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Revolution Controller Revealed

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MutFox said:
Nintendo will make the revolution for EVERYONE. (Except for people in a Mid-Life Crisis.)

With all due respect, bite me. :)

ThunderEmperor said:
sorry to sound harsh, but what i wanted to convey is try the damn thing, if you don't liek it then it is not for you. the thing that stuns me about this controller announcement is the weird respones from games. i noraml settings. its the jouranlist that tend to hate ideas like this and it sthe gamer that embraces it. but in this case it sseems the jorunalist no tonly like it but are going out of their way to give us an idealistic view of how this thing functions. I find it shocking to say the least. So like i said before try it, don't liek it, then get something else to play.

Fair enough. I intend to buy a Revolution regardless, so I'll find out how I feel one way or the other. I guess what I'm really worried about is the possibility that I won't end up liking it, and that it'll become the new standard (as some of the more enthusiastic posters here are insisting). If that happens, I'm pretty much up shit creek--they'll have stopped making new games that I like to play, and I'll be stuck with retrogaming for my gaming fix. I really would rather not see that happen. That's why I said that while I don't wish ill on Nintendo and don't want to see the controller tank, I don't necessarily want everyone else to rush out and copy it either. At least then, it still leaves me with alternatives if I find the Rev controller lacking compared to what I'm used to.
 
When I played games, controllers had sticks...And we liked it!
You'd say "oh I played until my blisters bled and pus was all over the place" AND WE LIKED IT!
 
Drensch said:
I have to say, that was a real:"hey you kids get off my lawn with your long hair and rock n' roll music" type moment. :lol


Hehe, true enough. :) But in a way, that comes with the territory. Gaming isn't just for the young anymore, and while us 'old-timers' still want more from our games than video poker, what we want might not always be the same as what a younger demographic's looking for. I'm just hoping the industry'll keep on producing stuff that appeals to me, so I can keep on wasting my entertainment budget on the industry.

Drensch said:
When I played games, controllers had sticks...And we liked it!
You'd say "oh I played until my blisters bled and pus was all over the place" AND WE LIKED IT!

Ugh, don't remind me. A friend of mine was a huge Atari 2600 nut back when I was in junior high, and those sticks were terrible. What's worse is that I didn't feel gripping the stick in my fist gave me nearly enough control, so I'd hold it with my fingers on the base and stretch my hand so that my thumb was on top of the stick, which hurt like hell. Add to the fact that he popped the rubber 'sleeve' off of the sticks, so the top of my thumb was resting on the end of this cross-shaped column of plastic, which cut deep grooves into my skin... a few hours of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Yar's Revenge ended up a lot like what you just described. :p </old-timer>
 
understanding-the-revolution-controller-20050916041026412-000.jpg


From IGN

Q: What does the conventional controller cradle/shell do?

A: This add-on makes it possible to play Revolution games in a more traditional manner. The shell is designed to look and function like accepted "regular" controllers, such as the Wave Bird. After its bottom casing is removed, the Revolution's free-hand-style remote is inserted into a gap in the middle of the controller shell. Gamers can then use the shell as they would a traditional controller, with a notable difference: the pointer remote's sensory functionality remains active. As a result, gamers get the best of both worlds: more buttons and two analog sticks along with motion-sensing operations. In a Revolution version of Madden Football, gamers might be able to use the combo to control players with the shell's analog sticks and execute pinpoint passes with the pointer's improved accuracy.
 
DEO3 said:
Speaking of attachments...

gun.jpg

That would be so dope.
use the B to launch an m203,
the digital pad to change the rate of fire,
etc...

Nintendo hit the Jackpot with the amount of creativity that is possible.
 
Xellotah said:
[IMaGe]http://cubemedia.ign.com/cube/image/article/651/651559/understanding-the-revolution-controller-20050916041026412-000.jpg[/IMG]

From IGN
Looks great, and so does the gun add-on :)

Nintendo's back!
Great stuff, many non-gamers/mainstream gamers comment positive on the controller :)
 
MutFox said:
That would be so dope.
use the B to launch an m203,
the digital pad to change the rate of fire,
etc...

Nintendo hit the Jackpot with the amount of creativity that is possible.
Hell yeah. And with that gun attachment, it's like having a light gun arcade system right at home.

Well, not exactly like a lightgun system but it might be possible to emulate it with a cross hair on the screen and tilting the gun to "aim." or something...like killer 7.
 
Shogmaster said:
I don't think that's how the controller works.... No light gun action peeps.

Ummm, didn't you watch the Video/ Read Media comments??
A LightGun type game was on demo.
Plus the video showed a guy playing that type of game.

Heck, you don't even need the attachement,
you can just pull the trigger under the controller.
(That's how it's being played now.)

There was NO crosshair in the demo, people shot where they thought it would hit, and they hit targets on screen.
 
Shogmaster said:
I don't think that's how the controller works.... No light gun action peeps.

The beauty of it all is that it can be used as a lightgun device if you want it to. It doesn't have to use lightgun technology to become one.

Personally, I think that gun attachment looks great.
 
Shogmaster said:
I don't think that's how the controller works.... No light gun action peeps.

I think it'd be possible. It wouldn't work the same way a light gun works of course, but it could still be used to shoot enemies on screen with it I think.

Tellaerin: I don't understand why you say you're going to buy a Rev. even though you seem to be so against the concept behind the new control interface to the point where it sounds like you don't even want to try it.

Well, whatever, but I think your reasons are totally off. You're missing the point. You go off about how this is more a novelty, and you'd rather hit a button to perform an action which is more efficient than moving a remote around in the air. That makes sense, until you realise that the number of actions you can perform is greatly limited with buttons versus the seemingly unlimited possibilities of the remote. IMO, this is one of the key factors in how the Rev. will make games much more immersive, where there'll be less of those "I could do this in real life, but not in this game?" moments.

However, this all comes down to the developers and how much money they're willing to gamble on the Rev.. That's really the only thing that concerns me. I'm going to proudly buy a Rev. (I hope ;), because I'm pretty sure Nintendo's games at least will be just as innovating as the Rev. itself, and that's an experience I don't want to miss out on, regardless of however many years I've been gaming with traditional controllers.
 
Shogmaster said:
I don't think that's how the controller works.... No light gun action peeps.

Demos already been shown with light gun action to IGN, 1UP, Edge, etc. Very precise, no lagtime. But it doesn't use lightgun technology, so it will work with ALL TV's.

That gun attachment looks nice, completely unnecessary because there's already a trigger, but nice. :)
 
When Nintendo 64 launched, using an Analog Stick instead of a digital input, did you start crying and said "I played without an anlog stick for years now, I don't want to learn it from ground up"?
 
I'm going to stick with the hopeful thought that a "Wavebird Plus" with 3D movement control is the "default" controller, but that the control wand can be removed from it and used on its own as a bonus for a variety of games.

(Which is essentially the same as saying that the "Classic Shell" will be available, but it removes the shock value.)

Using the wand in the shell wouldn't remove any of the 3D spacial control functionality, anyway.
 
Panajev2001a said:
Good, but I hope they will release a controller with full motion sensing technology INCORPORATED into a wavebird shell to be more ergonomic :D.

I'm sure it won't be as sightly as IGN's mockup (they admit the proportions are off, and boy, are they), but technically anything you can plug the remote into becomes fully motion sensing :)
 
My first reaction was "uh oh".

My second reaction was "doh"

But when I learned more, I really said "wow". I'm surprised, I figured this would be the first Nintendo console I wouldn't get, but now I'm really excited. I showed the video to my gf and she thinks it's extremely cool, too. I love the simple and different action on DS - Ouendan, Band Brothers and all that. Must have.

How things have changed this week - earlier I was prefering Xbox 360, neutral towards PS3 and not at all interested in Revolution. Now Revolution is most wanted, PS3 really hot as well and Xbox 360... well... ahem.

Some questions:

1. Where is Dr Gakman and didn't he almost nail this two hand moving thing in his drawings and long writeups which everybody thought were too wacky?

2. What are the "insider blogs" saying now - since all of theme are proven fake?
 
We'll see how much Nintendo wants to put into the console package price. They've been all about having the lowest price, but I'd want the wand with the analog numchuk AND the normal shell. They haven't had that much pack-in stuff since the NES.
 
I think the whole "normal shell controller" defeats the purpose of the new remote controller. Simple, elegant, intuitive, yet complex. I already have a wavebird, why do I need a "shell controller"?

I think if Nintendo has deemed this controller the new defacto input device for Revolution games they should do away with the old controller setup entirely. Have the developers pick their brains to incorporate their games to the new controller setup. If this is indeed to be their gaming revolution they have to go all the way, not in a half assed way.
 
huzkee said:
I think the whole "normal shell controller" defeats the purpose of the new remote controller. Simple, elegant, intuitive, yet complex. I already have a wavebird, why do I need a "shell controller"?

I think if Nintendo has deemed this controller the new defacto input device for Revolution games they should do away with the old controller setup entirely. Have the developers pick their brains to incorporate their games to the new controller setup. If this is indeed to be their gaming revolution they have to go all the way, not in a half assed way.

If the remote functionality is useful in games I think developers will implement it, regardless of the shell controller. The N64 controller included a digital pad (in a superior position on the controller, mind you) but that doesn't mean developers ignored the analog stick.

But I agree the shell idea is pretty useless. They should just tweak the wavebird and release it at launch as an alternative, classic controller.
 
argon said:
But I agree the shell idea is pretty useless. They should just tweak the wavebird and release it at launch as an alternative, classic controller.

I don't know where you get that idea; since the remote can slot into the traditional controller shell you retain all the functionality of the remote in addition to a traditional controller layout.
 
xabre said:
I don't know where you get that idea; since the remote can slot into the traditional controller shell you retain all the functionality of the remote in addition to a traditional controller layout.

The whole slot crap is a really clunky idea IMHO and I think it will encourage lazy development, especially if it comes packed with the console. If Nintendo isn't confident in the capability of this 'freehand' remote & analog stick for a variety of games then they shouldn't release it as the primary controller. They should just have a remote-enabled wavebird and be done with it.

... Although i'll reserve judgement until I see what Nintendo's got planned.
 
argon said:
The whole slot crap is a really clunky idea IMHO and I think it will encourage lazy development, especially if it comes packed with the console. If Nintendo isn't confident in the capability of this 'freehand' remote & analog stick for a variety of games then they shouldn't release it as the primary controller. They should just have a remote-enabled wavebird and be done with it.

... Although i'll reserve judgement until I see what Nintendo's got planned.

I agree completely, while I somewhat agree with the idea of having a Wavebird-style controller as an optional addon, I would see including it in the box as a cop-out by Nintendo. It's taken a lot of balls from the company to unveil a controller this unusual, and I really hope they force developers into catering for it by only including it (and the analog-stick attachment) with the console.
 
I must say I was sold as soon as I saw/read about the controller and the video even helped.

Revolution wont be my only console (getting PS3 too) and probably the controller isnt good for playing a game for hours. But sure it will be a nice diversion, especially with some friends around. And real sword fighting in Zelda (or some Light Saber game) sounds intriguing to me as well as the use for sports or even FPS games.

Adding to this the low price and the probably impressive graphical quality of a console 1 year late has me already sold.

But as with the NDS only games I will buy are those really using the functionality - probably mostly 1st party games, I wont buy some lame ass third party ports.
 
Im still readin through all these pages, on page 28 so far :P ...but i just wanted to say a couple things :P

1 - I love everything about this, im surpized its actualy something differant and amazing....but on the same note, i own pretty much everything Nintendo and woulda bought this new system just for Zelda :P ...but now i will be buying it for LOTS of other cool stuff im sure :D

and

2 - I want everything thats blue on the Rev to be red, to go with the Nintendo logo, would look sweet imo !


ok back to reading :P
 
argon said:
The whole slot crap is a really clunky idea IMHO and I think it will encourage lazy development, especially if it comes packed with the console.

I don't think it's a clunky idea at all; we'll have to see what Nintendo come up with but I consider it a practical and functional solution for emulated games and third party ports and the IGN mock-up, not being to scale, shouldn't be indicative of the final product.

If Nintendo isn't confident in the capability of this 'freehand' remote & analog stick for a variety of games then they shouldn't release it as the primary controller. They should just have a remote-enabled wavebird and be done with it.

Revolution is primarily designed for accessibility; the remote is both a marketing poly to entice new players and a simple and functional core component of the interface. Many types of games can be developed to take advantage of just the remote itself or through more traditional means incorporating the use of a familiar controller as well as the features of the remote.

Your point is valid in regards to encouraging lazy development and I don't want to see that happen; but I also don't want to see third party developers abandon the system left, right and centre because they're too lazy to code for a unique interface. The Revolution is an incredibly versatile machine in terms of its interface, and there's no reason that fresh and innovative control schemes have to just use the remote itself to take advantage of its functionality.

This is all ultimately moot because the controller shell incorporates all the main functions of the remote into a traditional controller shell so you can really have access to both the new interface as well as a more traditional controller in one setup. The controller shell and remote is also useful because it provides an intermediary step for developers where they can still take advantage of the remotes features but have familiar ground to fall back on.
 
Kojima said:


X = a at the new/old controller version
Y = b at the new/old controller version
heh, didn't notice that. okay nintendo, you had the x and y buttons there to begin with. now you have the a and b buttons. use your brains and put all four together in a diamond configuration like the SNES and you remote controller will almost be complete.

btw, did anyone laugh at this part of the promo vid?
fishing9oy.gif
 
Scrow said:
heh, didn't notice that. okay nintendo, you had the x and y buttons there to begin with. now you have the a and b buttons. use your brains and put all four together in a diamond configuration like the SNES and you remote controller will almost be complete.

you mean like this :P

revf.jpg
 
XMonkey said:
I'm sure it won't be as sightly as IGN's mockup (they admit the proportions are off, and boy, are they), but technically anything you can plug the remote into becomes fully motion sensing :)

Well, I'd like not to have to plug in anything. If they could fit that technology in something like the Wavebird, thus making it Revolution Controller #2, I would pay $40-50 for it (well, if I could spend it that month ;)).
 
Tellaerin said:
If this 'you're not manipulating tangible buttons and sticks, you're waving a wand in the air' thing ever becomes the primary mechanism for playing games, I'll either stick exclusively with retro games and PC titles, or failing that, find another hobby. Yes, I'm dead serious. I have no desire to relearn to play games--I'm 37 years old, I've been playing videogames for most of my life, and at this point, have very little desire to forget everything I know and start learning from scratch. It's less a matter of fear than resentment--I've invested a lot of time to reach the level of ability I'm at now, and I resent the idea of being forced to start all over with a new interface because jaded kids want something 'different' for the sake of being different and non-gamers are afraid of a normal controller. :p

Personally, I'd rather see developers create new game concepts that use conventional interfaces in creative ways. In a way, this controller feels almost like an admission of defeat to me--'Since we can't think of any new and interesting play mechanics, we've decided to come up with a totally new interface device and make people relearn how to control their games in order to keep things fresh.'

To be honest, I might be more accepting of this thing if it sounded like a radical improvement over the controllers we have now, but to me, it really doesn't. Pantomiming gestures to execute actions I can perform in games now by pressing a button or moving an analog stick isn't exciting for me--some of you seem to think it's cool because it lets you make the character respond to 'real movements', but for me, that's just novelty appeal. (I'm reminded of how I had to 'draw' things with the mouse to trigger actions in Black & White, and how impractical it felt once I got past the 'hey, that's pretty cool' phase.) I'd rather have things happen at the press of a button--no fuss, no worries that the game won't interpret my gestures properly, just hit the appropriate button and bang, the action takes place. I'm more interested in advances like voice recognition and the ability to interact with 'lifelike' AI NPC's, which I think has the potential to take gaming to far more interesting places than 'whoo, the virtual fishing pole moves around when I move my hand!'

In light of all of that, I hope the hyper-enthusiastic among you will forgive me when I say that while I hope this controller does passably well with consumers, at this point I'm hoping that nobody else besides Nintendo adopts it. :p

I don't understand this mentality. I've been playing games for almost 15 years now (though not so much in the past couple of years), and I think it's time that things were changed around a bit. I like having to relearn controls, because it keeps things fresh. Sure, it's nice to have things be the way they are, but it makes you complacent as a gamer. The most fun for me is learning how to play a game and using its controls and slowly being able to master them. If you've already mastered the standard gaming controls, that entire aspect of gaming goes out the window. So I'm glad Nintendo is changing things up a bit.
 
Think about where gaming was today, when this kind of controll would have been introduced 20 years ago.. and now think about how controlls would look like in 20 years if Nintendo wouldn't have existed after the SNES anymore..

playstationoriginalcontrollerl.jpg


I don't like that idea tbh..
 
kablooey said:
I don't understand this mentality. I've been playing games for almost 15 years now (though not so much in the past couple of years), and I think it's time that things were changed around a bit. I like having to relearn controls, because it keeps things fresh. Sure, it's nice to have things be the way they are, but it makes you complacent as a gamer. The most fun for me is learning how to play a game and using its controls and slowly being able to master them. If you've already mastered the standard gaming controls, that entire aspect of gaming goes out the window. So I'm glad Nintendo is changing things up a bit.

Apologies in advance for any rambling - I've had about 3 1/2 hours of sleep here and I'm getting ready for work. I'm going to try to keep my reply coherent, but I make you no promises. :)

Looking back on videogames I've played from childhood to the present, practically all of the 'standard' input mechanisms (not counting novelty arcade games and the like) I've come to grips with have required the same handful of general physical skills. There's pushing buttons, manipulating a stick or pad with my thumb (I even played Atari games that way, and the Intellivision was the first system with a 'pad' I ever used), rotating a dial (incredibly rusty nowadays, as paddle games are pretty much over), or rolling something in a particular direction to move a pointer onscreen (originally with a trackball, and later in life with a mouse as PC gaming caught on.) Games required me to use those basic skills with increasing degrees of speed and precision as time went on, but the fundamentals are well-ingrained.

With the Revolution (or whatever Nintendo's going to be calling the system) controller, Nintendo's asking me to throw out all of that and learn a completely different way to manipulate the action onscreen. It's more than just learning a different control scheme, it's learning a completely new skill set. I doubt anything I know about gaming now is going to translate into skill at moving a wand in 3D space. Using this thing, I'm going to be going from someone who knows how games work and can get right down to the business of playing them to an unskilled noob who will likely die countless times because he can't control the action in a way that's become intuitive for him, and instead has to try to acclimate himself to some control device that was designed to be as intuitive as possible for non-gamers. I'm not sure I'm too keen on that, really.
 
I dont see how deveopers can fail to support this, when they can make 2 Revolution games for the price of one PS3/X360 game. Arcade developers maraccas/light guns/golf/tennis/pool/etc will have a field day with this. As well as smaller indie developers like Treasure with smaller teams and budgets.

I did once predict that the games industry would go into recession if the cost cuve continued on a straight vertical path with everything else remaining equal. But i think with Nintendo's new direction will buck the trend with something new.
 
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