THE PS1 CONTROLLER
Nintendo had cemented a pretty robust, accessible, and effective way of making console controller with the NES, which they expanded upon even further with the SNES, with four face buttons on the right side of the controller, direction buttons on the left, start and select buttons in the middle, and shoulder buttons on the, well, shoulders. Sony took that idea, added a second pair of shoulder buttons, two grips at the edges of the gamepad, and called it a day. This isn’t to say Nintendo has an exclusive ownership over the idea of things like face buttons or shoulder buttons (suggesting that would be ridiculous), but even at first glance, it becomes instantly apparent that the original PlayStation controller was borrowing liberally from the SNES gamepad. It should be noted, though, thatt sort of makes sense, since the PlayStation originally started out as a Nintendo accessory.
