1- Wiimote (Wii): No explanations needed. THE best one. Ever. Unfortunally my dreams of playing with it this sunday were postponed until September.
2- SNES (north american color scheme) - A classic. Possibly the best design and handling for a two-handed controller. The D-pad was smooth - like the DS lite feels now - and it had the L and R buttoms, a great inovation. It is THE controller to play 2D fighting games.
3- Panasonic 3DO - Don't laugh. I was one of the supporters of the 3DO, and I felt it could really do good if properly handled - heck, it would be today's XBOX. The true inovation about the controller was the possibility of pluging a controller onto another, thus creating a chain sequence that allowed for 8 controllers - the highest number for any console to this day, and without the need of any other aparatus, all you needed was to buy another controller. Plus, it handled pretty ok, although it lacked buttoms, having only A, B, C, L and R.
4- Dreamcast - it had a LCD minigame memory stick thingy into it. Crazy colors. Enough said.
5- N64 - Although it looked like a toy and had it's flaws, it handled pretty well. You could use the analogue stick with your left or right hand, or use the D-pad, or both! The controller could deliver one hell of a gaming experience.
6- Dual Shock PS2 - Sony never inovates. They steal. They admit to do so. That's their strategy. The Dual Shock pretty much grabs a little bit of the inovations around, mostly by Nintendo, and puts them into this confortable and handy controller. The D-pad is terrible, with non-connected buttons, but the analogue stick is convenient and the upper analogue buttons are a nice touch. It is the controller to play GTA. Sadly, Sony had it become a monster for the PS3, a mutilated one (thanks to a lawsuit involving the rumble technology theft), so it's like watching a really cool car test-crashing. It's sad but you gotta keep looking.
7- The Sega Saturn Nights into Dreams controller - A controller created for a single game? Well, it worked. Pretty well. And it opened way for more of these expensive gimicks such as Donkey Konga and Guitar Hero.
8- Intellevision: A 16-direction metal disc. A numeric keyboard. And 4 side buttons that made your fingers BLEED. All that connected on a vintage wood and metal box by a curly old fashioned phone cord. Ah, all those hours spent playing Triple Action and Burgertime, showing your mutilated fingers at school the following day, those were the days...
9- Power Glove (NES): When I think of the 80s, I think neon lights, Alf, that crappy Saturday Night Fever sequel, "A Flock of Seaguls", DeLorean, old faded photos of me as a kid, and a Power Glove. So enough said.
10- Neo Geo: Ah, I remember when I first had that... thing on my lap back in 1992. A controller you can use to serve drinks on.