room414 said:
Game & Watch released in 1980 but as i said in my post, nintendo made about 15 of those without a d-pad until donkey kong in '82. That's what i said in my first post. Nintendo popularizes other people's ideas. I already addressed rumble in my comment. Maybe you should read it. One thing i missed was "wireless that doesn't suck" from rakugakist's post. There have been wireless controllers since the atari 2600 and most of them did suck. The airplay controller for ps1 worked quite well though. Here's a review: http://www.gamemonkeys.com/reviews/a/airplay.htm |
That first example of what you call a D-pad is incorrect, 4 buttons in a cross shape doesn't equal the design functionality of a cross that would go on to be the basis for most modern consoles controls.
However, I do agree with to an extent with you thoughts, Nintendo doesn't always create their innovations but there is no doubt they make them viable if not perfect the innovations they bring to the console industry.
- To this day most traditional controllers still are based on the design of the SNES/Super Famicom.
- There is no doubt that Nintendo's adoption during the N64 era of Analog control and Force feedback pushed the industry into making those features standard.
- There were wrieless controller before but the Wavebird on the GC clearly became the standard by which all first and most quality 3rd party wireless controllers would be judged against.
- Motion controls existed before the Wii (even on a few Nintendo handhelds) but no doubt the Wii forced the issue, although I think we can all concede the Kinetic was a truely impressive and near perfect counter blow by Microsoft.
Really aside from dual analog sticks, unless one would consider the Virtual Boy's dual D-Pads as the origin which I don't, most major console controller shifts and features usually originate or are mastered by Nintendo controllers first. So yeah, they have helped make some of the best controllers, although the fact is most of their innovations and big moves were years ago and I think them cheaping out on the Wii U's Gamepad has kept them from being at the head of another potential movement in game controllers.
