WereKitten said:
You might also want to do more research before claiming Nintendo inventing everything on earth(1). For example the Intellivision console was controlled by what was essentially a d-pad (though disc-shaped)(2). And there were plenty of analog sticks used in gaming on home computers(3) before the NES came out, to say nothing of the N64. Buttons were placed in any imaginable positions on all the weirdly shaped controllers of the pre-NES consoles and dedicated game machines. All these "who ripped off whom" quarrels are extremely silly. Most of what passes as "new technology" is basically a retread and refinement of old ideas, except that people tend to attribute invention to those who popularize the ideas. See the Mac popularizing the wimp interfaces invented at Xerox/Parc and Windows being blamed of "ripping it off". Artists and engineers grab good ideas all the time from any available source. That's how progress works. PS: on the specific "wiimote ripoff" case, there are patents showing that Sony was developing motion controllers since about 2000.(4) Once again, N made a big business move in pushing out an extremely successful console based on that, and Sony is obviosuly following suit on what that business and market strategy showed was viable. But this is about strategy and communication, not about invention and technology. |
@ bolded
1 - I'm not saying they invented. I'm saying they brought it to home console gaming. Fact.
2- Like you're saying, it looks like a disc, not a D-Pad.
3- Analog Sticks =\= Old Arcade Sticks. The first accepts variable input, the second doesn't.
4 - Sure they were developing such a thing since 2000. Now a design this close to the wiimote and nunchuk sure they were not.
