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


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."