"Rob" <robertnospamaccomando@earthlink.net> wrote in message 
news:DZqWe.12211$9i4.6698@newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net...
>
> <RSX> wrote in message news:e7CdneoxFKYgpLfeRVn-sA@comcast.com...
>> http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3143782
>>
>> Revolution Controller Finally Revealed
>> We've seen it, touched it, played games with it. Read this now.
>> by Mark McDonald, 09/15/2005
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> 15 of 15 users recommend this story.
>>
>> The entire industry has been clamoring for a taste of Nintendo's 
>> so-called next-generation 'revolution.' So have we. Every time Nintendo 
>> president Satoru Iwata has opened his mouth, he underscored time and time 
>> again Nintendo would not be following the traditional path of a new 
>> console. Rumors have persisted for weeks about touch screens, gyroscope 
>> functions, virtual headsets, and everything else under the sun.
>> Nintendo always emphasized they weren't following Sony and Microsoft, and 
>> boy, they weren't kidding. Nintendo decided Tokyo Game Show (an event the 
>> company typically forgoes in favor of Space World) was the right time to 
>> sit down with select members of the press and unveil their vision of 
>> gaming's future. And guess what? We were there.
>>
>> We've seen the Revolution, touched and played with its radically 
>> different take on the game controller, talked with visionary designer 
>> Shigeru Miyamoto about the reasoning behind Nintendo's new approach and 
>> we're back with our lengthy, hands-on impressions.
>>
>> Has Nintendo struck gold again? Read on and find out.
>>
>> The Revolution Controller Basics: What The Hell Is It?
>> The controller for Nintendo's upcoming Revolution home console system is 
>> a cordless remote-control-like device designed to be used with only one 
>> hand. Two small sensors placed near the TV and a chip inside the 
>> controller track its position and orientation, allowing the player to 
>> manipulate the action on screen by physically moving the controller 
>> itself. For example, you could slash an in-game sword by actually 
>> swinging the controller from side to side, turn a race car just by 
>> twisting your wrist, or aim your gun in a shooter by pointing the 
>> controller where you want to fire.
>>
>>
>> An expansion port on the bottom of the unit allows for add-on hardware to 
>> compliment this "remote controller" (our word for it, not Nintendo's), 
>> like a second controller piece Nintendo demonstrated that comes equipped 
>> with an analog stick and two trigger buttons (currently labeled Z1 and 
>> Z2, for those of you keeping track). When the two controller pieces are 
>> attached, the so-called 'Nunchaku' configuration (the two bits are 
>> connected by a short cord) can work similarly to current controllers, 
>> just with the second analog stick replaced by actual movement of the 
>> Revolution controller. Nintendo also mentioned that the controller stick 
>> could be slipped inside other, more conventional controller shells, dance 
>> mats, bongos, or other peripherals.
>>
>> A large "A" button sits in the prime spot under your thumb on the face of 
>> the controller, with a "B" trigger on the back of the unit for your index 
>> finger. Otherwise the button configuration is an interesting mix of old 
>> and new: standard D-pad up top, near the power button (to turn the 
>> Revolution console on and off), Start and Select in the middle, on either 
>> side of the intriguing "Home" button (Nintendo wouldn't go into detail, 
>> but sounds like it has to do with navigating system menus, which will be 
>> important given the Revolution's promised WiFi connectivity), and two 
>> more buttons near the bottom labeled "a" and "b." These last two may seem 
>> uncomfortably low for your thumb until you turn the controller 90 degrees 
>> and it becomes just like an old 8-bit NES joypad, with the D-pad under 
>> your left thumb and "a" and "b" under your right. (Don't forget-Nintendo 
>> has promised downloadable versions of their classic games for the 
>> Revolution's "Virtual Console.") Nintendo mentioned the button names and 
>> their exact sizes could still change slightly before production, but what 
>> you see here is close to the final design.
>>
>> Elsewhere on the controller, the four lights at the very bottom represent 
>> which player it belongs to, and that hatch on the back is the battery 
>> compartment. (The prototype Revolution controllers we saw used regular 
>> batteries just like the GameCube's WaveBird wireless controller-and last 
>> a similar amount of time, according to Nintendo-but reps wouldn't say for 
>> certain if the final unit would use batteries or some rechargeable 
>> option.) The effective maximum range for the wireless controller is 
>> expected to be somewhere between 10 and 15 feet. A variety of different 
>> colored controllers were on display, including red, lime green, white, 
>> gray, black, and silver. Finally, rumble functionality is built in to the 
>> controller.
>>
>> The Revolution Controller Demos: How It Works.
>> Alright, so enough about sticks and buttons and lights-how does this 
>> crazy new controller actually work with games? To answer that question, 
>> Nintendo's legendary game creator Shigeru Miyamoto (creator of Mario, 
>> Zelda, Donkey Kong, Pikmin, you name it) walked specially selected 
>> members of the press through a series of hands-on technology demos. These 
>> were not real Revolution games (all the names for the demos are 
>> ours)-they were super-simple, graphically crude offerings designed solely 
>> to show off different aspects of how the controller can work. Here's a 
>> rundown of what we saw, along with our thoughts on each:
>>
>>
>> DEMO: BLOCK BUSTER
>> A firing-range-like contest where two players compete to see who can 
>> shoot randomly appearing squares first. Aiming is done by pointing the 
>> controller itself at different points on screen, pulling the B trigger to 
>> fire.
>> IMPRESSIONS: A great demonstration of how intuitive the controller can 
>> be-pointing it to aim felt perfectly natural, right from the very first 
>> second, just like with a light gun. It always shot exactly where it felt 
>> like I was aiming, and was incredibly responsive to even slight wrist 
>> movements-I barely had to move my hand at all.
>>
>> DEMO: GONE FISHIN'
>> Grab a pole and lower it into a 3D pond full of fish. Keep the line 
>> steady and when you feel a nibble from the rumble of the controller, pull 
>> it up quick!
>> IMPRESSIONS: An interesting showcase of the controller's 3D movement 
>> detection-you position the fishing pole above the pond by moving the 
>> controller forward or back, left or right in actual space, then lowered 
>> the hook by lowering the controller. It was a bit difficult to keep it 
>> steady in the water, but flipping the controller up when you got a bite, 
>> mimicking the motion of pulling up a fish in reel life, was a little 
>> thrill that just felt right.
>>
>> DEMO: IRRITATING STICKS
>> Two players guide rotating sticks through a side-scrolling maze of 
>> tunnels and moving obstacles, gathering coins and avoiding touching the 
>> walls. (A lot like the PS1 game Irritating Stick, and exactly like the 
>> import-only GBA game Kuru Kuru Kururin.)
>> IMPRESSIONS: Another demo that needed no explanation, you just "got" it 
>> immediately-move the controller in whatever direction you want the stick 
>> to go. As a 2D game that requires exact movement (the caves get really 
>> narrow in parts), this one reinforced how precise and steady the 
>> controller's movement detection can be. Another interesting tidbit-if 
>> your controller fell outside the detection "box," the demo had an arrow 
>> pointing off the edge of the screen in that direction so you could get it 
>> back in the correct space.
>>
>> DEMO: AIR HOCKEY
>> Exactly what it sounds like: Two players each control a flat stick on 
>> either side of a rink by moving around their controller, pushing a puck 
>> back and forth, trying to keep it out of the goal on their side.
>> IMPRESSIONS: A bit sloppy and more sluggish than the other demos, this 
>> one was supposed to show how you could put "english" on the puck by 
>> twisting the controller but in practice it didn't work as well as in 
>> other demos (and I'm not saying that just 'cause I kept scoring on my own 
>> goal...wait...OK, actually it is partially because of that.).
>>
>> DEMO: BASKETBOWL
>> Two players drag or push a ball to their opponent's basket by making the 
>> ground under their controller-maneuvered cursor dip (by holding "B") or 
>> rise (by pressing "A").
>> IMPRESSIONS: This was oddly fun-you could try to move the ball by either 
>> making a hill next to it and pushing it along, or making an indentation 
>> for it to fall into, then using it to drag it across the court. When you 
>> got close to the basket, turning an indentation under the ball into a 
>> hill suddenly would fling it up into the air.
>>
>> DEMO: WHERE'S WALDOASAUR
>> A simple demonstration of depth perception-the player searches for a 
>> particular pokemon on a giant map filled with the creatures (ala Where's 
>> Waldo), zooming in by pushing the controller towards the screen and 
>> zooming out by pulling away from it.
>> IMPRESSIONS: Nothing much to say here except that, as a Nintendo rep 
>> commented, you can see how this might be put to use for aiming a sniper 
>> rifle in a first-person shooter.
>>
>> DEMO: PILOT WANGS
>> Manipulate a biplane through the air, trying to fly through rings 
>> scattered around the Isle Delfino hub world of Super Mario Sunshine.
>> IMPRESSIONS: This was about all the different ways the Revolution can 
>> detect tilting the controller. It was as if the controller was the 
>> airplane itself - as long as your movements weren't too sudden, the 
>> on-screen action would mimic your movements with very little lag time. 
>> After about a minute I was pulling dramatic dives and loop-de-loops, 
>> bullseye-ing plenty of rings.
>>
>>
>> DEMO: METROID PRIME-TIME
>> Nintendo saved the best for last. This was the first section of the 
>> GameCube game Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, retrofitted to be compatible with 
>> the Revolution controller and its analog add-on piece (the "Nunchaku" 
>> set-up mentioned earlier). As on the Cube the analog stick controls 
>> movement, but instead of holding down a button to look around, you simply 
>> point the other controller in the direction you want to aim.
>> IMPRESSIONS: At first, I was standing up and swinging my hand all around 
>> to aim - and my arms got really tired really quick. But once I sat down 
>> and relaxed, resting my hands on my legs as I would with a normal 
>> controller, everything clicked. It wasn't perfect yet - the Revolution 
>> controller functionality had just been added recently and wasn't bug 
>> tested or polished, so every so often the view would "spaz out" for a 
>> couple seconds - but it was enough to get me excited. As odd as it may 
>> look holding the two separate controller pieces, one in each hand, 
>> looking around felt incredibly natural, even more than my preferred 
>> PC-style keyboard-and-mouse setup. I have to wonder about precision and 
>> speed in multiplayer games, but for a more deliberate single-player game 
>> like Metroid Prime - and the series is already confirmed for an 
>> appearance on the Revolution - this setup already has huge potential.
>>
>> The Revolution Controller Design Philosophy
>> So why has Nintendo decided to brazenly break with tradition and the 
>> conventions of every other modern console in creating the Revolution 
>> controller? According to Mr. Miyamoto, it was part of a conscious 
>> decision to make something simple and straightforward enough to reach out 
>> to a new audience. "We want a system that takes advantage of new 
>> technology for something that anyone, regardless of age or gender, can 
>> pick up and play. [Something with a] gameplay style that people who have 
>> never played games can pick up and not be intimidated by. We wanted a 
>> controller that somebody's mother will look at and not be afraid of."
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Of course, Nintendo has no intention of leaving their traditional 
>> audience behind, and Mr. Miyamoto is quick to add that the controller is 
>> already well suited for a number of popular genres. "[We aimed for 
>> something] that is simple enough for everyone," he says, "but also 
>> something that people who've been playing games for years will be 
>> satisfied with."
>>
>>
>
> OOOOOOOOOH! A TV remote! How clever Nintendo!
>
> Why fix what ain't broke??
I don't know... but I guess I'll give it a chance.  =)