"Paul Dunn" <paul.dunn4@ntlworld.com> wrote in message 
news:7LGje.16790$Pi3.8184@newsfe4-win.ntli.net...
> Tommy Stenberg wrote:
>
>> They defend themselves by saying they won't let others copy their
>> ideas, and therefore the controller isn't revealed yet. Looking at
>> the history of Nintendo's controller-innovation, they are certainly
>> right to be worried about that. Both analogue stick and the rumble
>> feature was copied shortly after Nintendo revealed these features. I
>> don't know, but I even read they invented the D-Pad, which could be
>> right. This time they're making sure they're not copied, and actually
>> are the first to implement these new features when the Revolution
>> comes out.
>
> Opinion seems divided here, but I thought the general consensus from a few 
> months ago was that Nintendo didn't actually invent anything - they just 
> took existing controllers from ages ago and brought them into the 
> mainstream. Nothing wrong with that, but they didn't actually *invent* 
> anything at all.
>
> D.

That may well be true, I'm not enough of a fanboy to deny that ;). However, 
I at least have never heard of analogue stick on a controller before the 
N64. The only analogue sticks I've seen before that were the pc joysticks. 
The whole analogue stick thing works a lot better on a joypad though, unless 
you're playing flightsims or stuff like that. The rumble feature is also 
something I didn't see until the N64. Force feedback and rumble was more 
standard in PC controllers (wheels, flightsticks etc). In other words, not 
counting the d-pad (in which its history is fairly unknown t me), the 
"innovation" is more like taking existing technology and implement them on a 
joypad. That's probably the innovative part of it.

Tommy