A device on a joystick or joypad allowing you to perform some kind of action (other than moving, which is dealt with by the joystick or pad itself). Early / retro consoles and 8-bit / 16-bit computer fire buttons were traditionally bright red, but that has now changed, mainly due to the design focus brought to consoles by Playstation, and the sheer number of buttons that modern joypads have (rarely less than ten). Playstation and Playstation 2 use symbols to identify their fire buttons - an X, a triangle, a square and a circle. These have become a visual shorthand for the console itself through Sony's advertising campaigns. The most outrageous console controller in terms of buttons must surely be the N64, which I would estimate has just under a million. If that seems too many, try playing Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: every button serves a useful purpose. And don't be fooled by mid-80s joysticks for machines like the C64, which appear to have four or five buttons: they all send out the same signal. Boo!