Nintendo's New Controller

#101 Anyone who has not yet read this article from lost garden should do so now. It is extremely informative and insightful to the state of the industry with relation to Nintendo's strategy to innovate vs. Sony/MS's strategy to pander to established hard-core markets. Fascinating read for any aspiring game dev, regardless of whether you care about the Nintendo controller.

#102

Quote:As a side note, folks who argue Nintendo should just make games for other platforms are completely missing the point. Nintendo needs to control their hardware platform in order to force innovation to occur in the control mechanisms. Other console manufacturers who rely on the hardcore audiences and standardized genres don't see this need. They would happily standardize the console platform and make it into a commodity. Microsoft has historically made major comments about having one universal development platform.

The moment Nintendo loses control over their hardware, they lose a major competitive advantage in terms of creating new genres.

#103 Grrrr.... the site's "bandwith limit exceeded" i can't even access the home page.... anyway, about the controllers.... I think all of the next-gen consoles look kinda weird. The concave 360.... wtf? that's just plain weird, the PS3 looks kinda like a scanner i used to have, and the revolution looks like a modem. The PS3 controller, which is apparently a protoype(pray to god it's not the final version) looks like someone dropped a clay model of the controller and picked it up when their boss cam in and said they like the design and they're getting a raise, which would be a good reason for most people not to mention they dropped it. lol, really though, it does look deformed. I think the revolution controller, COULD try to be a little more argonomic(spelling?), the 360 controller looks most comfortable. But the conventional style isn't necessarily the best, which is what Nintendo's trying to prove.

#104

Quote:
After a good amount of yelling by Jeff and Alex I am sold on the new controler. Now the only bad thing about it is who will do the input device code for it should we get TSE onto it...cuz I have a good idea on who that would be. :(

YES BABY! This sounds promising ;) If Jeff likes it then what are the odds we'll see a Torque game on it ;)

#105

Quote:The concave 360.... wtf? that's just plain weird

If fits perfectly on top of the slight dome of the Xbox 1 =)

#106 Good point, it's still pretty weird though.

#107 Convex Xbox is wierd too?

#108 So Wilsons gonna work on:
TSE Sword Swinging insane person starter pack!

#109 I think its ugly and a bad idea as a default controller. my advice to nintendo would be to make the revolution interact with the internet like a tv box, and provide the wand controller as a sort of extended remote control along with a seperate traditional controller. if you try to stuff that thing in a traditional controller shell it looks stupid and would be less ergonomic than it could be.


i tell you what i would really love to see and would be enough for developers to contend with in this generation of controllers would be a dualshock type dual analog controller with force feedback on the analog sticks. from what i understand the only thing keeping this from happening is a stupid patent on forcefeedback controllers that no one wants to pay royalties to. i would like to be able to ride a horse using the left stick to control the reigns with the horse fighting via feedback, and the right stick for balancing on the horses back against force feed back.


sorry but i really love dual analog, i play everything with the dualshock and adapters. i don't think anything much better for traditional game play will happen for the hands. tracking head mounted displays will do a lot though for free looking, and retina trackers could improve aiming somehow, or at the least could make the mouse obsolete. i think a lot could be done by adding pedals to games other than racers as well.

#110 Well, Nintendo IS trying to try something diffrent with the revolutin

#111 How about we let Nintendo decide what can and cannot be ergonomic while you save your speculations for the finished product Michael :P

#112 I think its neat (Revolutions new controller), but this will be the first Nintendo system I dont buy at launch....I am a pretty hardcore gamer, and I have read articles where Nintendo is not aiming for that crowd as much as casual gamers. I like casual games too of course, but not sure if its enough to buy a whole new system. I was slightly disappointed in Gamecube although it did have some great first party games (Metroid, Mario Kart, etc) I will "wait and see" on this one, but I doubt I will be able to hold out long once I see a new Mario :P

#113 That controller is bad ergonomic design. The thumb extended like that is just asking for carpel stress. It reminds me of those logitech and microsoft thumb trackballs.

#114 From a traditional controler point of view the Revs' controller may seem to have a poor ergonomic design, but Nintendo wants to change the way you play games. I guess we will have to wait and see how developers create games around this new control system.

#115 If you care to compare the way the Rev controller is held next to a standard controller, there is very little difference in thumb position. If you want bad controller design, look at the PS3. Ugh.

#116 It's the rotation of the wrist. Yes there is a difference. The new controller will cause the median nerve to strech a bit more. I am not saying it's going to kill anyone lol. But I look for comfort in a controller. This just looks like a TV remote to me.

#117 I think it's really cool. The only thing I worry about is my kids hitting each other while trying to play a multi-player game.

#118 Randy, if you read through the interviews, The intire reason the controller was designed the way it is, is so that it would look like a tv remote, To make it less intimidating for the non-gamer.