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Console Vs Controller Published on 12-20-2010
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Id like to take a moment to reflect upon one of the most important peripherals in gaming. It is of course the humble controller.
Over the years as consoles have evolved the need for more complex controllers has gone hand in hand and is something I feel is sometimes over looked.
My gaming history began in the 8-bit era and when I was shopping for with my dad for a nes for christmas I did play an atari in the store which had the iconic joystick.
The Nes controller was at the time revolutionary. Well the console was the beginning of the end of what was the dark ages of gaming.
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At the time it was amazingly functionly but in hindsight the square sharp edges literally hurt your hands, but my controllers still work well enough to play through any game. The master system controller very similar, but instead of a + pad it opted for a square.
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The 16 bit generation brought us the snes and megadrive which is really where major leaps where made Imho.
Id first like to get the megadrives controller out the way. There were as far as I remember two official iterations of the pad. The first was the 3 button monster and the other was the six button fighter pad. Fortunately for me I owned both and also the powerstick and 6 button stick. The controller was okay but really it was really best for sonic or side scrolling shooters which were always my favourite on the megadrive. When It came to racing games (infact any game which used more then two buttons) it became really confusing and it was never natural to play.
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Nintendo though In this generation hit the nail of the head and made not only one of the most important console but one of the most influential controller. My brother and I saved £5 each a fortnight inorder to gather £80 to buy our snes it came with super mario world, f-zero and pitfighter.
The controller was amazing it was the first to incorperate shoulder buttons and was also the first to have four buttons in the diamond formation which has lasted as the standard for many years now. It was comfortable to use and accuarate really it changed the game.
Sega seemed to refuse this design when it made the saturn and kept there design very similar to the megadrive adding shoulder buttons, and a glossy finish. Sony took it and ran adding two additional shoulder buttons and later adding two anologue controls which in itself was a major revolution as it finally gave a real proper way to control a character in a 3d environment. Nintendo brought out the N64 the controller was unique being three pronged with a single middle anologue and a d pad and some funny c buttons, which was a good idea but wasnt the best solution really probably one of the major reasons (asides from the cost of creating cartridges) the n64 never penertrared as deeply into the market. Sega did bring out a 3d controller for the saturn which was ugly but did work and didnt have any poncy little c buttons either. It wasnt any good for many games but worked wonders with Nights as far as memory serves.
It seemed that sony had conquered the gaming market. The dreamcast and gamecube controllers were almost a joke in comparision. The DC with its gimicky vm unit, being unsightly with a d pad which hurt more then the nes, and the gamecube was so plasticy and toylike it was obviously intended for a younger audience it seemed like nintendo was abandoning the gamers it had raised maybe they were thinking that they would/should have grown out of gaming by then.
Ive met many many young gamers and so many of them didnt realise there were games before playstation which reflects how big of an impact sony had on the market. But out of DC's ashes, microsoft rolled the dice and brought out the xbox 1. The first controller, also known as the duke, was unsightly huge but when I first played on one it felt like I was playing a real piece of hardware. It was solid the anologues where well placed. Okay I have big hands but I do know a lot of other people who didnt mind it while we awaited the arrival of the s type.
The xbox s type controller was the perfect controller for me personally. The D-pad was big and very responsive compared to the sunken ps d-pad which I never liked, It fit in the hand solidly felt like it could take a beating and didnt feel like it would break in my hands.
When the 360 came out I was a little dissappointed with the controller the dpad is weak and they really arent very durable, I've had many friends too who find fault with their quality. I havent had alot of experience with the ps3 pad but I didnt like the shoulder buttons as pressing them seemed a task and I was constantly worried about the controller flying out my hand. Apparently you get use to it though. The overall design of the 360 controller though is near perfect to me. Its ergonomic comfortable has all the buttons one would need if only the componenets were of a lot higher quality and the dpad was better it would be awesome.
Ive specifically avoided talking about handhelds and there various forms, the jaguar with its crazy amount of buttons and possibly a few others because asides from the nintendo ds and wii there werent many major innovations in these areas for controllers. The ds deserves a mention as I found playing an fps on Ds had the potential to be as good as mouse and keyboard.
So next time you pick up your pad cast a thought back to the controllers of the past which paved the way for controllers today. The nes brought us the +, the snes brought us the 4 button diamond configuartion and shoulder buttons. The N64 brought us rumble. Sony gave us dual anonlogue and two additional shoulder buttons. Microsoft gave us something to actually hold onto and then something which fit perfectly in many of our hands. The future looks even more interesting for us with motion controllers like move and wii or the controllerless kinect and also theres that controller which uses brain power. Where will it go? Thats yet to be seen. "
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bomernee says: | December 24, 2010 01:12:40 |
| thanks guys glad you enjoyed it was enjoyable to write and think about too :D
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| Well done Blog mate.
Was a great read and does show a good history of controllers and where parts of the controller first evolved from.
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| I miss that Master System II controller, nice blog
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bomernee says: | December 20, 2010 09:12:37 | |
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| bomernee UK
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