What was the first Wireless Controller?

Question

Bit of an odd question here that I'm mainly asking out of curiosity.

Can anyone shed some light on which company was the first to produce a wireless controller ?

Personally my first experience was with Nintendo's Wavebird (which I considered revolutionary but I think it got overlooked because the GameCube was pretty much on its last legs when it came into being) but I'm sure there must be something that pre-dates this.

Asked by Craig Pilgrim

Answer

Acclaim made an officially-licensed wireless controller for the NES (link is to an eBay listing). I dimly remember using some terrible third-party controllers that I returned to Toys R Us less than a month after purchase, but those may not have been wireless.

Still, those weren't even close to the first wireless controllers. Believe it or not, even the Atari 2600 had wireless controllers. (I sure don't remember these. We had the normal joysticks, paddle controllers, and the free-spinning controllers for Indy 500.)

The same question was asked back in 2006 on another site; the answer there was also the Atari 2600, although no details were supplied. It's possible that another system had wireless controllers prior to 1983? or so, but I'm not sure offhand which one it would be.

Answered by Dave DuPlantis

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