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[Gahiggidy]

As for the MP2 demo...

Was the aim operating on a "relative" or "exact" basis? For example, is it like a mouse where you can be anywhere on the mat/table and still be centered on the screen... or is it like a joystick where you have to return it to the center position to stop moving?

 

[Kobun Heat]

The Pilotwings demo was just for movement of the plane. No speed control (but of course that's not to say that it would be impossible or difficult).

When you play with a Wavebird, do you stand up and hold it at arm's length towards the screen? No. And you don't have to do this with the Revolution controller. You can sit with your hands in your lap and just move your wrist a little to cover the entire screen.

The sensor bar shown was a prototype, so it's not really indicative of what you'll use for the final product. But the sensors were small and unobtrusive.

For the shooting blocks demo, there was a visible cursor on screen that moved when you moved the controller around. I can't say much about HOW it worked: as far as the actual tech involved, again: I don't know, and neither does anyone else. All I can say is that after a few seconds using it, all I really had to do was think of a place I wanted the cursor to be and my hand moved there.

I don't THINK the triggers are analog.

 

[PkunkFury]

As far as Metroid Prime 2, the honest answer is that it was so intuitive that I wasn't even thinking about HOW the controller was doing it.

This is great to hear. The mark of good technology is when people can use it without having to think about how or why it works. It just becomes intuitive, like flipping a light switch or driving a car for most people.

 

[Papi]

all I really had to do was think of a place I wanted the cursor to be and my hand moved there.

Rad!

 

[SantaC]

thanks for the impressions mr kohler

 

[civilstrife]

Were there any demos that showed the z axis movement (distance from screen)?

If so, did the controller need to be pointing at the screen for it to register?

 

[Gahiggidy]

As for the MP2 demo...

Was the aim operating on a "relative" or "exact" basis? For example, is it like a mouse where you can be anywhere on the mat/table and still be centered on the screen... or is it like a joystick where you have to return it to the center position to stop moving?

..in other words, do you have to keep the controller pointed exactly 90 degrees from the tv set to keep still? Or can it be rested at an off angle?

 

[Calidor]

thanks a lot for your responses, btw, do you have any clue what could be the remaining surprises that iwata mentioned? :lol

 

[Gahiggidy]

What resolution were the demos running at?

 

[Kobun Heat]

..in other words, do you have to keep the controller pointed exactly 90 degrees from the tv set to keep still? Or can it be rested at an off angle?

The cursor should be relatively centered. Take a laser pointer and shine the dot in the center of your TV screen and try moving your hand all sorts of places while still keeping the dot centered. Note that the location of your hand doesn't matter so much.

 

[DrLazy]

Did it feel weird using two hands with the numchuck attatchment?

 

[Kobun Heat]

thanks a lot for your responses, btw, do you have any clue what could be the remaining surprises that iwata mentioned?

I think it's safe to say that after this I don't put anything past that guy.

That 'home' button on the controller's very interesting, though, huh?

 

[jman2050]

All right, time to cut the crap. how much fun did you have and how badly do you want a Revolution, assuming the games don't turn out to be crap?

 

[mCACGj]

I think it's safe to say that after this I don't put anything past that guy.

That 'home' button on the controller's very interesting, though, huh?

Yes it is. Your thoughts on the matter?

 

[SantaC]

I think it's safe to say that after this I don't put anything past that guy.

That 'home' button on the controller's very interesting, though, huh?

home is going to nintendos online service or downloadable games, well some kind of frontpage. Someone from nintendo mentioned this, I dont remember who.


I got two question:

Do you have any additional info on the so called shells for the controller?

Do you know why Nintendo choosed bluetooth?

 

[fatty]

I think it's safe to say that after this I don't put anything past that guy.

That 'home' button on the controller's very interesting, though, huh?

Maybe "Home" is just a placeholder...

 

[jman2050]

"The home button is the key to winning the console wars Mario!"

 

[Diffense]

Oh, one thing I'be been curious about but forgot to ask....

Is it possible to reach the lower A and B (ie X and Y) buttons with any degree of comfort when using the controller as a pointer? [I know they'll be easily reachable when the controller is held like a NES pad]

I suspect the answer is NO.

 

[Gahiggidy]

The cursor should be relatively centered. Take a laser pointer and shine the dot in the center of your TV screen and try moving your hand all sorts of places while still keeping the dot centered. Note that the location of your hand doesn't matter so much.

But you still have to hold the angle of the controller exactly... precisley... towards the center of the screen to keep from turning? Wouldn't that cause problems to keep your wrist at a certain angle for hours at a time?

 

[AndoCalrissian]

But you still have to hold the angle of the controller exactly... precisley... towards the center of the screen to keep from turning? Wouldn't that cause problems to keep your wrist at a certain angle for hours at a time?

I would imagine that there is sort of a dead zone in the middle of the screen, if you move it beyond that you start to turn, your speed depending on how far you go outside that box.

As for the sensor(s)...

- Was it just one sensor bar per display, or was there two bars, or two smaller sensors?

- Was the sensor(s) plugged in?

- How was the sensor(s) placed in relation to the display?

 

[Krowley]

did the fishing demo feel natural? it was the only one that seemed to try to turn your controller into a virtual hand in 3d space... did you have problems with outpacing the animation? did it feel direct and easy or counter-intuitive?

i'm curious about potential applications in first person games where you manipulate things..

oh and thanks for answering the MP questions, i had been curious about those very same things myself.

 

[mutsu]

I think it's safe to say that after this I don't put anything past that guy.

That 'home' button on the controller's very interesting, though, huh?

You are suggesting that the Home button is not only for returning from playing Virtual Console games?

 

[Gahiggidy]

Home button teleports you back to the mother-ship.*






*Note that's not confirmed. Just a theory.

 

[John Harker]

Oh, for real though, was there any type of resistance to the controller?

Was rumble inpleneted yet or not? And if there is gyro tech, is there reverse-feedback at all?

I feel like there should be something - whats the appeal of playing a drum game if you can't feel with the controller when your hitting the drum? Thats the satisfaction you get using a bongo or drumpad... *smack!* It's easier to get a solid rythem with resistance.

How can you play something like that if your just swinging widly in the air?
And what kind of satisfaction wouild there be playing a swordfighting game if your character hits another characters sword, but your arms keeeeeeeep on swinging?

I feel like you would totally have to have some kind of resistance in the controller or you wont really get too emersed into the experience, you'd be drawn out of it.

ALso, how would you know you hit the baseball?
...... please add some kind of strong rumble for contact or some kind of reverse feedback, please.

 

[GG-Duo]

It sounds like that the controller is a pointer rather than a 'crazy whatever stick' as demonstrated by the promo video..

are the actions limited to between the sensor bars, or is it more free than that?

reports kept mentioning "loop de loops" in the plane demo, so does the controller still work when you point it away from the screen?

 

[PkunkFury]

The cursor should be relatively centered. Take a laser pointer and shine the dot in the center of your TV screen and try moving your hand all sorts of places while still keeping the dot centered. Note that the location of your hand doesn't matter so much.

So in other words, you were moving the remote to aim, but Samus was always firing at the center of the sccreen? (i.e. the view was changing to accomodate your aim, instead of samus firing at the point on the screen you were aiming at?)

This makes sense and would explain why:
A. you don't need to move your arm around furiously, and
B. the size of the TV doesn't matter at all. The viewport rotations could be tied to position or rotation of the remote, but I'm guessing rotation would be more comfortable for the user.

 

[Cold-Steel]

All I can say is that after a few seconds using it, all I really had to do was think of a place I wanted the cursor to be and my hand moved there.

Confirmed! The REVOLUTION will use brain training!

 

[koam]

Wait a second. Why *is* there a home button?

If I'm playing a single player game and I hit home by accident, will that quit the game and open the browser? I'd really doubt that. It's as if the game will run parallel with the browser. Also, Why call it home if you use it only when you're not playing a game? They could have mapped a regular button to it. If it is browser related, where's the refresh and the stop?

Okay enough about rabbid theories, i have an important question (well series of):

What does the power button do? Does it shut off the controller, the console or both? What happens if player 2 presses power? What happens if player 3 wants to shut off his controller? Can he?

 

[xavean1]

Was Nintendo ever planning a headset?

 

[Robobandit]

hehe. yeah, lets overload the guy with questions

I'm curious about a lot of the things too, I can understand why they wouldn't want to reveal the nuts and bolts though.

I'm mainly curious about the shaking of the controller, or if you got a chance to see if it is only line of sight for the pointer functions. Thanks for the answers

 

[PkunkFury]

I feel like there should be something - whats the appeal of playing a drum game if you can't feel with the controller when your hitting the drum? Thats the satisfaction you get using a bongo or drumpad... *smack!* It's easier to get a solid rythem with resistance.

You could slam the remote against a real drum (or a desk assuming it is durable), and you wouldn't even need to shell out for a peripheral. The sensors wouldn't care, they are just making sure you are rotating the wand at the right speed/rhythm

 

[Diffense]

Oh, for real though, was there any type of resistance to the controller?

Was rumble inpleneted yet or not? And if there is gyro tech, is there reverse-feedback at all?

I feel like there should be something - whats the appeal of playing a drum game if you can't feel with the controller when your hitting the drum? Thats the satisfaction you get using a bongo or drumpad... *smack!* It's easier to get a solid rythem with resistance.

How can you play something like that if your just swinging widly in the air?
And what kind of satisfaction wouild there be playing a swordfighting game if your character hits another characters sword, but your arms keeeeeeeep on swinging?

I feel like you would totally have to have some kind of resistance in the controller or you wont really get too emersed into the experience, you'd be drawn out of it.

ALso, how would you know you hit the baseball?
...... please add some kind of strong rumble for contact or some kind of reverse feedback, please.

There is rumble. That's how people knew when the fish bit in the fishing demo.

 

[Juice]

Now that we know the thing is accurate and precise, like one would expect from a Nintendo controller (much less one they're banking their future on), would all of the dumb fucks screaming, "nuh uh, I used my teacher's gyro mouse in the classroom once. it sucked! revolution for the lose!"

Thanks for answering questions, Chris. I kinda get it, so I don't have any myself. You're overwhelmingly positive impressions seem to confirm that all the hype the controller is garnering is indeed valid. Between that and MGS4, I wonder how many dozens of people are going to buy a 360 here in Japan come December.

 

[PkunkFury]

Wait a second. Why *is* there a home button?[/B]

It is also possible that home does on-the-fly home position/rotation recalibration in case the tracking gets messed up somehow, but I tend to think (and hope) it has to do with the online plans. It says volumes about what they have in store for online content if they've included a button geared around it on their controller. Button space on a Nintendo controller is hot real estate, especially with their "Buttons are evil!" mantra

 

[DEO3]

A few of the articles mentioned there were X's on the floor which you were to stand on when using the controller, does this mean we'll need to be sitting directly in front of our televisions for the controller to be accurate - or does it allow one to 'roam' a bit (such as sitting in a chair that faces the television at an angle, or lounging on a couch off to the side)?

Regarding the D-pad, is is possible to hit all four directions with your thumb when holding the controller like a remote (as is shown in the all the images we've seen thus far), or is it mainly for when you'd turn it 90 degrees in order to play classic NES games?

 

[VALIS]

What was your favorite revolution? French? American? Mexican? Maybe some other?

 

[argon]

Wait a second. Why *is* there a home button?

If I'm playing a single player game and I hit home by accident, will that quit the game and open the browser? I'd really doubt that. It's as if the game will run parallel with the browser. Also, Why call it home if you use it only when you're not playing a game? They could have mapped a regular button to it. If it is browser related, where's the refresh and the stop?

I doubt you could accidentally hit the Home button. If you notice on the pictures, the Home button is practically flush with the controller face to prevent that.

I'm willing to bet the Home button is really a software reset button, which takes you back to the main console's menu, akin to turning the GCN on and pressing some button combo at the loading screen (don't remember which). But this gen it will be different because you will have a lot more to do on the console main menu.

This way you won't have to get up to reset the console to play additional games on the virtual console, or do other online features like downloading games. After all, this controller may make you too tired to get up =)

 

[Akia]

Did we scare Kobun away?

 

[Gahiggidy]

Now that we know the thing is accurate and precise, like one would expect from a Nintendo controller (much less one they're banking their future on), would all of the dumb fucks screaming, "nuh uh, I used my teacher's gyro mouse in the classroom once. it sucked! revolution for the lose!"

Thanks for answering questions, Chris. I kinda get it, so I don't have any myself. You're overwhelmingly positive impressions seem to confirm that all the hype the controller is garnering is indeed valid. Between that and MGS4, I wonder how many dozens of people are going to buy a 360 here in Japan come December.

Five.

 

[mrkgoo]

A great thread, for sure, but wha tI'm curious is why people continue to ask questions that are already answered, here or otherwise. Sure, it's no fun to dredge through 50 pages of a thread to find an answer, but it's also a little annoying ...to ah..forget it.

 

[Soul4ger]

The 1UP impressions said that it seemed like you had to move at a slower speed than you might want to, to make sure it sensed your movements properly. Did you get the impression that it required more methodical motion, and, as such, don't you think it would be a problem with fast-paced FPS multiplayer matches, or fighters, or platformers, or anything that requires twitch reflexes?

 

[PkunkFury]

A few of the articles mentioned there were X's on the floor which you were to stand on when using the controller, does this mean we'll need to be sitting directly in front of our televisions for the controller to be accurate - or does it allow one to 'roam' a bit (such as sitting in a chair that faces the television at an angle, or lounging on a couch off to the side)?

I asked a similar question, I gather Kobun doesn't know the exact answer, but chances are the sensors can track you as long as you are within their "field-of-vision". They are probably photodiodes, but might be RF receivers, magnets or microphones. However, to make it easier you can think of them as cameras with a field of vision that must record the remote to track it. Therefore, you could probably move off to the side a number of degrees, depending on your distance from the sensors, and you would still be tracked just fine. Also, you could technically put the sensors somewhere away from the TV so they face you comfortabley. The TV position has nothing to do with the sensors at all.

In order to properly relate the sensor information to the display field (TV, projector, whatever) you might have to go through some brief calibration steps the first time you set up the sensors. This calibration may also happen automatically before or during each game, but predetermining a home X,Y,Z position would be a safe way to start tracking. This is why Nintendo had red X spots for the demo. Those spots are where they pre-calibrated, so the press wouldn't have to do it, or they simply represented the sensors' field of view and provided boundaries to keep tracking optimal.

No one, including Kobun, really knows how the sensors are working, but we've been making educated guess in this thread:

http://forums.gaming-age.com/showthread.php?p=1965940#post1965940

So if you have questions or information about the tracking, that'd be a good place for them

 

[Version 3.0]

Thanks for the impressions, Kobun! You've definitely moved the bar on my skeptical/hopeful slider over a ways.

I have a question: how is the analog stick attachment? I used to try and play Goldeneye with the dual analog setup (one controller in each hand), and it kind of sucked because having just one hand on each controller was pretty unsteady. Same result with the GC controller and Monkey Ball. But those controllers are a lot bulkier than this attachment, and not specifically designed for one-handed use. I'd like to hear your impressions of that attachment.

 

[Kobun Heat]

How much fun do you think I had playing Revolution air-hockey versus Miyamoto?

I'm buying this day one, and I can't wait to see what they put out for it. If the release schedule is as balanced as the DS' -- with mass-appeal titles like Brain Training and Nintendogs going back and forth with gamers' games like Ouendan and Castlevania -- then it'll appeal to everyone.

No new info on shells -- they didn't show any, but they talked about them. I'm not sure whether it makes sense to put the shell in the box, though, because that runs counter to their anyone-can-understand-this mentality. If the shells are cheap enough, they can just pack them in with any game that requires them.

You're not intended to use the A and B buttons for any sort of quick-response gameplay when the controller is vertical. So I doubt any developers will make you do that.

The fishing game was the only one that took me more than a second to grasp, because it uses depth perception. But after I got the hang of moving the rod around in a pseudo-3D space, it got easier.

...... please add some kind of strong rumble for contact or some kind of reverse feedback, please.

Uh, okay, I'll go ahead and put some in.

No, Samus wasn't always shooting the center of the screen. She shoots where you put the cursor. And at the same time, if you're moving the cursor to the edges of the screen, she'll turn to face them -- but at a normal pace, not zipping around wildly at the speed of your hand. That would be unplayable.

You won't hit the home button accidentally.

Though this wasn't specified, the power button almost definitely turns the console on and off. Does your TV's remote control have a button that turns off the power to the remote?

You can use the D-pad like a D-pad when it's vertical. That won't be an issue.

 

[AndoCalrissian]

I'm really just curious about this... what was the configuration of the sensors? One bar? Two bars? Two smaller sensors? Were they plugged in? What did the early ones look like?

Thanks for the info!

 

[Kobun Heat]

I don't know what sort of impressions other than "Metroid Prime 2 was comfortable and intuitive" I really need to give at this point. The analog attachment was really light. The wire was long enough. Moving, aiming, shooting, and turning took no -- zero -- conscious thought. The only problem I had was remembering which shoulder button scanned and which jumped. But I can't remember that very well on the GameCube either.

 

[Akia]

EDIT: DARN IT! I was too slow

 

[BorkBork]

Did you kick Miyamoto's ass?

 

[Kobun Heat]

Nintendo actually specifically said that the sensors were not in any way finalized. So be aware that this description may not reflect the final product. There were two small sensors -- about the size of a gum eraser -- that were attached to a small metal bar maybe the size of a ruler.

They were placed under the TV but they said there are many places you could put them. On top, on the sides, on the wall even. It's all very very up in the air, though.

 

[Gahiggidy]

This is probably a given, but was the crosshairs/cursor sensitive to acceleration in a similar way a mouse-cursor moves further across the screen the faster you move it?