Controllers for games seem to evolve considerably with each generation. “Back when I was young” my primary controller was just a keyboard, there weren’t even mouses so we had both hands on the keyboard. Instead of the now standard WASD (up, left, down, right) layout often used OP was (left and right) QA (up & down) and space bar to fire (you never needed more than one fire button).
If I wanted to use a joystick on the Spectrum it would involve and adapter, which looked like a little brick. And for some reason joysticks would have many fire buttons, which all did the same thing (ambidextrous I guess?). I actually remember my oldest bro making me a joy "box" – a wooden cube with simple trigger keys hooked up to the pad cables, this enabled me to play like I would on the keyboard away from the console. Since then controllers have progressed too much – we can use our own 3D space with body gestures through the Kinect, which is a step up from 2D camera sensors like on Sony’s Eye Toy. What I think is much more practical are touchscreens and styluses.
Here’s a snippet from the Wii-U packaged controller from the Currys site
“The GamePad offers smooth controls with a built-in accelerometer and gyroscope for totally intuitive motion control. The left and right sticks can be moved in any direction or used as buttons.
An NFC touchpoint enables contactless data writing and reading to and from special cards. The Home button lets you select from Wii U applications mid-game, and there's a TV control button too.”
If the big companies smartened up and loosened their mobile licencing we could see mobile phones be used as decent controllers for many games and incorporate them a lot more efficiently. One of my favourite controller memories is playing the Legend of Zelda the four swords on my GameCube four player. It was cool because you can plug in your Gameboy (which were cheap by then) and actually play on the Gameboy and separate from the other players. In versus this is vital for ambushes and in co-op it opens up exploration possibilities for multiplayer puzzles… Pretty clever and fun too, appealing to a wide audience (if not the focused gamecore) – That’s Nintendo’s trade mark, they make fun games and pioneer controllers.
Take the Wii Fit for example. I was working at Game one Christmas where the Wii Fit would sell out every day. It wasn’t the World of War craft greebos, or the Fifa, CoD, Bio Shock masses that were buying them. It was women, lots of women of all ages. This controller was more of a “get fit” marketing scheme, but it worked. Nintendo excel at finding gaps, and broadening the market. Nintendo aint so cool compared to an PS3 or Xbox, but we aint all 10-30 guys.
Another one of note is the Nintendo DS – There are puzzles in say Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass which would incorporate both screens (one being touch screen), the microphone, and even the closing of the two screens (that puzzle stumped me for ages).
Talking about marketing to women & kids I guess I should mention Sing Star. Disney Sing Star. Soo many Sing Stars. I’m not a big fan of it, but I know a few ladies that do like a good old' sing, especially after a few drinks. That also leads on to Guitar Hero and Rock Band… Being a real drummer and playing in actual bands I haven’t met any musicians that approve of it… Apart from the one that actually work with Activision who help tab out that crap. And he’s a git.
Dance mats – No No No No No. These in my experience are just bad. You get dance mat ninja’s, and I’m sure it’s great fun and good exercise, but not practical for the average work a day chump.
One of the best console controllers I know of is the Sony Dual Shock. It was the first joypad to successfully incorporate dual analogue sticks (single ones have been around for ages in flight sticks, and pong was analogue but with a pot/knob controller I believe). When it was first released in 1997 not many games used the new technology, it was mainly a gimmick to rotate the camera in say Final Fantasy 7 which was a massive release. Since then it is established as the gaming standard – giving the player many degrees of control where there was previously one. This means we can choose the pace to run and turn, opening up the variables massively to give the players a more fluid and intuitive experience. Microsoft have adopted the dual analogue joypad, but the pad sort of sucks – it’s not as ergonomic for my big hands, and for some unknown reason they have the worst Digital pad I have used since the game cubes dumb ass effort.
Talking about digital pads! I was a massive fighting game fan, and have just about every title on Xbox (until I started uni), and also have a passion for retro gaming so I splashed out and bought a top-of-the-line joystick. This is no ordinary crappy joystick you get from Mad Catz or Hori. This joystick is made from official Sanwa parts – Who are a Japanese company that make all the best arcade parts. Not only is it super accurate and responsive, unlike the Tekken wireless joystick released at the same time which had a delayed input. But also all the parts are standardised and actual arcade parts which are easily available to buy online. I even went super geeky and replaced the “gate” which controls the flow of the joystick from 4-way to 8-way – This means that it will accurately and consistently only go direct to the angles needed for the input. When I received it my eyes lit up – even the packaging was special, with a magnetized display cover. The best thing about this joystick is that it is USB – it works straight away with PCs, and I can play arcade games on my PC among others – It won’t become obsolete too soon.
Last year I went all bling and bought myself a fancy gaming mouse and keyboard even. I usually stick with the industry standard Microsoft ones I have used working in Banks, think are the same as ones in lab even. Anyhow the best thing about this new keyboard is that the keys are lit and I can adjust the brightness to suit my mood. The mouse is actually decent and useful (is a Naga MMOG), with number keys on the side, which have become invaluable to navigate 3DS max and playing games – I could program them to do common tasks in any program, but most are easier with the keyboard anyway. Another handy function is that it’s super accurate – allowing me to crank up the sensitivity and making the most of the small space I have for it.
Sorry – Turned into an epic. But to cap I would say that ultimately it doesn’t matter what platform you are using – we all want a controller that is easy to use, intuitive, and reliable. There are specialist avenues you can go down, but ultimately there is an accepted standard. Most people I know don’t care for a Kinect or anything where you have to move more than their hands, anything outside of this to me seems gimmicky, but we all like a gimmick every now and then.
Here’s a snippet from the Wii-U packaged controller from the Currys site
“The GamePad offers smooth controls with a built-in accelerometer and gyroscope for totally intuitive motion control. The left and right sticks can be moved in any direction or used as buttons.
An NFC touchpoint enables contactless data writing and reading to and from special cards. The Home button lets you select from Wii U applications mid-game, and there's a TV control button too.”
If the big companies smartened up and loosened their mobile licencing we could see mobile phones be used as decent controllers for many games and incorporate them a lot more efficiently. One of my favourite controller memories is playing the Legend of Zelda the four swords on my GameCube four player. It was cool because you can plug in your Gameboy (which were cheap by then) and actually play on the Gameboy and separate from the other players. In versus this is vital for ambushes and in co-op it opens up exploration possibilities for multiplayer puzzles… Pretty clever and fun too, appealing to a wide audience (if not the focused gamecore) – That’s Nintendo’s trade mark, they make fun games and pioneer controllers.
 |
| The Nintendo DS - Is also a controller |
Another one of note is the Nintendo DS – There are puzzles in say Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass which would incorporate both screens (one being touch screen), the microphone, and even the closing of the two screens (that puzzle stumped me for ages).
Talking about marketing to women & kids I guess I should mention Sing Star. Disney Sing Star. Soo many Sing Stars. I’m not a big fan of it, but I know a few ladies that do like a good old' sing, especially after a few drinks. That also leads on to Guitar Hero and Rock Band… Being a real drummer and playing in actual bands I haven’t met any musicians that approve of it… Apart from the one that actually work with Activision who help tab out that crap. And he’s a git.
Dance mats – No No No No No. These in my experience are just bad. You get dance mat ninja’s, and I’m sure it’s great fun and good exercise, but not practical for the average work a day chump.
 |
| Dual shock 3 - The only drawback are the triggers... which suck balls |
 |
| Asymetrical analogues and an awful digital pad made this joypad kind of suck - Although you do get used to it |
Last year I went all bling and bought myself a fancy gaming mouse and keyboard even. I usually stick with the industry standard Microsoft ones I have used working in Banks, think are the same as ones in lab even. Anyhow the best thing about this new keyboard is that the keys are lit and I can adjust the brightness to suit my mood. The mouse is actually decent and useful (is a Naga MMOG), with number keys on the side, which have become invaluable to navigate 3DS max and playing games – I could program them to do common tasks in any program, but most are easier with the keyboard anyway. Another handy function is that it’s super accurate – allowing me to crank up the sensitivity and making the most of the small space I have for it.
Sorry – Turned into an epic. But to cap I would say that ultimately it doesn’t matter what platform you are using – we all want a controller that is easy to use, intuitive, and reliable. There are specialist avenues you can go down, but ultimately there is an accepted standard. Most people I know don’t care for a Kinect or anything where you have to move more than their hands, anything outside of this to me seems gimmicky, but we all like a gimmick every now and then.
