31st August 2010, 10:08 AM
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Yep, MS finally is attempting to fix their biggest flaw, that d-pad.
Most people seem to be skipping over one big reason they didn't just use a Nintendo d-pad before. Nintendo patented that thing decades ago. That's also why they aren't using it this time either. This "transforming" d-pad design seems to be a way to get around that. Since it's a development FROM that old design, one with it's own "advantages" (if you call being able to switch to "garbage mode" an advantage), it can be patented itself, meaning they no longer owe Nintendo anything (in patents, a derivative work is allowed so long as it is a clear, non-obvious upgrade from a previous design, which is meant to allow for innovation, though in this case it's more of a work-around).
The other big change seems to be removing the color from the buttons. How dull... how boring... How, hard to make out what button does what for newcomers playing, say, Fable 2 (which identifies the buttons purely on color). Nintendo took the color out of their buttons too of course, but I thought that was a mistake too. Face buttons SHOULD be colorful. It makes it easier to identify them, and it makes things a little nicer to look at. I argued for simplicity when splashes of annoying color were the norm, and I'm arguing for more noise now that boring and flat are the norm. Yeah, I'm aware of it, I'm just contrary I suppose, but in this case I think it's justified. I like my red, blue, green, and yellow. I guess it's just the ol' Super Nintendo/Famicom logo there speaking up (I used an Ascii pad back in dem days, so that's the pattern I'm used to, and it matched up so well with the SNES "logo" used very rarely like in Mario World's "Special Zone".
Anyway, assuming this really DOES make the d-pad nice to use, they should just start packing it with the remodeled 360 from here on out.
Yep, MS finally is attempting to fix their biggest flaw, that d-pad.
Most people seem to be skipping over one big reason they didn't just use a Nintendo d-pad before. Nintendo patented that thing decades ago. That's also why they aren't using it this time either. This "transforming" d-pad design seems to be a way to get around that. Since it's a development FROM that old design, one with it's own "advantages" (if you call being able to switch to "garbage mode" an advantage), it can be patented itself, meaning they no longer owe Nintendo anything (in patents, a derivative work is allowed so long as it is a clear, non-obvious upgrade from a previous design, which is meant to allow for innovation, though in this case it's more of a work-around).
The other big change seems to be removing the color from the buttons. How dull... how boring... How, hard to make out what button does what for newcomers playing, say, Fable 2 (which identifies the buttons purely on color). Nintendo took the color out of their buttons too of course, but I thought that was a mistake too. Face buttons SHOULD be colorful. It makes it easier to identify them, and it makes things a little nicer to look at. I argued for simplicity when splashes of annoying color were the norm, and I'm arguing for more noise now that boring and flat are the norm. Yeah, I'm aware of it, I'm just contrary I suppose, but in this case I think it's justified. I like my red, blue, green, and yellow. I guess it's just the ol' Super Nintendo/Famicom logo there speaking up (I used an Ascii pad back in dem days, so that's the pattern I'm used to, and it matched up so well with the SNES "logo" used very rarely like in Mario World's "Special Zone".
Anyway, assuming this really DOES make the d-pad nice to use, they should just start packing it with the remodeled 360 from here on out.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)