Namco NeGcon gamepad
The graveyard of failed game input devices is probably more of a massive landfill, but Namco’s 1995 NeGcon (pronounced “neh-gee-con”) gamepad for Sony’s PlayStation stands apart as one of the few simultaneously bizarre and functionally intrepid. Marrying two handheld half-pieces at a swivel joint, the NeGcon let players twist either in a relative way that in certain games—racers in particular—allowed for much finer analogue control of left or right maneuvers otherwise relegated to twitchy thumbstick nudges or frantic taps on a d-pad.
