Atari Game Console Controller - Dismantled for reference and curiosity
The 'Standard' Jaguar Controller was included as a pack in peripheral sold with the Atari Jaguar game console. For reasons unknown Atari developers took a page out of a book that should have been burnt a decade prior by reintroduced a keypad and overlay system as part of the primary controller. A move pretty much banished from design until mini touchpad and touch screen technology made the often awkward hand real-estate sacrifice worthwhile.
Admittedly it looked somewhat visionary with its ergonomic design (for the day), however in practice it's bulky and arguably uncomfortable to hold for prolonged periods.
It does however work. Its casing is made from robust plastic and the rubber buttons seem to have stood the test of time.
The controller is something of an oddity when you consider Atari were trying to bite into the fighting game heavy market at the time with their nifty new 64 bit console but released a controller with only three action buttons.
To address half of this Atari later released the 'Pro' version. This retained all of the existing buttons, added three more action buttons as well as two bumper buttons bringing the grand total to TWENTY TWO plus the D-Pad!
