| MikeB said: @ redspear Mike B the Amiga CD 32 was announced 3 years after the SNES was released in Japan. And NES players could also get an analog stick. AFAIK the NES came with a gamepad by default, so not much of a choice there. Amigas however did not come with a joystick or gamepad by default. Would you rather have seen games in the arcades be played with a NES or Snes style format controller, instead of a stick? IMO D-Pads have lost in value over the years, at least other than for handhelds where it still makes sense due to form factor limitations. |
Consoles need to come with a standard controller of some sort so developers could program for them. The D-pad has been replaced by the analog stick for the most part and the difference between those amiga analogs and the 64 and vectrex and Phillips CD-I ones has more to do with form factor allowing for more buttons on the controller. It is the move from 3-D to analog that made the D-pad less significant not the D-pad itself.
When Nintendo first announced the analog stick for a few years people were complaining how would they able to play their games some said it would ruin gaming and here we are 10 years later and people are talking the same smack about the Wii mote.
Mike Controllers change I think the bigger issue is nintendo putting less horsepower in its machine.
