Denise Chaudhari's Industrial Designs | "Designing the Duke" for the Original Xbox

[Gestault]

Posted October 23, 2020 by Andrew Borman - Digital Games Curator at the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, NY

"Denise Chaudhari was the first woman hired for the then-secret Xbox project, where she designed more than just the original "Duke" controller that launched with the system in 2001."

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The link below leads to the new post and video on the "Play Stuff Blog" for the Strong Museum, detailing some of Chaudhari's work in industrial design for things like the Original Xbox "Duke" controller, Live Communicator Headset/adapter, and beyond. This includes video of some prototype iterations which were functional in testing, but never actually released. Included among the sketches are designs showing non-offset analog stick placements. It sounds like the Strong Museum is working behind-the-scenes with some of these materials to assemble a future exhibit.

Designing the Duke - The Strong National Museum of Play

Denise Chaudhari was the first woman hired for the then-secret Xbox project, where she designed more than just the original “Duke” controller that launched with the system in 2001.

www.museumofplay.org

 

[Wrexis]

Interesting sketches. And before anyone asks:



Another article here: https://www.engadget.com/2018-03-23-xbox-controller-retrospective-hyperkin-duke-gamepad.html

 

[Dolce]

From the duke to Microsoft going out of their way to make the XBOX Series controller smaller as it meant being more ergonomic for smaller hands.

Since, you know, women exist.

 

[Gestault]

The video mentions the 2018 re-release of the Duke controller for XB1 (via Hyperkin), including the OLED screen that plays the system startup video. As someone who bought one of those out of sheer fascination, I'm still really happy with it. It's a wild ride playing BC original XB games with it, but it's still a great controller for racers/sims, to this day.

 

[Deleted member 2752]

Is there a better way to share the video? Looks like it's hosted on vimeo, but I can't find it directly.

 

[Gestault]

Is there a better way to share the video? Looks like it's hosted on vimeo, but I can't find it directly.

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I think this is the actual Vimeo source (I'll update the OP): https://player.vimeo.com/video/471357825

 

[Professor Beef]

tagging Brass Body Dave since I know he loves the duke

i do not however, so i will not be capitalizing the duke

 

[Bradford]

Such a fantastic video. My favorite home console controller from the modern era. I'm using mine to play Death Stranding right now, actually.

 

[Brass Body Dave]

tagging Brass Body Dave since I know he loves the duke

i do not however, so i will not be capitalizing the duke

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Big hands need a big controller

 

[Gestault]

Such a fantastic article. My favorite home console controller from the modern era. I'm using mine to play Death Stranding right now, actually.

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The angle for the controller and the size/resistance for the analog sticks still makes it pretty ideal for sim-style games. I've been playing a bunch of Mud Runners/Snow Runners with it, too.

 

[Bradford]

The angle for the controller and the size/resistance for the analog sticks still makes it pretty ideal for sim-style games. I've been playing a bunch of Mud Runners/Snow Runners with it, too.

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I'm all about those 6 face buttons. I really want a new controller with ABC/XYZ buttons.

 

[cyrribrae]

That was a really cool video! I had heard the story about the circuit board bein made first. But seeing the actual circuit board just being so big, I can't even imagine what she was thinking when she first saw it. Like.. you want me to do what now?