The Master System controller is visually similar to the competing Nintendo Entertainment System controller of the samethird generation. Although button placements and layout is the same, the Sega variant lacked an independent start button and omitted a separate select button. A pause button was included on the console, although it is possible to move this button's function onto the controller by custom modification. The earlier models included a mini joystick attached to the d-pad, a feature that was removed in later revisions. A third-party alternative pad named the SG Commander control pad was released exclusively for Europe and Japan in 1988, featuring turbo fire switches above the A and B buttons.
Sega completely redesigned its controller for the fourth generation Genesis/Mega Drive console, adding a separate start button and an additional button C placed in sequence with the A and B buttons. The pad was designed to be backwards compatible with the previous generation Master System, although some are not compatible and only work with the original Master System control pad. Unlike the controller of its Super Nintendo counterpart released later, the Sega controller lacked shoulder buttons and was functionally comparable to the previous generation NES controller, having the same number of buttons. The majority of games released on the Sega system were not impacted by the fewer number of buttons compared to the Super Nintendo and the few that were would use alternate button combinations to achieve what an additional button may have. For example, the gameSyndicate incorporated additional triggers and actions beyond what the controller could natively support and instead would assign some actions to multiple button presses to overcome this. Other games, including street fighting games ported from the arcades, benefited from the use of additional buttons which would lead to Sega developing a revised controller. The six-button control pad was released in 1993 and became the de facto controller until the console was discontinued, replacing the standard 3-button control pad internationally. Two different sized variants of the pad were released, with a smaller pad sold in the Asian markets. The pad is functionally identical to the original pad, with the addition of three additional face buttons, X-Y-Z. Some earlier games were not compatible with the new controller due to the difference in its operation. Sega included a mode button to overcome this, which when pressed upon boot-up, would revert the pad to the 3-button operation. One particular game which made full use of the additional buttons was Street Fighter II, which documented usage of the additional buttons, as well as the alternative approach to utilise the actions on a 3-button pad.
The original control pad for the Saturn console was visually and functionally similar to the previous generation Genesis, retaining the A-B-C, X-Y-Z button layout, with the addition of two shoulder buttons and the removal of the redundant mode button. A 3D control pad was released alongside the game Nights into Dreams in 1996, which included an analog stick similar to that found on the Nintendo 64 controller which followed, whilst the controller was a rounded design which meant all buttons were accessible from a single held position. Like the Genesis 6-button controller, the 3D control pad had some compatibility issues with earlier games and a switch was included below the start button to change between Digital and Analog modes. The original Playstation controller similarly did not include analog sticks, and later revisions which did, such as the Dual Analog Controller, added an Analog button to disable the feature for incompatible games in a similar way to the 3D control pad.
Sega's final console, the Dreamcast, featured a controller visually similar to that of the Saturn's 3D control pad, with a familiar rounded shape and button placements, including the analog stick and d-pad placement, although dropped two face buttons. The controller featured two individual expansion dock slots for the addition of accessories, such as the Visual Memory Unitmemory card.
