Paddle (game controller)

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A paddle is a game controller with a round wheel and one or more fire buttons, where the wheel is typically used to control movement of the player object along one axis of the video screen. A paddle controller rotates through a fixed arc (usually about 330 degrees); it has a stop at each end.

The name paddle is derived from the first game that used it, Pong,^[1], being a video game simulation of table tennis, whose racquets are commonly called paddles. Even though the simulated paddles appeared on-screen (as small line segments), it was the hand controllers used to move the line segments that actually came to bear the name.

Some famous video games using paddles are Pong, Breakout, and Night Driver.^{[citation needed]}