I remember when there were some phone-ins where the caller would yell "up, left no..left, LEFT, I mean right, argh" and I assumed there was some unlucky sap holding the joystick and trying not to stuff it up.
But then, with the touch-tone version, I assumed in my naive young innocence that there was some sort of technological interface used to control it.... but was there? Either way, it was still a bit janky...