease of use and user-friendly nature of gamepads, they have spread from their origin on traditional consoles to computers, where a variety of games and emulators support their input as a replacement for keyboard and mouse input
* Paddle
A paddle is a controller that features a round wheel and one or more fire buttons. The wheel is typically used to control movement of the player or of an object along one axis of the video screen. As the user turns the wheel further from the default position, the speed of control in the game become more intensive. Paddle controllers were the first analog controllers and they lost popularity when paddle and ball type games fell out of favor.
* Joystick
A joystick is a peripheral that consists of a handheld stick that can be tilted around either of two axes and (sometimes) twisted around a third. The joystick is often used for flight simulators. HOTAS (hands on throttle and stick) controllers, composed of a joystick and throttle quadrant (see below) are a popular combination for flight simulation among its most fanatic devotees. Most joysticks are designed to be operated with the users primary hand (e.g. with the right hand of a right-handed person), with the base either held in the opposite hand or mounted on a desk. Arcade controllers are typically joysticks featuring a shaft that has a ball or drop-shaped handle, and one or more buttons for in game actions. Generally the layout has the joystick on the left, and the buttons on the right, although there are instances when this is reversed.
* Trackball
A trackball is a smooth sphere that is manipulated with the palm of ones hand. The user can roll the ball in any direction to control the cursor. It has the advantage that it can be faster than a mouse depending on the speed of rotation of the physical ball. Another advantage is that it requires less space than a mouse, which the trackball was a precursor of.
*Throttle Quadrant
A throttle quadrant is a set of one or more levers that are most often used to simulate throttles or other similar controls in a real vehicle, particularly an aircraft. Throttle quadrants are most popular in conjunction with joysticks or yokes used in flight simulation.
* Racing Wheel
A racing wheel is a method of control for use in racing video games, racing simulators, and driving simulators. They are usually packaged with a large paddle styled as a steering wheel, along with a set of pedals for gas, brake, and sometimes clutch actuation, as well as various shifter controls. An analog wheel and pedal set such as this allows the user to accurately manipulate steering angle and pedal control that is required to properly manage a simulated car, as opposed to digital control such as a keyboard. The relatively large range of motion further allows the user to more accurately apply the controls. Racing wheels have been developed for use with arcade games, game consoles, personal computers, and also for professional driving simulators for race drivers.
*Yoke
A yoke is very similar to a steering wheel except that it resembles the control yoke found on many aircraft and has two axes of movement: not only rotational movement about the shaft of the yoke, but also a forward-and-backward axis equivalent to that of pitch control on the yoke of an aircraft. Some yokes have additional controls attached directly to the yoke for simulation of aircraft functions such as radio push-to-talk buttons. Some flight simulator sets that include yokes also come with various other aircraft controls such as throttle quadrants and pedals. These sets, including the yoke, are intended to be used in a flight simulator.
* Mouse and Keyboard
A mouse and computer keyboard are typical input devices for a personal computer and are currently the main game controllers for computer games.
* Touchscreen
A touchscreen is an input device that allows the user to interact with the computer by touching the display screen. The first attempt at a handheld game console with touchscreen controls was Segas intended successor to the Game Gear, though the device was ultimately shelved and never released due to the high cost of touchscreen technology in the early 1990s. The first released console to use a touchscreen was the Tiger game.com in 1997.
* Breathing controllers
Breathing controllers help their users improve breathing through video games. All controllers have sensors that sense users breath, with which user controls video game on computer, tablet or on smartphone. Alvio is a breathing trainer, symptom tracker and mobile game controller.
* Motion Sensing
In video games and entertainment systems, a motion controller is a type of game controller that uses accelerometers or other sensors to track motion and provide input.
* Light Gun
A light gun is a peripheral used to shoot targets on a screen. They usually roughly resemble firearms or ray guns. Their use is normally limited to rail shooters, or shooting gallery games like Duck Hunt and those which came with the Shooting Gallery light gun. A rare example of a non-rail first person shooter game is Taitos 1992 video game Gun Buster, a first-person shooter that used a joystick to move and a light gun to aim.
* Rhythm Game Controllers
A Rhythm game accessories used for rhythm games can resemble musical instruments, such as guitars (from 5-button guitars in Guitar Freaks, the Guitar Hero series, the Rock Band series to real guitars in Rock Band 3 and Rocksmith), keyboards (Rock Band 3), drums (Donkey Konga, Drum Mania, the Rock Band series and the Guitar Hero series), or maracas (Samba de Amigo) have also seen some success in arcades and home consoles. Other rhythm games are based around the art of Djing or turntablism (DJ Hero), or playing a synthesizer (IIDX) using a turntable shaped peripheral with buttons.
* Dance Pads
Essentially a grid of flat pressure-sensitive gamepad buttons set on a mat meant to be stepped on, have seen niche success with the popularity of rhythm games like Dance Dance Revolution and Pump It Up.
* Buzzers: A recent example of specialized, while very simple, game controllers, is the four large buzzers (round buttons) supplied with the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 quiz show game series Buzz
* Microphone: A few games have made successes in using a headset or microphone as a secondary controller, such as Hey You, Pikachu!, the Rock Band series, the Guitar Hero series, the SingStar series, Tom Clancys Endwar, the Mario Party series, and the SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs series.
* Fishing rod: the first fishing rod controller appeared as an accessory for the Dreamcast video console for playing Sega Marine Fishing. Later other games for PlayStation console use also a similar controllers.
* Instrument panels are simulated aircraft instrument panels, either generic or specific to a real aircraft, that are used in place of the keyboard to send commands to a flight simulation program. Some of these are far more expensive than all the rest of a computer system combined. The panels usually only simulate switches, buttons, and controls, rather than output instrument displays.