
Saitek, originally a manufacturer of chess computers, quickly became one of the leaders in the joystick industry in the mid '90s. The controller was so ubiquitous that even adventure titles like Grim Fandango included controls pre-mapped to the latest models. That meant that just about every PC gamer owned a joystick.Įven adventure games used to come with joystick controls baked right in In the '90s any computer worth its salt had to be able to run the latest flight sims, including Microsoft Flight Simulator but also games like Wing Commander and TIE Fighter. "Whenever you sold a PC," Neville told Polygon, "pretty much everyone bought a joystick to take home with it, because that was what they felt they should be doing."

Even before Saitek's senior product development manager helped to design them, Neville was selling joysticks faster than he could keep them in stock.

Before Richard Neville went to work for peripherals manufacturer Saitek he worked behind the counter of UK-based retailer PC World.
