The Evolution of Steering Wheels For PlayStation 2

The so called "racing wheel" is a staple of the modern video game entertainment center. Steering wheels for PlayStation 2 have come quite a long way from the old days, just like every other aspect of video games. To watch how far the technology has developed in the last forty years, in the racing wheels alone, is really something.

Early Steering Wheels

The earliest known ancestor of the modern racing wheel is actually the paddle. You remember those, right? They were those old controllers people used in the seventies with the big spinner wheels in the middle. They gave tighter, better control in racing games than a traditional joystick, but... They did not exactly make you feel like you were driving a car, for obvious reasons. Still, these analog paddles introduced an important idea to the world of video games: Analog control. Where a joystick or directional pad allows for eight directions and one speed, the analog wheels would let you turn sharply or gradually left or right depending on the situation, allowing a whole new level of control for racing games.

Home Racing Wheels

Towards the end of the seventies and into the eighties, more and more home controller wheels started popping up. To take these wheels apart and look at the insides, they were built on the exact same hardware as the analog paddle, but, they would put the wheel in your hand and allow for a much more real, intuitive control, and a much more natural gaming experience. At this point, there was no "force feedback", so they would use springs to give a sense of resistance.

Force Feedback Wheels

This brings us to today. Many modern racing wheels use electric motors to give resistance. At first, these were just used for the "rumble" effect, so the wheel would shake during a crash. But now, the technology has gotten to a point where the physics system within a game can feed information to your racing wheel as such that the wheel responds to the road in-game. This allows for the most realistic possible racing experience short of signing up to become a stock car driver, and it really blurs the line between driving game and driving simulator. However, some of the best and most responsive racing wheels actually do not use force feedback, as the manufacturers do not think that the technology has come far enough just yet. If you are looking to get a wheel for your PS2, the choice is really yours as to whether or not you think force feedback is worthwhile, or just a distraction.