Topic: My new controller idea.

[nemo_83]

By the way, how would I transfer a pic from an apple to whatever code is needed so I can show my controller ideas.

I see the controller prongs being joined veritcly opening the top prong up for use as a third joystick that can also turn left and right, and be pushed down for a digital click.  on top of the top prong the face buttons and joystick that has digital clicking.  The face buttons are all analog and have digital clicking on a minimal scale.  The circular area of the face buttons would dip allowing the thumbe to rest on the A button in the center at the lowest part where it is easiest to get to the surounding face buttons which form a uniform arch around the A button.  I say that there should be 5 face buttons.  With five, 2 on each side of the A button one can more easily hit 3 face buttons at once and could still hit 4 posibly at one time.  Four shoulder buttons overall.  All should be comfortable and analog.  One shoulder should still be a trigger on each prong.  The controller must conform to the hands like the cube controller.  

On the lower half the 3rd joystick and d pad are placed.  A full size d pad.  

You hold the bottom with the left hand and the top with the right and both hands work together to obtain the angles for the big joystick.  I can imagine sword fighting in Zelda or independent aiming in Metroid.  With wireless technologies this one could be nearly perfect.  Maybe if you could plug it into the system optionally for charging and play.  By plugging it in you get rumble and hot/cold generators for when the enviroment is hot or cold.  Or maybe just some air conditioning during a long game of Maden.

[KDR_11k]

You have to save your pic in PNG, GIF or JPG format, upload it to your webspace and put a link here. Images can't be linked directly to prevent copyright infringement.

My proposal
Not the complete thing, this is just the front. The rest looks like the standard GC controller, maybe without the Z-button.

Gray: Analog-Pad (analog stick with wide hat to feel like a pad), Start, Select buttons.
Light gray: LCD-screen.
Red: Trackball
Green: A-Button, clickable digital coolie-hat.
Yellow, Cyan, Blue, Purple: B, C, X, Y, Z-Buttons.

Maybe the exact shape needs tweaking to feel more comfortable, but it shows what I'd like on a controller. If I could do it I'd build it myself just to try out how it fits PC-gaming...

[nemo_83]

i have no web site.  How am I to get the pic online.  I was thinking of carving it out of the kind of clay they carve car designs out of, but I have no digital camera.  I think back to before the GameCube and now I realize I am already more talented at design and 3d modeling than the people like at IGN who were making mock clay Cube controllers to see how the design felt.  I don't know how long they worked on those types of projects, but I know that I can carve most anything out of clay perfectly now (and quickly).  Maybe somewhere out there, there is a job in the game biz for me when I graduate college.  

I was thinking of making the controller resemble the number 5 only scewed a bit.

I say NIntendo went way too far with their minimalism ideas on the Cube controller.  It seems they don't care for third party wants and then they can't figure out why noone wants to develop games for them.  When you stick your nose up at people that want shoulder buttons and possible depth from the controller then it will come back to bite you in the but.  I think you have too many face buttons on your design.  My idea of having one center face button and four surounding buttons may turn out too complicated and may just need 3 surounding buttons.  Nintendo doesn't need to ignore the prospect of a mouse wheel somewhere on the controller either.  This is great for scrolling.  Maybe two wheels on the shoulders as the second set of shoulder buttons or even the third.  I don't want a keyboard from Nintendo, but I want something that will function with all games.  If the controller doesn't look like a Smurf barfed on it then the public perception of the controller's functionality may improve too.

The next controller must have a screen built in or flat out just be the GameBoy because there is no way I'm doing this FFCC junk with all of the hardware requirements.  Unfortunately the GameBoys are always way too uncomfortable and are totally against my view of comfort first.  

[Grey Ninja]

Quote
Gray: Analog-Pad (analog stick with wide hat to feel like a pad), Start, Select buttons.
Light gray: LCD-screen.

*ahem*

[Bill Aurion]

Grey: Both grey and gray are acceptable

In my opinion, the one thing that should be changed is making two z buttons and making them triggers like the N64's...

[Qbric]

nemo, i can put them up on the webspace I got. Just email them 2 noriego_ai2yahoodotcom

The "2" is an encrypted "@". It's a 1 bit encryption scheme - i don't know if its legal but it should stop the bots.

I likw GCN controller and think the z button is just fine. It's always there when I need it and never when I don't. The push-down button on the xbox stick annoys the hell out of me. It interferes with whatever else it controls and annoys the hell out me.

Nintendo should just stick to the old controller, no changes whatsoever. We're all just going to upgrade to super controllers (GB64/128) anyway. And if its not broke, don't fix it (imo).

[Molobert]

I think that instead of the Z button, 2 buttons should have been placed behind the grips for your middle fingers (not index fingers). I hope they are used in the next-gen controllers.

But I still like my idea of a fully customizable controller set-up. If you dont like how the face buttons are arranged, rearrange them yourself. If you want bigger/smaller grips, buy new ones and attach them. If you want a D-pad, or another analog stick, or a wireless receiver, or more trigger buttons, or non-analog buttons, etc., you could just buy new ones. Also, this way if a new controller idea were to be thought up midway through the console's life, new parts could me made to attach to existing controllers.

[Grey Ninja]

Quote
Originally posted by: Bill
Grey: Both grey and gray are acceptable

Not in my books they aren't.  Give me grey or give me death!

[Qbric]

Interesting idea Molobert. It'd be like the equivelent of the garage in f-zero. Mix and mach basic parts. But it's really a large investment for such a minor issue. You'd inevitably would lose many of the parts and also end up with many left overs of the uncommon pieces.

Ofcourse giving the option to include non-standard buttons is ludicrous. There are times when this would be novel and I see where your going, Molo, but the effort far out wieghs the reward. Firstly, you can't have analouge and digital buttons and apply the same response to them. The developers wouldn't be able to design the game properly if they didn't know what kind buttons the user has access to. It's a kin to giving an actor free rein over his lines. A little leeway is fine but not that much!

2nd, part of the developers responsibility is to come up with the best control scheme. I highly doubt Molo that you steer very far asray from a games orig config. Also I believe there are deeper psychological obsticals that go into making an intuitive control scheme. Like left brain right brain stuff.

If a new controller idea comes up, use it the next gen. If its for a specific game, sell it specifically for that game. No matter how you design a controller, you are still limited to the number of receptors inside the orig unit. Besides, its a controller not an erector set. But thats just me. Maybe I'm not seeing what you've intended to express.  But keep on with the ideas, bro.

[KDR_11k]

Ninja: Then buy your dictionaries somewhere else!