None of the above, noobs. None of the above!
In fact, neither of my first THREE controllers are even on the list.
- Mattel Intellivision gold disc
- Apple //e joystick
- Analog Plus Apple //e joystick
I still love the Intellivision approach, especially with the overlays that allowed for much more detailed inputs and probably inspired the Warmouse design. Its only real flaw were that the side buttons were too hard to press, so the controller had to be gripped firmly in order to prevent it from being pushed to the side when the side buttons, which were usually used for firing, were pressed.
But I think it’s worth noting that all of the subsequent controllers were fundamentally based on the Intellivision’s thumb-based controller, and most of them were both technically and practically inferior, having as few as four directions in the place of the Intellivision’s 16. To this day, I’ve never understood why Nintendo and Sega put the thumbpad on the LEFT side, when right-handed people have better fine motor control with their RIGHT thumb.