<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??