[ShadowMarth]

Reading a recent 1up article I found on slashdot, it becomes extremely apparent that Nintendo has always been first and best when it comes to controller design. I'll summarize and give quotes from the article, focusing on Nintendo, and why we don't have to worry about the revolution: They know what they're doing.

First gen. The article starts with the first page dedicated to those early controllers, used only in arcades, simplistic yet quite good. Soon however, nintendo comes into the picture, wielding its first and possibly widest-used controller innovation, the D-pad.

Early Game and Watch games only needed two or three buttons to work properly; many of the games were played entirely by moving the character left and right. But in 1982 when Nintendo crafted a Game and Watch version of Donkey Kong, four-directional movement was needed. But Game and Watch was designed to be held in the hands and operated with the thumbs, not set on a table. So players moved Mario around with a tiny pad in the shape of a plus sign, using only gentle thumb movements to accomplish what took two hands on the Atari 2600.

Nintendo carried over what would later be dubbed the "directional pad" (or "cross key" in Japan) to the Famicom and the NES, designing a rectangular pad that looked like a Game and Watch with no screen. It was like no joystick that the video-game buying public had ever seen or used before. But far from confusing the populace, the unique look of the Control Pad was actually a plus for Nintendo. Buyers for big retail chains were sure that the video game fad was over, and parents didn't want to drop hundreds of dollars on another game system when the Atari was collecting dust.

So Nintendo's message was that the NES was an entertainment system of the future, not a plain ol' video game. Helping to drive this point home were an array of new and different game controllers -- ROB the robot, the Zapper light gun, and later the Power Pad (identical to today's Dance Dance Revolution mats, but without the compelling software to go with it). A computer keyboard add-on and cassette tape drive that would let users program their own games was considered, but scrapped early on in the process (though it was released in Japan).

But even though the NES controller was a few quantum leaps ahead of anything that had been seen before, it still wasn't perfectly ergonomic. Many American kids complained of soreness after extended periods of gaming, an affliction which the media playfully dubbed "Nintendonitis." Still, this was a step up from common injuries caused by the Atari 5200 controllers, which the media playfully dubbed "compound fractures of the wrist."

The D-pad and buttons setup was, however, the best thing anybody had ever come up with. In the history of mankind. Narrowly edging out grain agriculture and the polio vaccine. So of course, Nintendo's competitors Sega and NEC used that exact design for their Sega Master System and TurboGrafx-16 consoles.

On to the next gen. With the advent of the 16 bit era, nintendo and sega each released new controllers for their 16 bit beasts. Sega added a couple buttons in the normal places, but nintendo once again made an innovation that is still used widely today. It may not be as important as the D-Pad, but it was a good step forward.

As the 16-bit wars geared up, Nintendo and Sega both realized that the next generation meant more buttons. Sega's Genesis controller added two more buttons back onto the actual pad and not the console: one of them was a Start button, but the other was an additional button to be used in gameplay. Not to be outdone, Nintendo added four buttons to the SNES controller: two extra face buttons, arranged in the now-familiar diamond shape, and "shoulder" buttons labeled L and R that sat atop the controller and could be pressed by the index fingers.

As it turns out, neither of these standard controllers were the optimum solution for what turned out to be the hit game of the generation: Street Fighter II. While the Super Nintendo controller had exactly enough buttons for the game's array of martial arts moves, the buttons weren't in the right three-by-two configuration. Meanwhile, the Genesis controller didn't have enough. Sega responded by releasing a six-button pad with a three-by-two button layout on the controller's face, which became quite popular.

The next gen came, and everything changed. I don't think I could do it justice as well as the editor's at 1up.com, so I'll just give this one to them.

Years later, as Sega and Sony unveiled the controller designs for their 32-bit systems, everything seemed pretty much status quo. Sony's PlayStation pad, as befitted a machine that was originally conceived as an add-on for the SNES, was laid out exactly like the SNES pad but with two extra shoulder buttons. Sega's Saturn pad was precisely like its six-button midseason replacement for the Genesis, but with... two shoulder buttons. Everything was calm.

Then came Spaceworld 1995.

Nintendo had long shrouded the controller for its upcoming Nintendo 64 hardware in secrecy. Developers working on games told stories of having to put the controller into a cardboard box while they were playing games so that passersby wouldn't be able to see what they were holding. Some joked that the controller was a pile of goo that sensed your brain waves.

As is now widely known, the controller that Nintendo revealed at its Japanese trade show featured an analog thumbstick. After the failure of the Atari 5200 controller, analog joysticks were basically taboo in the video game industry. But Nintendo's thumbstick differed from previous designs in two important ways. First, it wasn't actually analog. Analog joysticks like the 5200's had too many moving parts and were prone to breaking. Nintendo's stick was digital, but provided enough levels of sensitivity that the distinction was moot. Second, Nintendo's stick worked just like a D-pad: you weren't gripping the handle but pushing it with your thumb.

And by showing off the new controller with a polished (but not complete) version of Mario 64, Nintendo showed the killer app that made the thumbstick more than a gimmick. Sony and Sega saw the writing on the wall: next generation meant 3D, and 3D meant analog. They immediately set out to create analog joysticks for their consoles. Sega actually moved so quickly on their design that they beat Nintendo to market in the US (though not worldwide).

Nintendo's controller also featured an expansion port on the back of the pad into which new hardware could be inserted. At launch, the only accessory made for the slot was a memory card, for saving those games in which the publishers were too cheap to include backup RAM. But a year after the console launched in the US, Nintendo had another announcement -- the anticipated game Star Fox 64 would include a Rumble Pak that fit into the controller and made it shake with every explosion, vibrate with every rocket launch.

By the time the Rumble Pak was announced, Sony had launched an analog controller in Japan but not the US. They held off on the US launch of the controller in order to build rumble functionality into each and every unit, dubbing the pad the Dual Shock. This name came from the fact that not only were there two rumble motors, but there were two analog sticks on each side of the pad.

Sound familliar? The secrecy is nothing new, and shows we should be quite secure in knowing that the Rev will be a step forward.

Nintendo produced even more innovations. Though they were *ahem* "reproduced" by the other companies shortly after, nintendo succeeded in changing the way we play yet again.

Ah yes, the current gen. It's nearly over, so it's time to run down the controllers of this generation. The PS2's "Dual Shock" system remained nearly identical. The XBOX controller was a monster, with no real original features, though some very slick-feeling triggers. Nintendo had nothing new for launch, though it had some good changes from the norm.

The Xbox controller brought little new to the table; in fact, it greatly resembles a Dreamcast controller with an extra analog stick, right down to the two memory card slots and analog triggers. Even Nintendo got on the bandwagon in both cases, outfitting its GameCube pad with triggers and a second stick that replaced and was named after the four tiny C (for "camera") buttons adorning Nintendo 64 pad.

Yet believe it or not, in a generation rife with identical control-schemes and plenty of multi-console ports as a result, nintendo still managed to change the design for the better, and this coming gen it's a standard feature (unless you only shell out $300 on the 360, *snicker*).

For a while, it didn't seem as if Nintendo's GameCube controller was going to offer any major control innovations -- the only new "feature" the controller could really claim was a face button layout that broke away from its traditional diamond pattern with an oversized A button. But then the Wavebird hit stores, and with it was ushered in a new age of wireless control.

There had been wireless control pads for consoles before, but all of them operated on infrared signals. This meant that the controllers were expensive gimmicks at best, since you had to keep the controller pointing straight at the receiver, with nothing in the way, for it to work. The Wavebird used an RF signal and worked perfectly no matter where you were positioned in relation to the console.

For the upcoming generation of hardware, Sony and Microsoft have stuck to nearly identical controller designs, with one exception: they'll be wireless out of the box (unless you buy the cheapo Xbox 360 pack). Oh, and Sony's "concept design" PS3 controller happens to be shaped like a Batarang.

So you see, with all those innovations, I don't think we'll have a thing to worry about for our newest Nintendo console's secret controller. Nintendo's learned from its mistakes, and won't make them again.

Thanks 1up.

Source:
http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager....mp;cId=3143627