REVOLUTION CONTROLLER HAS BEEN REVEALED!!!!!

[A Black Falcon]

Nothing will ever change the fact that Nintendo owns the patent on the cross shaped 8 direction d-Pad. Which is factually an innovative design that has set itself as an industry standard making all other forms of digital input devices for movement in video games obsolete unless the game called specifically for a radical design, such as a light gun. Look up innovative in the dictionary, that's what Nintendo did. They were the first company to design a d-pad. The Intellivision is not a d-pad because it doesn't even have directions on it; it's a blank disk with 16 points of reference. The definition of directional pad is a pad with directions on it with 8 points of reference. Which Nintendo owns the patent on. Intellivision does not.

The d-pad is a not a modernization, it is a radically different design that, as you said, is 'different under neath'. It performs the same task, but it's easier for the player, easier for the developer, cheaper to make and just plain better.

It is similar, though... not the same shape, but very similar concepts -- thing you put your finger on to control the game with.

The d-pad is a not a modernization, it is a radically different design that, as you said, is 'different under neath'. It performs the same task, but it's easier for the player, easier for the developer, cheaper to make and just plain better.

Because of how it's just eight directions instead of many? I'd expect somewhat similar construction, but yeah, not the same.

What controller had you use your thumbs? I'm so glad you walked in to this one. Every single controller ever made for home or arcade, some even used arrow keys on the number pad for controlling your character while the stick was used for aiming. All the way back to Asteroids and Pong, you used your thumbs and fingers to control the game through dials and push buttons. Using a thumb JUST for directions, was done on multiple games on multiple systems usually through the keypad before Intellivision, the first that did it was the first home console ever designed, the Channel F which had large thumb sticks that could also be rotated. The Arcadia 2001 also used thumb sticks, but i'm unsure of it's release on the market.

One of the other systems that let you control with your thumbs (on a keypad) was the Nintendo 6 in 1 which came out before Intellivision I might add. But the biggest contender for thumb-control was the Odyssey and Odyssey II which used tiny sticks that you controlled with your thumb, it came out years before the Intellivision. They are the grandfather's of the d-pad, not the Intellivision.

Again: The Intellivision control disk had no actual directions on it and 16 points of reference, not 8 as you would find on a d-pad from Nintendo, Sega, Sony, Microsoft, etc. The Intellivision control disk is not a d-pad, it is a failed input device. Nintendo created the D-Pad. Intellivision did not create the d-pad. They were close, but no where near the real deal.

How will Weltall continue to argue against this? There goes the 'thumb control' argument... :)

Of course, it was never a good argument, given that computer keyboards used for controlling games also existed, and before the Intellivision too, but he tried to make it... I just wanted to add the "pc keyboards" thing in here, though.

Just so you know, the patent office tends to patent things that can't even work, all too often.

It turns out that they get so many quack devices they just end up more or less shoving them through the door rather than deal with all the research they would all require if they actually checked to see what can and can't actually work. They can draw an estcher (sp?) painting and get it patented at this point...

This may be true, DJ, but it's not in the case of the d-pad, that's for sure... :)

On that point, why, if it's patented, do some non-Nintendo consoles have crosspads (as opposed to missing-center pads like Sony or round-with-raised-cross-part pads like are so common from companies other than Nintendo)...