History Main / BillionsOfButtons

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' started with Stan having to show a new CIA powered armor, which is a killing machine that can perform delicate tasks such as diffusing a bomb or adjusting a pearl necklace. When Stan is perplexed with what to do, the camera pulls back three times to show ''all'' the buttons in the control console. It ends about as well as you'd expect.

** Taken UpToEleven with the IBM 1397000 122-key (aka the IBM PS/2 Host Connected) keyboard[[http://www.seasip.info/VintagePC/ibm_1397000.html]]. It's intended for use with a conversion set that makes an IBM PS/2 microcomputer into a mainframe terminal emulator, and thus supplies a wide variety of keys which a micro doesn't need but a mainframe terminal does.

** The [[http://gaming.corsair.com/en-us/corsair-gaming-k95-mechanical-gaming-keyboard-white-led-cherry-mx-red Corsair K95]] backlit gaming keyboard is no slouch. While it features only 18 programmable (and [[UpToEleven combinable]]) macro keys compared to the Apex's 26 squeezed partly over the function keys - they're all fully sized and located on their own left partition of the keyboard. Across [[SerialEscalation three preset modes switchable on the fly]], bringing the macro count up to '''54''', 18 at a time, not including '''(122^122)*3 theoretical combinations.''' On most keyboards, inputting large blocks of keys at once is impossible and indeed [[AwesomeButImpractical quite impractical]]. Still, almost all buttons on the K95, save for media/volume control and keyboard settings, are ''full-sized mechanical keys'' with your choice of Cherry MX switches. All 122 mechanical keys can be rolled over at once and register ''122 valid inputs'', compared to the Apex's puny limit of 6 simultaneous keypresses, imposed by a less expensive design that economizes on part count at the cost of capability. It's also [[KineticClicking loud, like a keyboard should be.]] If that isn't enough, Corsair offers a [[http://gaming.corsair.com/en-us/corsair-gaming-k95-rgb-mechanical-gaming-keyboard-cherry-mx-red 16 Million RGB Color Per-Key Backlit Model]] for ~$200, capable of all manner of effects and animations.

** And it's not even limited to real world aircraft and spacecraft, either; ''VideoGame/RogueSystem'' is described as "''DCS'' [[RecycledINSPACE IN SPACE!]]" for a reason, clearly designed by someone who thought that your typical space sim didn't have ''enough'' switches to flick in the cockpit. It makes the likes of ''VideoGame/EliteDangerous'' and ''VideoGame/IndependenceWar'' look like simple arcade games by comparison.

* In a similar vein to the above example, ''WesternAnimation/MikesNewCar'', the short attached to ''Monsters, Inc.'', had the titular automobile with an array of devices and doohickeys. Naturally, every single one of them is [[WhatDoesThisButtonDo unlabeled.]]

** Hilariously, modern gamepads are coming dangerously close to returning to this trope. The UsefulNotes/XboxOne Elite controller has two analog sticks that could also be pushed down as a button, a four-way D-Pad, two shoulder buttons, two analog triggers that doubles as additional shoulder buttons when pushed, seven face buttons, and ''four more'' backhand buttons that is triggered by the third and fourth finger on each hand. The [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 DualShock 4]] and [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation5 DualSense]] does not have the backhand buttons, but instead has a multitouch pressure-sensitive trackpad, and the [=DualSense=] has an additional face button to activate streaming/sharing mode.

** Hilariously, modern gamepads are coming dangerously close to returning to this trope. The UsefulNotes/XboxOne Elite controller has two analog sticks, a four-way D-Pad, two shoulder buttons, two analog triggers that doubles as additional shoulder buttons when pushed, seven face buttons, and ''four more'' backhand buttons that is triggered by the third and fourth finger on each hand. The [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 DualShock 4]] and [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation5 DualSense]] does not have the backhand buttons, but instead has a multitouch pressure-sensitive trackpad, and the [=DualSense=] has an additional face button to activate streaming/sharing mode.

** Hilariously, modern gamepads are coming dangerously close to returning to this trope. The UsefulNotes/XboxOne Elite controller has two analog sticks, a four-way D-Pad, two shoulder buttons, two analog triggers that doubles as additional shoulder buttons when pushed, seven face buttons, and ''four more'' backhand buttons that is triggered by the third and fourth finger on each hand. The [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 DualShock 4]] and [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation5 DualSense]] does not have the backhand buttons, but instead has a multitouch pressure-sensitive trackpad...

** Hilariously, modern gamepads are coming dangerously close back to this trope. The UsefulNotes/XboxOne Elite controller has two analog sticks, a four-way D-Pad, two shoulder buttons, two analog triggers that doubles as additional shoulder buttons when pushed, seven face buttons, and ''four more'' backhand buttons that is triggered by the third and fourth finger on each hand. The Dualshock 4 and DualSense does not have the backhand buttons, but instead has a multitouch pressure-sensitive trackpad...

[[quoteright:300:[[UsefulNotes/{{NASA}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/billions-of-buttons_space-shuttle_1988.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Don't worry; it's not that hard once you get used to it.]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "DesignForLeaving", Elmer Fudd's house is made over into an automated home with a panel of dozens of buttons that activate the various features. Includes one BigRedButton which he must never, ''ever'' push. ([[SchmuckBait He does, of course.]])

* In the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "Designs for Leaving", Elmer Fudd's house is made over into an automated home with a panel of dozens of buttons that activate the various features. Includes one BigRedButton which he must never, ''ever'' push. ([[SchmuckBait He does, of course.]])

* ''Videogame/SteelBattalion'', a $200 HumongousMecha game for the UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}}, has a controller approximating what might actually be used to pilot a mech, including an ''ejector switch housed in a plastic cover'' which had to be used if your mech was destroyed or [[FinalDeath you, the pilot, were blown up too]]... which deleted your saved game. Seriously. (Originally the designers intended for the ejector switch to be under a glass cover that the player would have to break if he wanted to use it. Thankfully, they came to their senses.) Unlike the prior examples, this actually succeeded quite well in its admittedly rather narrow niche.

* ''Into the Outdoors with Gun and Camera'', the introductory adventure to ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'' 2nd ed, sends the hapless Troubleshooters into wacky adventures on a six-legged amphibious vehicle. The players are presented a foldout of the vehicle's dashboard with unmarked buttons, gauges and levers, and of course the instruction manual is not available at their security clearance. Have a nice day.

* Analog or virtual-analog synthesizers. Even more so, modular synthesizers. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that [[TheSixties 1960s]] and [[TheSeventies 1970s]] tech level required for one controller for each parameter, and that today this actually makes synths ''easier'' to tweak than more modern ones which require sifting through dozens of menus with either one knob for everything or none at all.

* Or better yet the control panel of a [[http://englishrussia.com/2011/03/19/nuclear-power-plant-machine-halls/ Nuclear Power Plant.]]

** Before the IBM 1397000, there was the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-cadet_keyboard MIT Space-cadet keyboard]], used with special terminals called LISP machines at MIT. Although it had only exactly 100 keys (a contemporary personal computer from the time has much less keys), it was also ''chorded'', meaning occasionally you'll need to push several other keys alongside the letter key. There was even a joke RFC to add a set of foot pedals to the keyboard since the designers constantly complained that there were not enough modifier keys.

* Not technically physical buttons, but UsefulNotes/{{UNIX}} command line programs often have dozens of optional flags that can and can't be combined, leading to a feeling of this trope. The UNIX philosophy is that simple, smaller programs with a single main function interact via I/O to form a larger operating system, but in practice it's often much more straightforward from the developer's perspective to add functionality to an existing program than to write a whole new one just to do something that's only slightly different, so existing programs grow flags, often in astonishing profusion. All the possible input flags for a program are typically outlined on the ''[[AllThereInTheManual man]]'' page - [[MindScrew if you can understand]] the [[ViewersAreGeniuses developers' own documentation]]. Most non-geeks just stick to Windows GUI and call it a day.
** Two words: '''Gentoo Linux'''. Two more words: '''USE Flags'''. Every single package, every program down the ''kernel'', is compiled from source, tailored to your ''exact, explicit'' hardware and software specifications set beforehand. The next step in customization would be Linux from Scratch, or creating your own personal forks of programs. [[EveryoneHasStandards Most people, even Linux geeks]], [[AwesomeButImpractical see no need for this, or indeed for compiling everything from source Gentoo-style.]] Gentoo is used mostly for servers with a very specific hardware configuration, for a very small gain in performance to add up over longtime 24/7 operation. Desktop "ricers" and hobbyists tend to veer more toward the precompiled binaries of Arch Linux.

** Creator/{{Sony}}'s first range of Google TV-powered smart TVs and boxes from 2010 to 2012 used...[[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c7/4b/45/c74b45a0375a2aef43b9769199033397.jpg this monstrosity]]; it even had shoulder buttons akin to Sony's [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 [=DualShock=] 3]]. Fortunately, their next Google TV remote had the good sense to [[https://demo.idg.com.au/idgns/images/d622eda797-sony_internet_player_3.jpg keep the keyboard on the other side of the remote]]; [[https://demo.idg.com.au/idgns/images/c96f1db382-sony_internet_player_2.jpg the top of this version had way less buttons]], though it had a massive trackpad too (yay?).

* In ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'', Bennie the Cab's dashboard is covered in dozens of buttons, levers, and switches. During a chase scene, when he orders Roger and Eddie to "Pull the lever!", he has to [[TalkingWithSigns produce a sign]] indicating which one he's talking about. ("This Lever, Stupid!")

** In another episode of ''Voyager'', the Doctor ends up on a Starfleet ship where the only other crew is another EMH who's never even seen bridge controls (and the Doctor himself is hardly an expert, not to mention the ship is a prototype with a new design). HilarityEnsues.