Nintendo to Drop D-pad

pluke writes "Computer and Video Games reports that Nintendo plans to drop the humble d-pad from its next console along with the classic A and B buttons. Nintendo pioneered the d-pad on its 80's Game & Watch handheld games system."

Ok, so what?

[mcnut]

I'm not really too surprised that as a symbol of their "revolution" that the traditional items of Nintendo will die... What I want to know, and what I think is going to be the only thing that matters is: how many games are there going to be on rollout, and will they for the first time since the SNES actually have a decent flow of games throughout the system life. I have a Gamecube that waits for the next Zelda or Mario (even another luigi game for god's sake). It gets used about once every 3 months when they come out with a new game, then it goes back away... Nintendo, the revolution we're looking for has a lot less to do with the hardware.. and a lot more to do with the games!

Re:Contra is fair

[blighter]

But if you can play through without dying, what use are 30 free lives?

Especially since you only get them just after completing the game without dying...

That's like making the prize for finishing the 72 oz steak... another huge steak that you can only eat right then.

GBA compatibility?

[ksiddique]

If the Revolution will be able to play GBA games (which I have no idea if it will), dropping the D-Pad will be "teh suxx0rsz". I've got a GBA Player for my 'Cube and I'm so glad there's a D-Pad on my Wavebird. Playing GBA games with an analog stick just doesn't feel right.

Re:Madness

[Jane_the_Great]

Pardon me sir?

The NES Advantage [8bitjoystick.com] was the best controller ever. End of discussion. The turbo features on it were inspired - you could actually control the amount of turbo you needed. Besides, the thing was sturdy as a brick. It was truly a controller ahead of its time.

Damn.

[Anonymous Coward]

Switching visors just won't feel right.

Re:Madness

[RevAaron]

I mean, they already have replaced the d-pad in favor of the analog stick. At least, in practice. The N64 and GC both have d-pads- but in most games in both cases you never even touch the d-pad.

Re:Confirmed

[Anonymous Coward]

It's an unconfirmed rumor.

Anyone who was watching the gaming hype scene in the period running up to the gameCube's release should know that all speculative articles about Nintendo's controller design are pure bullshit. The design of the GameCube controller alone evolved many, many times. And that's just going on the mockups that Nintendo allowed people to see in the last months of the GameCube's development.

For proof, just take a look at one of your GameCube controllers. If yours has a D-pad (yes, people were saying back then that the GameCube wouldn't have a D-pad either), a circular B button, and a Z button, you are holding proof that most of all the articles about the GameCube's controller design are false.

So yeah, like the parent, I wouldn't lament the loss of the D-pad or controller face buttons just yet.

What about trackballs/mice?

[MobyDisk]

Certain types of games are better-suited to touchpads, trackballs, mice, cameras, etc. I am surprised that no aftermarket trackball controllers are available for home game consoles. Two types of games suffer from this limitation, and they are both types of games that do better on PCs than consoles:

1) Resource management / icon-based / menu-based games
- It is easier to move and click a mouse/trackball than with a joystick or d-pad.
- Examples: The Sims, Black and White, Warcraft, etc.

2) FPS games
- The ability to quickly aim and
- The ability to move with a different hand than the aiming hand
- Examples: Doom, Quake, Half-life, Unreal, and probably 50% of PC games

In general, a mouse/trackball offers higher-precision, greater feedback, and an infinite range of speeds over a d-pad or trackball. But it is bad with simple forward, backward, left, and right. But fewer games today use that model. Why do we continue to use these old-style inputs?

FYI: This is called multimodal [informit.com] input, where each device complements the abilities of the other. The keyboard/mouse paradigm is the most generally powerful multimodal combination discovered thus far.