By Bill DeRouchey in Video games — 13 Sep 2007 Following up from my post on the  LodgeNet game controller  with the bizarro ABXY labeling, here is a history of the ABXY controller layout, from  ABXY.org . From the article: For the origins of the ABXY button scheme we must look back to the very beginning of additional buttons. When the Famicom (known as the Nintendo Entertainment System outside Japan) launched, it featured two primary buttons. While other companies labelled their (usually two) buttons with numbering such as 1 and 2 or I and II, Nintendo had instead used A and B. When the SNES was released in Japan in 1990 they added X and Y to the mix, and rotated it slightly. The format was now a diamond, with X, A, B, and Y all around, clockwise. This format became known as ABXY because of the obvious alphabetical order. But why X and Y? Why not C and D, the next most logical letters? The likely reason for this is future-proofing.…