Revolution functions mooted: Nintendo coy over E3

Is this sarcasm? Because if it is, my detection powers are waning. Do you honestly prefer 'sticks to 'pads? 'Sticks have to be played on a surface, because they're too ungainly when used just in the hands. The only games I prefer 'sticks to pad's are Street Fighter and flight-sims... but I can't remember the last time I played either.

Not at all, maybe theres a question of meaning though...

I hate the d-pad, you might be confusing d-pad with gamepad, which is basically a console controller. I don't call console controllers "pads". I give Nintendo no credit for "inventing" a box with buttons and wires coming out of it, we had those already, I give them full blame for emasculating the joystick to make the d-pad and making it the ubiquitous control method prior to the introdution of the Dual Shock. Also, Joysticks come in many flavors as well, many of which require no surface at all. You mistake the "Arcade Joysticks" (which are used primarily for the fighting games like Street Fighter, etc.) and specialized analog Joysticks for Flight sims and mebbe the occasional giant mecha game availible for the consoles for 'sticks in general, which include the analog units in all 3 console controllers, as well as the older digital units. Not that d-pads don't have their uses, just not as a primary control, but if I ever need 4 buttons, there you go, its perfect.

For instance, though I was not aware of it at the time there was a 2-button version of my favorite 2600/C64 Joystick availible for the NES, the Epyx 500N I believe it was called. It was ergonomically designed for the palm of your hand, and used high-quality microswitches, which make it far and away superior to both the Atari 2600 joysticks and the NES controller.

This is the only Epyx 500 stick could find (500XJ). It was branded and distributed by Epyx in the US, but it was actually produced Konix in the UK, and known as the Speedking - a very fine, solid joystick IMO.

yeah thats the one, I still have a few lying around in a box with an old C64...

I was in a FunCoLand a year or so ago and I saw one in the bargain bin for the NES with a second button where the smooth bit is in the molding nest to the other one. 500XN or somesuch...

that was about the best bit of kit you could get for the 2600/C64 and made the standard Atari sticks (and NES pad) look like dog poop by comparison. Definitly one of the best 3rd party controllers ever, if not the best.

You can soak as much in the past as you will but Nintendo's inventions are now the standard of videogame control and no one has come up with anything better so they must be doing a good job. And those joysticks are not analog, more what I like to call "hydraulic": the longer you keep it in the 1 position, the more it gives, giving an analog-esque way of control but in no way giving the speed and effectiveness of true analog control.

And so yes, the N64 was the first homeconsole that brought 3D in a good way because everything new Nintendo made for it is now a standard or still being in a experimental phase (many 64DD ideas).
And this is starting to look more like those holocaust debats where one party starts dishing the facts because they have the opinion no one could do something like that.

oh bullshit. not to mention LIES

And I thought the bit about the Revolutions was overblown and melodramatic, now you gotta bring up the Holocaust?

How could it be considered the best console to deliver something new in a good way by failed attempts at making something what another company improved and made a success?
That's like saying all the flying machine creators are the sole cause for airplanes now. The Wright brothers developed the first true flying aircraft possibly inspired by other inventors, but they were the ones who accomplished true flight, not the others who hit the ground running.
The same could be said about Nintendo. True, they came up with the joystick on a home console, but by no means did they refine and perfect it like Sony did. Same goes with the rumble feature. Now once Sony set the standard, Nintendo had to follow suit with internal rumble and refined joystick.
Yes, it is remarkable that Nintendo first dreamt these ideas, but Sony was the company that made proper adjustments to make them truly work, and for that they must be commended.

And to the post above, Nintendo fans have every right to be weary and melodramatic. It's bullcrap that Nintendo has decided in the past 10 years to be different by alienating themselves. Maybe there's historians fallacy in this, but come on. Virtual Boy? Niche GBA GC link up? Cartridges? Pirate-Proof but over compact storage medium? (GC discs)
And don't gimme crap that they've always been truly innovative either. They milked the hell out of the Game Boy line with generally no true improvements between 1989 and 1998 and even until GBA was released in 2001.
We have to question every angle of Nintendo's motives whether it be from a historical standpoint or not. Melodramatic? Look at the PS2 fanboys or MS bitches, then we'll talk.

*blinks in disbelief*

you're so half-right...but in a very blind way

I know the difference between a d-pad and gamepad, thank you.


Fair enough, but all the gamers I know do (don't know if it's a UK wide ellipsis?). Surely you Yanks, being the kings of abbreviation, have a quick term for "console controller"?

All of the people I know just call them by either the proper name (i.e. "S" or "DualShock") or just "controllers"...calling them "pads" went out of style with the change of generation from SNES/Genesis to PS.

Wasn't trying to do anything aside from clarify what I meant, I apologise (in the Queen's English no less) if it were taken otherwise...perhaps it was I who was confused about what he meant when he said "control pads"...I assumed he meant the d-pad, which I see as a Nintendo trademark (even if they didn't invent it, they are surely responsible for its being ubiquitous). The thought of attributing the "invention" of the console controller as such to Nintendo was too ludicrous, though many people seem to consider it an accepted fact...they just refuse to believe that there was life before the NES. Even if you narrow the definition down to something similar to the NES controller(small flat box with buttons onnit, and an alternative to the joystick) the Intellivison for example has Ninty beat. Fond childhood memories, nostalgia, and ignorance of the truth cannot change history, no matter how much the Ninty fanboys wish it so.

While I've got you Limeys attention, what was the show with Ian McShane about the art scams? I would have thought with him being on Deadwood, it would have resurfaced over here, but it hasn't, I used to love that show...

Lovejoy was exported to the US? I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, what with the successful transition of The Antiques Roadshow. I guess you Yanks are all budding treasure hunters... Wonder if it spawned from those 80's movie greats, like Raiders and Goonies :)

yeah, thats the one, it was on A&E (Arts & Entertainment), back in the late 80's I think...good show, I was very impressed with his being cast for Deadwood, especially in THE key role in the show...is Deadwood being aired over there? Don't miss it if you get the chance, very good stuff, if you don't mind the authenticly blue language. A lot of very Shakespearian bits innit, and not just becasue someone always seems to be scrubbing blood off the floor...

Not really sure how popular Lovejoy was here in the States, I think it was one of A&E's flagship shows for a good while...but no one I've talked to remmebers Ian McShane at all, as soon as I saw the first appearance on Deadwood, I told them they were in for a treat...

Yeah, Deadwood is (was?) being aired on Murdoch's Sky/Fox/NewsCorp axis of televisual media dictatorship.

Huh. Whatever happened to News Corp buying Eidos?

LOL

did you add some kinda "feature" that splits posts into pages?

Can I turn it off somewhere? We hates it, we hates it forever, gollum, gollum...

Config posted a notice in the Forums forum.

We'll be able to specify posts per page when the profiles are completed. Presumably this will include an 'all' option. Although keeping it as pages will probably reduce their bandwidth usage, so...