History Main / PressureSensitiveInterface

** The elevator example appears in the ''HancocksHalfHour'' TV episode "The Lift".

* Every button on the PS2 controller worked like this. ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2'' and ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3'' were practically the only games that did anything with it, though. If you push the fire button and let go, you shoot, but if you push the button and ''lightly'' let go, you'll holster your gun without firing a shot. It was tricky as hell.
** When the first game was remade for the Gamecube with mostly PS2 controls, they got around the Gamecube controller not having pressure sensitive buttons by having you press Y, then A, in succession to holster your weapon.
** Also, another Kojima game, ''Zone of the Enders'', had a weapon that made use of the pressure-sensitive PS2 buttons. A light push would result in a wide-angle, point-blank spray, while a hard one would increase the range from "melee" to merely "short" with a narrower spread.

* The difficult-but-rewarding "Second-Stage Quickboost" tactic in ''VideoGame/ArmoredCore 4''/for Answer relies on the 360/PS3's pressure sensitive buttons. Specifically, pressing the quickboost button ordinarily will unleash the ordinary burst. However, by pressing the button to the point such that it ''almost'' activates, and then activating it with a light pressure will trigger this. Quick Boost is intended to be an emergency get-out-of-the-way burst of speed; properly applied, Second Stage boosting can and will outrun enemies using their supposedly faster Overed Boost.

* ''TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' has a kind of psycho {{Gonk}} called Attenborough who appears to be in charge of using the giant mechs' cannons. He [[BeamSpam never does any aiming or anything]], mind you. And he often acts so rash that he puts the whole team in danger. Presumably he's only in this position because [[TriggerHappy he pushes those buttons very enthusiastically]], and ''really damn hard''.

** ''SuperSmashBros. Melee'' also used this function. The shoulder buttons were used for shielding: lightly pushing the button made a larger but more translucent, and likely weaker, shield; pushing the button harder made the shield more compact as well as more durable and opaque.

** The GameCube installments of the ''Rogue Squadron'' series mapped the accelerator to the right trigger. Clicking the button underneath would (depending on your craft) either trigger a rechargeable booster, or close your S-foils (giving you increased speed but disabling your weapons). To accelerate to max speed normally, you would need to hold down the trigger without pressing the button underneath.

** Interestingly enough, the idea was reused for the ''[[UpdatedRerelease EO]]'' versions of ''[[VideoGame/CapcomVsSNK2MarkOfTheMillennium Capcom vs. SNK 2]]''. The strengths of punches and kicks are determined by the pressure exerted on the L and R buttons in an attempt to simplify the controls for the GameCube and XBox.

* In one episode of ''BattleOfThePlanets'' the guy pounds the firing button with his fist, full strength. The missile practically explodes its way out of the launcher.

** ''GranTurismo IV'' had the cars go faster the harder you push the X button.

* In ''BobAndGeorge'' the time travel suit is controlled by one button on the belt buckle. You have to practically type out a command in Morse Code with it to actually do anything. The duration and pressure of the press is important.

* From ''Series/StargateAtlantis'', the last season, where an abandoned ship that autonomously travels through parallel universes carrying the heros meets a universe full of hostile aliens, facing them to attack. Needless to say, Ronan is jamming on the rail gun button, then Seppard says,"Take it easy,Chewy."

* From StargateAtlantis, the last season, where an abandoned ship that autonomously travels through parallel universes carrying the heros meets a universe full of hostile aliens, facing them to attack. Needless to say, Ronan is jamming on the rail gun button, then Seppard says,"Take it easy,Chewy."

** ''DeadOrAlive Extreme Beach Volleyball'' made good use of the face buttons's pressure sensitivity if enabled by the player. The harder you press, the stronger the girls spiked/served the ball. (If the feature was disabled, the A and B buttons were the "strong" buttons while the X and Y buttons were the "weak" buttons, similar to a fighting game's button layout).

** Busted by the {{Mythbusters}} (elevator one).

Whenever someone in fiction presses a button, how hard they press always determines the effect. For some reason, you can make something work better just by pressing the appropriate button harder, or by pressing it multiple times, even though there's absolutely no reason this would work in real life.

This uses similar logic to TimTaylorTechnology.

* Most "close door" lift buttons aren't connected to anything. The lift doors don't close any quicker, but the user feels in control.
** They are, but unless you're in operator mode, they don't do much. In an elevator running in operator mode, the buttons give you total control. The doors will remain open until you select a floor or close them. You can even override the doors and leave them open as you travel.

* Averted in the Creator/IsaacAsimov short story ''Risk'', in which an experimental hyperdrive failed to work because the robot at the controls, having been ordered to pull the activation level "firmly", pulled it so hard that it bent out of shape.

* In ''ComicBook/GoldDigger,'' defunct 1970's super hero team the Wonder Friends had a base full of hi-tech vehicles [[{{Expy}} based on]] the {{Thunderbirds}}. The old members, now part of [[TheMenInBlack Agency Zero]], still have access to them, and they still work... but the on-board AIs will only oblige to work if they are approached ''dramatically.'' Just pushing the launch button won't do. You have to SLAM it down while saying a battle cry!

* ''TheBouncer'' tried to make use of the PS2's pressure sensitivity to execute different attacks, and it mostly ended up crippling the combat system.

** ''RhythmHeaven'' deserves a special mention here, as it can have you hold the stylus on the screen and flick. It also tells the difference between light and hard taps. Moai Doo Wop especially. It has you using light and hard taps within the same game.

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* In ''WesternAnimation/{{WALL-E}}'', the BigBad pushes a button to turn off the Holo-Detector and lower it back into the floor, but WALL-E holds it up. So, the BigBad takes out an electric prod and pushes the button with that, and the Holo-Detector ''lowers faster and overpowers WALL-E.''
** Also averted earlier in the movie, when WALL-E, trapped in an escape pod about to blow up, presses the button for self-destruct to try and turn it off, then repeatedly presses it.

** In ''{{Morrowind}}'', when using the white/black buttons to raise/lower price offers with vendors, how hard you push them determines how fast the figure changes.

* The Nintendo Gamecube had touch sensitive shoulder buttons, with another button at the very bottom of each the buttons

* Every button on the PS2 controller worked like this. ''MetalGearSolid 2'' and 3 were practically the only games that did anything with it, though. If you push the fire button and let go, you shoot, but if you push the button and ''lightly'' let go, you'll holster your gun without firing a shot. It was tricky as hell.

** The "not sure it took" is the reason for ''most'' "press the button again" behaviors. That's why many elevator buttons (and a very few crosswalks) have an indicator light that says "Yes, I know you pushed me".
*** More a case of "''You'' know you pushed me," really.
*** All British pedestrian crossings have an indicator which lights when the button is pressed (on older versions, it's an illuminated WAIT sign, and on newer versions a red light). People still press the button repeatedly.
**** Irish crossings have the light too. But sometimes no light means "no signal" and a light means "signal received"; sometimes it's dim light: no signal, bright light: signal received; and sometimes it's permanently a dim light. So people press it over anyway.
** Some crosswalks at intersections that have been converted back to pure timer operation have their buttons disconnected, and pressing does nothing. People are already used to waiting, so nobody notices any difference.
* Pressing a road crossing button more times means that the time between the last button press and the change in lights is shorter.
** Unless it thinks multiple people are waiting for the light and increases the urgency of the signal call.

** Some poorly-written applications on old cooperative-multitasked computers would do their processing only in response to OS messages. Meaning, the processing would go faster if you wiggled the mouse, or slammed on the keyboard, or otherwise did something to make the OS send more messages than usual. This could happen in Mac Classic applications, and 16-bit Windows applications.

*** The [[SurprisinglyImprovedSequel superior sequel]], ''ZoneOfTheEnders 2: The Second Runner'', made more use of it.

* Subverted in the filler Bount arc for ''{{Bleach}}''. During a fight in a hospital, one of the characters does the elevator button variation. The mod souls point out that that's not going to make it go any faster, but Kurodo cheerfully tells him to keep pressing if it makes him happy.