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The History of the Game Controller
1up.com has up a feature going through the history of the game controller. Starting in the dark ages of the PDP-1, the article moves all the way up to Nintendo's mysterious Revolution controller. From the article: "And when will Nintendo tip its hand? All we know at this point is that the Revolution will be backwards compatible with GameCube controllers, so at the very least the system will support all the functionality you're used to. But apart from that, will the controller feature a built-in touch screen and microphone, like the Nintendo DS? Is it just a box of brain-wave-reading goo? One thing is for sure: if history is any indication, there's no telling what the game controller we use twenty years from now will look like. And just as long as there's no numeric keypad, we should be okay."
There are some bad-ass controllers on some pneumatic spinning lathes and milling machines made in the 1950s and even earlier... I'm not just talking a joystick and a couple buttons either. These things had knobs, switches, slides, etc... All things that could make for interesting input on modern controllers, or have been experimented with on game controllers in the past.
as I found it to be one of the best methods of playing FPS games, especially Descent. While not perfer for other games it had a level of control and ease of control that was hard to match.
T U/Agetec-ASCII-Sphere-360.html
3 60.html (product information from former seller)
The ASCIISphere was a version which existed for the PS2 playstation
http://playstation.video-game-store.info/B00001ZU
Some information on this controller,
http://www.mindflux.com.au/products/spacetec/sorb
Old review.
http://www.joy-stick.net/reviews/other/orb360.htm
Closest to current support you can get, as in enthusiast who moved it to XP/2000
http://www.planethardware.com/spaceorb/
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
...who noticed the "original Sega Saturn pad" has the Playstation logo? (Here's what seems to be the actual one.)
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
This is an interesting read, rather shallow and missing a lot of information, but interesting. Being born at the start of the 70's, I grew up with all this stuff.
Dispite what they say, the D-pad is retarded. Tell me how many arcade games had D-pads? Why do you think that is? Joysticks still rule.
I friggin hate thumb controls. Yeah, lets take the most clumsy, one directional (ie. weak in all other directions) finger and control everything with it! Pfffft... this is why I haven't gotten into and played console games since the mid-eighties when I switched totally to computer and arcade games. That's still mostly all I play. I do have recent consoles but they all suck (save a few games like DDR that don't use the ass controller).
The ratio of people to cake is too big
When the MIT guys were doing that fancy Spacewar controller, less well-financed colleges were making them out of spice tins. Poke a couple holes for a rheostat and a trigger button, and voila! That was the first game controller I ever saw.
I think we are about to get a great controller upgrade from Nintendo (once again). They recently bought these guys: http://www.gyration.com/ . This could also explain why Nintendo said that twilight princess was the last of "this type" of Zelda game. I expect the next one to actually let you swing the controller to swing your sword.
r man.wmv">http://www.gyration.com/files/demos/Remot e_web_German.wmv
Kinda neet:
http://www.gyration.com/files/demos/Remote_web_Ge
Go here for teh [sic] funny.
This article's gripe about numeric keypads on console controllers is reasonable, I guess. But the keypad has done much good service as a video game controller.
Back in the days when PC XTs roamed the earth, the numeric keypad, in its arrow-key form, was the standard way to control direction using a keyboard.
The 'wasd' layout for directions came much later, around the time of first-person shooters. I don't remember whether it was Doom or Quake.
I know a lot of people don't like the way that Nintendo's analog sticks have these octagons underneath them, because it feels restrictive, but I personally prefer it, because I know where absolute left is, where absolute up-left is, etc.
Gripe gripe gripe.
You don't know much about what you're talking about, apparently.
You say L2 and R2 are such horrible buttons because of their placement. And then directly following that, you say your friends found a way to not bother with it.... You don't NEED your fingers on the buttons at all times, especially if (as you say) you aren't using the buttons very often.
Go play SSX, you know the PS2 launch title or one of its' sequels. It makes use of every shoulder button, and it is easily one of the most fun sports games you could ever ask for. The controller adds to the experience here, it does not degrade it.
For you to then complain about the placement of the face buttons is idiotic. Guess what? They're placed in the exact same manner as GASP the SNES controller widely heralded as the harbinger of controller salvation. Here's a small newsflash for you: A square (grid with 4 points, button layout) is just a circle with straight lines. The buttons are laid out in a circle, not a grid. Just LOOK at the controller, you can SEE the circular casing.
Don't use Triangle and Circle much do you? You must not play RPGs. 99% of RPGs actually don't use the Square button at all and make use of triangle for the menu, circle for cancel, and X for accept, or talk. And check this out, the ** Warriors series from Koei use all 4 face buttons with the 'main' buttons being square (attack) and triangle (charge attack). X is jump and circle is special attack.
If you can name a mainstream 32-bit and up console whose controller used every single button in the most comfortable possible layout in every single game, you're a much better man than I. I hate the layout for some games on GameCube with it's awkward d-pad and freaky sized face buttons. I hate the layout of MOST games on the X-Box, but maybe that's just because I dislike console FPS games which are the most popular xbox titles.
Of the games I own at least, the PS2 controller has far and away the best functionality. Maybe you just need to play different games.