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[soundwave05]

Since this seems to be what everyone is hinting at with the Revolution, what would be the gameplay possibilities for such a control device? This is not a "Nintendo should do this thread", but just a thread to think about whether something like that idea would work in certain games.

Lets assume a system which has a motion sensor built-in (ala Eye Toy) and say a gyro controller(s) (one for each hand?). Each gyro controller has a more "robust" built in rumble/force feedback.

Star Wars - The gyro controller can become a "virtual" lightsaber/sword. You swing the controller around, kind of like when you were a kid and had those toy lightsabers. On screen when an enemy lightsaber hits your lightsaber, you feel "force feedback". This could also work for sword combat in a Zelda game.

FPS - The gyro controller becomes a virtual gun. You can aim up/down/right/left with it or swing it around and smash an enemey in the face with your gun if they get too close. Maybe the motion tracker in the system could track your eyes/face, so that you can look around. Every time you fire, there's a realistic "kick back" like a real gun. This could effectively be a faster/smoother control setup than even a mouse/keyboard.

As for sports games, platformers, etc. I don't know. If Nintendo works with EA, I could see this being implimented into baseball and tennis games and maybe basketball and football also.

Paradigm shift? I don't know. Interesting possibilities? Certainly.

 

[Agent Icebeezy]

US application Patents 5,898,421 and 5,440,326 are Nintendo gyration patents and they deal with tracking human motion and translating it into linear movement of computer graphic images.

 

[teepo]

*cough* microsoft has a patent in gyro tech in controllers *cough*

not that anyone cares.

 

[soundwave05]

Are those recent patents or are they from like 1996 or something?

The one thing I do feel is not every game can be physically intensive. For certain games, the gyration control could just serve to simplify the control scheme so anyone can pick up and play (like say a Super Mario title).

Maybe they'll get rid of joysticks/dpad and replace them with gyration controllers that are "twistable" or "squeezable" or something. I still think you would still need at least two tactile buttons at least though.

 

[GDJustin]

I was just gonna make this topic. Gyro control doesn't have to be so bad.

Imagine a controller that looks just like a normal controller. Buttons, joysticks, etc. The only difference is you tilt the controller to manipulate the camera. Tilt foward/back to look up and down. Left and right for left and right. It would be really intuitive, and would fit nintendo's words about it not really FUNDAMENTALLY changing anything, just being a new idea for gaming.

 

[soundwave05]

*cough* microsoft has a patent in gyro tech in controllers *cough*

not that anyone cares.

Is that the Microsoft game division?

 

[soundwave05]

I'm thinking this won't look like a regular controller at all. Maybe there will be two of them (one for each hand, some games could use one, some could use both). Possibly held in different "grips" to simulate a different object -- ie: a lightsaber/sword handle or a gun or a steering wheel or drum sticks.

With one handed control, you gotta figure some Tecmo support would be assured too :lol

 

[monkeyrun]

I think I'll wait and see, but I do believe that so called revolutionary control method will be a motion sensing mouse (due to lack of a flat surface) in Revolution.

 

[Hollywood]

I'm hoping for forece feedback controllers, and thats what it sounds like to me according to the other rumor thread. An arcade style force feedback, when your controller reacts to what happens in a game. Like how you play an arcade game driving a wheel, you hit a wall and your wheel jerks back in response. I think it would be used on the analog stick. Your playing Madden, hit a tackle and your analog stick jerks back, and gets tighter to push forward. Or a 3D Mario with a wall flip your stick bounces back responding to Mario's wall kick. Buttons could be used too, maybe pushing in when you get hit, preventing you from using them .. or moving up and down and making it a lot of harder to play after you take a big hit or something.

I don't think it would be any more expensive than motion sensing stuff, and I think it would be a lot more innovative than waving your controller around in different directions to control stuff. Much like the touch screen, this control mechanic would be very dependant on what type of game it is and many wouild use the analog stick over it anyway (if there's the choice).

Go force feedback Nintendo, it could be one of the best innovations in gaming in a long time. No one has really done it before.

 

[soundwave05]

Here's what I think, keep in mind I suck at drawing and especailly drawing in MS Paint, but this is the basic idea.

Two wireless gyroscopic light-weight controllers, one for each hand. You wrap your hand into each controller and "grip" it.

From there, the controller can become a "virtual" gun (Matrix style for two hands if you wish), lightsaber/sword handle, a set of drumsticks, etc. You can move each "grip controller" around and with force feedback, it can give a different sensation depending on the object its supposed to mimic (ie: if its a gun, you get a kick back every time you fire, if its a pair of drumsticks, you feel a "bam" every time you hit the drums, if its a lightsaber you "feel" when you make contact with another lightsaber blade).

There's still two-three buttons per controller and the possibility of an analog stick/d-pad or whatever for your thumb there if Nintendo wishes to go that route so it can still be in some ways a conventional controller too.

 

[Krowley]

it seems to me that force feedback has the problem of putting a motor into a controller, which would make it more expensive and too battery intensive to be wireless.

one thing nintendo keeps talking about it how revolution will change the whole way we look at game consoles.. like it won't just be a controller hooked to a box that hooks to a TV.

how about this?

it's a pretty neat way for the console to come with it's own display and in combination with gyro technology, you have the potential for working VR for the home, especially if they change the glasses to simulate peripherial vision.. if people want to multiplay, they hook in another pair of glasses. or maybe the glasses are wireless. if the glasses had built in gyro's they could serve as a seperate part of the controller, being sensitive to turns and that kind of thing.

another possibillity is that the console itself is the controller... like the console is very small, and you actually hold it in your hand while you play.

i am personally expecting something very radical. i just hope it doesn't require me to get up and move while i play games.

 

[soundwave05]

I just don't see it being virtual reality, but I wouldn't complain if that were the case. But basically it'd be Virtual Boy 2005.

 

[Hollywood]

it seems to me that force feedback has the problem of putting a motor into a controller, which would make it more expensive and too battery intensive to be wireless.

one thing nintendo keeps talking about it how revolution will change the whole way we look at game consoles.. like it won't just be a controller hooked to a box that hooks to a TV.

[link=http://www.smarthome.com/8087.html] how about this? [/link] it's a pretty neat way for the console to come with it's own display and in combination with gyro technology, you have the potential for working VR for the home, especially if they change the glasses to simulate peripherial vision.. if people want to multiplay, they hook in another pair of glasses. or maybe the glasses are wireless. if the glasses had built in gyro's they could serve as a seperat part of the controller, being sensitive to turns and that kind of thing.

another possibillity is that the console itself is the controller... like the console is very small, and you actually hold it in your hand while you play.

i am personally expecting something very radical. i just hope id doesn't require me to get up and move while i play games.

That seems to be like it would be more expensive.

I can tell you this: I'm not even going to consider buying this console if it has anything to do with power gloves or virtual reality, or any ridiculous periphirals that I gotta put on or move around with. I'm pretty sure those days of Virtual Boy stuff are over, and companies learned their lesson on how stupid it is over the past two decades.

 

[soundwave05]

That seems to be like it would be more expensive.

I can tell you this: I'm not even going to consider buying this console if it has anything to do with power gloves or virtual reality, or any ridiculous periphirals that I gotta put on or move around with. I'm pretty sure those days of Virtual Boy stuff are over, and companies learned their lesson on how stupid it is over the past two decades.

C'mon admit though, if there was a game where you could do lightsaber moves via a gyro controller, that'd be cool as hell, even if you'd look dumb playing it.

FPS games would also rock.

You could do things like deke in hockey games and do custom dribble moves in a basketball game too by motion (maybe not direct motion, because that's a bit too extreme, but say move your wrist side to side and your player dekes right to left).

And in my mock up you still have buttons there for passing/shooting functions.

Battery life might be tough, but Nintendo's already ordering tons of ion-lithium batteries for the DS and GB Evo will doubtlessly have them too, you should be able to power these controllers (no LCD to light) for a good 12 hours per charge.

 

[Hollywood]

C'mon admit though, if there was a game where you could do lightsaber moves via a gyro controller, that'd be cool as hell, even if you'd look dumb playing it.

No ... honestly I don't think so. :lol

EDIT: also you forget, you would have to set an left and right on the controller when you play, and have all the degrees of seperation set up. In Nintendo's motion games on GBA, they say this all has to be set up, and even then it doesnt recognize small movements in motion. So moving left is left, no matter how far .. right is right, and so on. Everytime I play I'm going to have to set a 'neutral' stance and if its a saved neutral one, I will have to find that again by moving the controller wherever I set neutral at. This isn't gonig to be as fun or easy as some people think - if any do,

 

[paul777]

Gyration is a must for next-gen on all consoles really. It allows mouse level control without the need of a flat surface. However, traditional controls can't be left out. Some types of games won't gain anything with this kind of controll. If Nintendo is planning something along these lines, and if the DS is an indication of where they're going, the controller will be traditional in addition to incorporating gyration. Think of a more functional GCN controller with N64-like triggers that can be detached into two separate pieces and that has gyration. If they do it this way, they don't have to rule out BC as well potential 3rd party multiplatform releases.

 

[soundwave05]

No ... honestly I don't think so. :lol

Well that's an example where you really can't replicate that type of gameplay on a controller.

You'd just need about 100 buttons to be able to really control a Jedi character and move the sword the way the character's do in the movie. A gyro controller gives you that type of control more naturally and would actually do a decent job of simulating the feel of having a real sword/lightsaber in your hand.

Other things come to mind too. In a boxing game, with that "grip" controller, your punches would register exactly where you want them to hit.

 

[Krowley]

personally, actually having to swing the sword yourself in a swordfighting game would be cool to me. but it seems almost every game would have to be played from the first person for it to feel right. i wish nintendo would leak something so i could quit wondering about it.

edit// like if you where playing as link in a 3rd person zelda and you where facing to the right on the screen, swinging the sword yourself would just feel wrong... kinda like the way the camera feels wrong in the old RE games when you have to push up to walk to the right. thats why gyration automaticly makes me think of a system with goggles because it would make first person games feel more natural... and goggles with gyros would make looking around painless so that any genre (even a mario game) could be played from the first person pretty intuitivley.

 

[soundwave05]

personally, actually having to swing the sword yourself in a swordfighting game would be cool to me. but it seems almost every game would have to be played from the first person for it to feel right. i wish nintendo would leak something so i could quit wondering about it.

Well what I'm thinking is on top of the gyration controllers, the base system itself would have a body motion sensor that reads your entire body movements, and not just the gyro control.

Nintendo has patented that (see above) too.

It'd be pretty neat if you had a third person perspective on a character like Michael Jordan, except all his movements/motions are yours in real time.

 

[Hollywood]

Well what I'm thinking is on top of the gyration controllers, the base system itself would have a body motion sensor that reads your entire body movements, and not just the gyro control.

Nintendo has patented that (see above) too.

It'd be pretty neat if you had a third person perspective on a character like Michael Jordan, except all his movements/motions are yours in real time.

This is exactly the opposite direction I want ot see control going, because you get absolutely no force feedback. There's no resistance in movement, many games where you fight with a sword, your swinging an imaginary blade into thin air yet fighting 5 or 6 objects on screen that are constantly attacking you. How do you defend, hope you hold the controller the right way to have your sword horizontal to block a hit you can't even feel?

I seriously hope this isn't what the Revolution is about, because it wil lbe very disappointing. For a game like Super Monkey Ball or Marble Madness, it would be fine ... but in any other type of game an analog stick is just a better degree of control.

 

[soundwave05]

You would feel a "hit" in a lightsaber game, when your lightsaber hits another another lightsaber, it wouldn't just be no feedback. You absolutely should "feel" when you hit another blade in the game.

But to have absolute feedback you'd have to be wearing like a "feedback suit" and that's just not feasible. But this would be the first step in that direction (virtual reality control).

 

[Krowley]

Well what I'm thinking is on top of the gyration controllers, the base system itself would have a body motion sensor that reads your entire body movements, and not just the gyro control.

Nintendo has patented that (see above) too.

It'd be pretty neat if you had a third person perspective on a character like Michael Jordan, except all his movements/motions are yours in real time.

but the only problem with that is that when you turn your no longer facing the TV, and you start to run into the same kinds of problems you see with the eye toy where you looking over your shoulder to see what is happening. ... thats why i keep coming back to a system with goggles.. that way, no matter which way you turn, you are always facing the screen.

i know its the lamest prediction ever, especially when you look at the failure of the virtua boy, but the technology for that kind of thing has come a long way since then. the price point would be high, but not THAT high, and you also wouldn't have to stand up to play. the controllers could use a trigger for forward movement while the goggles sensed turns of the head and responded to them allowing you to play sitting much like you would at a computer.

FPS in particular would be AWESOME on a system like this.

 

[soundwave05]

The other thing with a head set display though is its just not feasible, not in a $300 product which already has a chipset/DVD drive in it.

Maybe PS4/Revolution 2/Xenon 2 but we're not quite there yet. But I think certain today types of technologies are availible cheaply and since the "status quo console" design is serving Nintendo the least of the three console manufacturers right now, they're the company that would be least attached to the idea of a traditional console.

A FPS even without a head set would be great on gyration controllers, probably better than a mouse/keyboard even. You could have the feeling of holding a real gun and aim as quickly as you would holding a real gun.

 

[Quartet]

stuff used in game like tilt kirby are not gyro, they are tri directional piezo electric acceleration detector. Those are purely detector and do no action. The real gyro can also be used for this but have been mostly replaced (like in plane) by those piezo because solid state is more reliable.

gyro work on the inertia principle and have limitation as to what you want to emulate in a game. First there is the amplitude limitation to create a movement. You can create linear movement with solenoid (like FZero cabinet)eventually getshort of distance. For rotational movement you don't have that problem but you eventually need to reach a speed far too great to maintain a constant force over time.

Those mentioned was active feedback. What a gyro also allow is passive feedback. This mean you will not sense any force unless YOU try to turn the gyro. turning it in it's rotation sense or translating it produce no force, only when tilted. a good exemple of how strong this can be is a bicycle wheel.

It's possible to have 3d total efect rotation around a group of 3 gyro. geo stationary satellite use that. They can turn on any axis by changing the relative speed of there 3 gyro relative to each other. But even if this seem to allow active force, it only can do it with almost no torque.

Another limitation is the inertia itself. Even if you can manage a game that can play well around controller limitation, you will have to keep the gameplay in synch with the speed you can start stop the mass of the gyro. the 360 cabinet of sega did have that problem and many time the big mass of the cabinet made move totally unrelated to what apeared on screen.

 

[Enigma]

This is exactly the opposite direction I want ot see control going, because you get absolutely no force feedback. There's no resistance in movement, many games where you fight with a sword, your swinging an imaginary blade into thin air yet fighting 5 or 6 objects on screen that are constantly attacking you. How do you defend, hope you hold the controller the right way to have your sword horizontal to block a hit you can't even feel?

I seriously hope this isn't what the Revolution is about, because it wil lbe very disappointing. For a game like Super Monkey Ball or Marble Madness, it would be fine ... but in any other type of game an analog stick is just a better degree of control.

Well if you're gonna be disappointed with anything short of FF sticks, start bracing yourself. To have little FF sticks would require some high grade industrial parts (expensive) unless you wanted the sticks to be FUBARed after 1 week of play. Spring-back plastic ain't gonna cut it.

 

[Jacobi]

Here's what I think, keep in mind I suck at drawing and especailly drawing in MS Paint, but this is the basic idea.

Hehe, take a look at the GAF Revolution contest thread

 

[Spider_Jerusalem]

What a gyro also allow is passive feedback. This mean you will not sense any force unless YOU try to turn the gyro. turning it in it's rotation sense or translating it produce no force, only when tilted. a good exemple of how strong this can be is a bicycle wheel.

It's possible to have 3d total efect rotation around a group of 3 gyro. geo stationary satellite use that. They can turn on any axis by changing the relative speed of there 3 gyro relative to each other. But even if this seem to allow active force, it only can do it with almost no torque.

I believe this could be a really good implementation. I dislike the Idea of being forced to swing my arms in the air for playing my games: the actual joypads are IMHO the most comfortable control solution. But if they can provide some sort of "torque feedback" by using gyros, this could get quite interesting.

I really hope it goes this way, and not some fancy "move your arms in the air to let Mario jump" solution.

 

[AndoCalrissian]

No ... honestly I don't think so. :lol

EDIT: also you forget, you would have to set an left and right on the controller when you play, and have all the degrees of seperation set up. In Nintendo's motion games on GBA, they say this all has to be set up, and even then it doesnt recognize small movements in motion. So moving left is left, no matter how far .. right is right, and so on. Everytime I play I'm going to have to set a 'neutral' stance and if its a saved neutral one, I will have to find that again by moving the controller wherever I set neutral at. This isn't gonig to be as fun or easy as some people think - if any do,

That's not true. For instance, the gyration mouse only moves the cursor when you push down a trigger button. If Nintendo made a comfortably placed z-button on this controller, it would not be a big issue. And specific games could have settings that disabled this, like in a sword fight for instance.

We talk about Star Wars as a good example of this, but what about Bushido Blade? That would rock!

I've finally been convinced that a gyro controller would be really cool, but now we just need to figure out what shape (or shapes) it would take. I don't think there should be two controllers, as that might make it seem more complex than it really needs to be. I could definitely see an application, like a next-gen Steel Battalion, where it would have to use two controllers simultaneously, but not as a standard feature.

 

[Acosta]

The idea of the sword it´s exactly what I have in mind. But in my imagination, you doesn´t have to do the full move (that is, you doen´t have to move fully your arms like you were using a sword) but you only has to control your hands and the right combination of bottons. For example moving your hand with the control from up to down with the right key pressed will mean the character slice in the same fashion.

I think it could work very well in any case always it´s comfortable, easy to use and adjusted to don´t mess with the control. That project "Marionette" made me think a lot about this issue, I think it could be something like a real marionette, that with movements of hands you can control your character however you want and in a mre intutitive way (of course, the control should be easier that controlling a real marionette at all, that is not as easy, but I believe it coud be the basic idea).

 

[PlayStation Tree]

Gyration is a must for next-gen on all consoles really. It allows mouse level control without the need of a flat surface. However, traditional controls can't be left out. Some types of games won't gain anything with this kind of controll. If Nintendo is planning something along these lines, and if the DS is an indication of where they're going, the controller will be traditional in addition to incorporating gyration. Think of a more functional GCN controller with N64-like triggers that can be detached into two separate pieces and that has gyration. If they do it this way, they don't have to rule out BC as well potential 3rd party multiplatform releases.

As far as I'm concerned this is the only way to go (except maybe the detaching into 2 pieces part; I fear that is only wishful thinking, but would be so kick ass).

Nintendo is adament about releasing Revolution at the same time as PS3 to compete, so all this talk about paradigm shift I think has been way over blown. I think the revolutionary part of the Revolution will be along the lines of the shoulder buttons, analog stick and rumble pack.

At least I hope so.

(I still have no idea about the Revolutions ability to conect to computer monitors - "but not in a way we expect" - and what that may mean for control)

 

[Drakken]

Oh, man, you guys need to stop teasing me. I can't wait for E3. Please don't disappoint me Nintendo, please. :-/

 

[gofreak]

(I still have no idea about the Revolutions ability to conect to computer monitors - "but not in a way we expect" - and what that may mean for control)

I don't think that was rumoured to have anything to do with control, but rather cryptically, Nintendo's "community" with revolution. At least this was the suggestion being made by a poster here who seemed to know what he was talking about and claimed to have inside info (can't remember his name).

 

[imastalker co.]

speaking of which, although from what i can tell (with possibly the exception of the DS), developers just hate development enviroments that have to do with dual processors.

so there's that recent rumor going around now saying that the Revolution will have a dual processor set up. if developers really do hate them that much, thet i don't see it going down what so ever since well, look at the GameCube design.

only way i could see that being true though, would be if maybe one of them was dedicated for applications running on the PC monitor, or stuff of that sort.

 

[AndoCalrissian]

The idea of the sword it´s exactly what I have in mind. But in my imagination, you doesn´t have to do the full move (that is, you doen´t have to move fully your arms like you were using a sword) but you only has to control your hands and the right combination of bottons. For example moving your hand with the control from up to down with the right key pressed will mean the character slice in the same fashion.

I think it could work very well in any case always it´s comfortable, easy to use and adjusted to don´t mess with the control. That project "Marionette" made me think a lot about this issue, I think it could be something like a real marionette, that with movements of hands you can control your character however you want and in a mre intutitive way (of course, the control should be easier that controlling a real marionette at all, that is not as easy, but I believe it coud be the basic idea).

Right. Its not an issue of moving your arms, just moving the "sword" in the right direction, etc. Man, that Marionette idea would be rad too.

I'm just trying to envision what the controller could look like now.

 

[gofreak]

speaking of which, although from what i can tell (with possibly the exception of the DS), developers just hate development enviroments that have to do with dual processors.

so there's that recent rumor going around now saying that the Revolution will have a dual processor set up. if developers really do hate them that much, thet i don't see it going down what so ever since well, look at the GameCube design.

only way i could see that being true though, would be if maybe one of them was dedicated for applications running on the PC monitor, or stuff of that sort.

All the other next gen systems will be parallel, why not Rev? At least devs can apply experience with the other systems' parallelism to rev and vice versa. It won't be a big minus point in terms of development ease..

 

[monkeyrun]

speaking of which, although from what i can tell (with possibly the exception of the DS), developers just hate development enviroments that have to do with dual processors.

so there's that recent rumor going around now saying that the Revolution will have a dual processor set up. if developers really do hate them that much, thet i don't see it going down what so ever since well, look at the GameCube design.

only way i could see that being true though, would be if maybe one of them was dedicated for applications running on the PC monitor, or stuff of that sort.

if a program/game is threaded well enough, the Dual processor should be virtually transparent.

 

[imastalker co.]

All the other next gen systems will be parallel, why not Rev? At least devs can apply experience with the other systems' parallelism to rev and vice versa. It won't be a big minus point in terms of development ease..

beats me dude. im not big on the technical know how. all i know is, if history has taught us anything, it's that dual processor systems = ass rape for the developers. Jaguar, 3DO, Saturn, and PS2.

 

[Rahul]

speaking of which, although from what i can tell (with possibly the exception of the DS), developers just hate development enviroments that have to do with dual processors.

so there's that recent rumor going around now saying that the Revolution will have a dual processor set up. if developers really do hate them that much, thet i don't see it going down what so ever since well, look at the GameCube design.

only way i could see that being true though, would be if maybe one of them was dedicated for applications running on the PC monitor, or stuff of that sort.

Yet DS has dual processors, and devs were really positive about it. I'd think it has more to do with the APIs you provide to devs than the actual presence of dual processors.

 

[Tiktaalik]

I think a gyro tilt sensor would be really intuitive for certain things.

- instead of using the L or R buttons to lean into the turns in Wipeout you could just tilt the controller left or right depending on the turn. (Yes I know Wipeout is a Playstation property)

- Some sort of bouncing type interface. Just like how you can bounce a ping pong ball on a ping pong paddle up and down. You could simulate the exact same thing by tilting the controller up and down with a flick of your wrists. Could be good in a monkey ball game.

 

[Enigma]

beats me dude. im not big on the technical know how. all i know is, if history has taught us anything, it's that dual processor systems = ass rape for the developers. Jaguar, 3DO, Saturn, and PS2.

You can also throw in PCs to the whole PS3, Xenon mix. AMD is gonna begin cranking out dual core processors in 2005. So if Revolution only did go with a single core, it'd be the only next gen platform going this route.

 

[imastalker co.]

hmm....i some how completely out of nowhere had no idea that the other systems were a shoe in for dual processors.

huh, definitely news to me.

 

[Rahul]

Just to be back on-topic, my initial ideas for Revolution were that the controller would be small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, so to speak, and feature a touch screen, tilt sensor, and several triggers. The idea would be that you could hold it in one hand and rotate your hand to leverage the tilt sensor aspect of it while using some of your fingers and thumb to activate buttons, and use your finger to draw on the screen. Combination of 3d tilt sensing and activation of buttons + analogue loose drawing on the screen could theoretically open up more possibilities for control, plus you're reducing complexity of control to drawing and rotating your arm, rather than memorising button combinations and sequences.

 

[gofreak]

hmm....i some how completely out of nowhere had no idea that the other systems were a shoe in for dual processors.

huh, definitely news to me.

Xenon is rumoured to be a dual core or triple core setup. PS3 is all about parallelism. It'll have multiple chips, each with multiple processing units attached. Most chip makers seem to think it's the way forward.

As someone else said, it doesn't really matter as long as its transparent to the programmer (and it should be given that IBM is making all 3 console's chips).

 

[mrklaw]

I think a gyro tilt sensor would be really intuitive for certain things.

- instead of using the L or R buttons to lean into the turns in Wipeout you could just tilt the controller left or right depending on the turn. (Yes I know Wipeout is a Playstation property)

Woot! a controller designed for girls! Finally all that pointless leaning round corners will actually do something.

Now all they need to add is a tongue sensor for when you are concentrating on those really complicated puzzles, and Nintendo are all set to clean up

 

[PlayStation Tree]

Just to be back on-topic, my initial ideas for Revolution were that the controller would be small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, so to speak, and feature a touch screen, tilt sensor, and several triggers. The idea would be that you could hold it in one hand and rotate your hand to leverage the tilt sensor aspect of it while using some of your fingers and thumb to activate buttons, and use your finger to draw on the screen. Combination of 3d tilt sensing and activation of buttons + analogue loose drawing on the screen could theoretically open up more possibilities for control, plus you're reducing complexity of control to drawing and rotating your arm, rather than memorising button combinations and sequences.

Revolution controller revealed!


Sorry, this post made me think of this wicked controller from back in the day.

This thing was really advanced for it's time IMO, with 4 triggers and a tracking wheel on the top. The only thing is that with multiple trigers underneath the controller out of sight, it really was difficult to remember what finger did what, at least for me. I still have to look at the face buttons on my PS2 controller half the time, so any time you can't see the buttons, it becomes unintuitive.

This controller with some tweaking and gyros could be an interesting Next gen solution (even though I think the gaming public would write it off immediatley)

 

[LakeEarth]

Revolution controller revealed!


Sorry, this post made me think of this wicked controller from back in the day.

This thing was really advanced for it's time IMO, with 4 triggers and a tracking wheel on the top. The only thing is that with multiple trigers underneath the controller out of sight, it really was difficult to remember what finger did what, at least for me. I still have to look at the face buttons on my PS2 controller half the time, so any time you can't see the buttons, it becomes unintuitive.

This controller with some tweaking and gyros could be an interesting Next gen solution (even though I think the gaming public would write it off immediatley)

I suddenly want to play Rocky for the Coleco

 

[AndoCalrissian]

I was just on FatBabies.com (I know, I know, I was bored) and was reading some guy's "insider info" on how Nintendo would discontinue GCN on Nov. 15th and shrink it to handheld size to compete with PSP. This got me thinking.

What if Nintendo Revolution and GBNext were the same thing? A graphically advanced (over this console generation) handheld that uses a gyroscope as the "second analog" and can connect up to a TV or a PC monitor. Wireless multiplayer solves the issue of connecting controllers to the machine, but when hooked up to a TV or monitor, you can hook up other controllers for split screen. Meh, not very plausible, and probably mentioned before. Interesting thought though.

 

[Rahul]

I was just on FatBabies.com (I know, I know, I was bored) and was reading some guy's "insider info" on how Nintendo would discontinue GCN on Nov. 15th and shrink it to handheld size to compete with PSP. This got me thinking.

What if Nintendo Revolution and GBNext were the same thing? A graphically advanced (over this console generation) handheld that uses a gyroscope as the "second analog" and can connect up to a TV or a PC monitor. Wireless multiplayer solves the issue of connecting controllers to the machine, but when hooked up to a TV or monitor, you can hook up other controllers for split screen. Meh, not very plausible, and probably mentioned before. Interesting thought though.

Yes, the thought had occurred to me too -- the revolution would be in combining the two markets and creating a new one, where regardless of where you are, you can take full advantage of technology around you. Eg, if you're in the vicinity of a TV, you can connect to it and display the game on there. Or to a computer monitor. Or if there's no monitor, just play it on a handheld-esque screen. And so forth. But when you think about that, really, it doesn't seem likely, because while introducing something like that may feasibly annihilate the PSP, it would also annihilate DS and GBA at the same time. Which is a pretty ridiculous scenario, even for someone as off-centre as Nintendo.

 

[axxxj]

If they do have some form of gyration control then they need to release pilotwings as that game was made for a controller like that.

 

[Pimpwerx]

Gyro controls have a ways to go mostly in implementation. They have really good gyros for RC helis, so I don't doubt they can be made and made small enough and effective enough to do the trick for video games. But how much will it cost, and hoe's it gonna be implemented? I mean, you want to make it something that's gonna work well for a variety of games. Otherwise it'll just be the next U-Force or Power Glove. Both seemed like neat ideas, but both were complete ass and not just b/c the tech was ancient. As a gaming concept, both just totally missed the mark. I still don't see what needs to change about the current controller. :| PEACE.