| Soundwave said: The NES wasn't even the first time I saw/used a d-pad either. That was a Game & Watch device. People acting like THAT was the reason that drove NES sales and that is the direct analog to the Wiimote for the Wii ... that's pure revisionist history. Anyone who really grew up in the 80s will know that was pure BS. |
Yup, first one was donkey kong, 1982.
And nobody gave a crap about the design of the dpad in the 80s, because it was just a natural thing, handheld lcd games experimented with all sorts of crazy designs, and in most cases other companies would go with the dpad design because it was cheaper for their per unit BOM, since a single injection piece meant less individual parts, and a single hole for the dpad meant lower mold complexity, and thus lower production cost because holds with thin bridges cause all sorts of headaches for plastics injection on account of the thermals involved with injecting across wide areas and tiny bridges without slurry drag, impefections and other injection related issues.
But it's the one go-to argument for Nintendo fans these days, like the shining golden example of Nintendo innovation, which as i've pointed out, both the shape and mechanical function existed before hand and were just combined in that particular application.
Clammoring that as innovation is nonsensical, it's like calling microsoft innovative for including an ethernet port by default for the xbox, or calling a random chinese console knockoff innovative because it cuts corners in production and combines the plastics for multiple buttons in one.
It isn't, it's natural progression of existing ideas, creating the lightbulb was innovative, putting a lightbulb in a lamp isnt.
