Valve Steam Controller prototype with no analog sticks found at Goodwill (again)
© Waste-Set5032/ErbilT A Redditor”Waste-Set5032″ says his father “ErbilT”, also a Redditor, found an early Valve Steam Controller prototype at a Goodwill store in Seattle. The unit is believed to be the “Chell” prototype from the 2013 to 2014 development period. In other words, this is the second time the same prototype was found at the thrift store, which is interesting coincidence. Perhaps Valve’s developer is getting rid of old prototypes?
This version is linked to Valve’s early Steam Machine era, when the company was testing a controller layout built around touchpads rather than analog sticks.
The prototype has two large circular touchpads and no analog sticks. It also uses four square center buttons instead of a conventional D-pad. According to the Redditor, the controller works as a generic controller, and those four center buttons act as a D-pad, with each button mapped to one direction.
Valve later changed the design for the retail Steam Controller, which launched in 2015. The final model kept the dual touchpads but added an analog stick, a more standard face button layout and other changes intended to improve compatibility with more PC games.
Same prototype 7 years ago
This is not the first Chell prototype found at Goodwill. Another unit surfaced on the same subreddit around seven years ago, also from a thrift store find. It was posted by “WickedBedSheet”. The new discovery shows that at least some early Valve development hardware escaped into public circulation.
Source: WickedBedSheet
Valve has since returned to the controller market with its new Steam Controller, which is now tied to the updated Steam Machine and Steam Frame hardware lineup. The Chell prototype shows how different Valve’s first controller concept looked before the final 2015 model reached stores.
