I grew up in an arcade. Specifically it was the arcade on the bottom floor of the 101 Mall in Timmins and, to a lesser extent, the arcade in the Timmins Square. In the 80’s, a joystick and a few buttons were all that you needed. I also had an Atari 2600, Nintendo Entertainment System and Super NES. At some point shortly thereafter, I bought my first computer. Since then, most of my gaming has been PC Gaming. And since the days of the original Quake, it’s been the keyboard+mouse setup that I’m accustomed to. In the case of FPS games, the keyboard+mouse setup works perfectly. I haven’t played the game consoles from Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft much since then.
While Dena and I were in Crystal Falls over the holidays, I played a lot of cards. It’s very popular up there. And sorting a lot of cards in my hand is painful. This makes me notice “the ache”. Also, I did play some X-Box – plenty of Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks. Consider the X-Box controller; 2 analog sticks, 1 digital d-pad, 2 triggers, 6 buttons on the right side and 2 more buttons on the left. All of this is on a piece of hardware that you hold in your hands. Ouch. Maybe it’s the years of video games, hockey, golf and working in an industry that requires me to be tethered to a keyboard, but my wrists are killing me. Clearly, the video game console manufacturers are aiming for young wrists. And then along comes my old friend Nintendo…
Sometime this spring, Nintendo will release its successor to the GameCube – its final name isn’t set in stone but it’s currently known as “Revolution”. I haven’t cared at all about the console video game scene for the longest time. I hardly play games at all, and when I do, it’s a UT or EA Sports PC game. And then I saw the “Revolution”‘s controller and my mind’s been blown. It can sense its position in 3D space! How cool is that?!?!? It totally opens up new gameplay possibilities. Hell, even FPS will actually be playable on consoles now. And the fact that I won’t have to wrap my hands around a small controller with a gazillion buttons really piques my interest. Due to Nintendo‘s emphasis on gameplay innovation over polygon-pushing, maybe I can play console games again and stave that carpal tunnel surgery for a few more years 😉
5 Responses to "nintendo thumb can't compare"
You mean you never went to Red Top Arcade up town? Once you filtered through all the riffraff and degenerates that would normally hang out there to do “business” – the games that were usually much better then the 101 and the square 🙂
Now to Nintendo’s, it is nice to see them go back to there roots and offer a truly evolved NES (yes the original) controller – although proof’ is in da puddin’.. and it remains to be seen if it remains a robust controller or a lame remote control.
When I was at the arcades at the 101 Mall and the Square, I was between 7 and 10 years old. I only ventured into Top Hat on Pine St. uptown when I was a teenager…to play Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat, of course 😉
As you can tell by the erroneus name in which I gave it – it has been sometime since I was in there as well… 😛
I’m a little curious regarding your take on nintendo’s new controller and how it will facilitate a smoother FPS experience on a console. I agree that although the infared(?) detection of the remote position can add an entire new dynamic to the way some games are played and the way some future titles will be designed to take advantage of, but for some reason this seems like gimic technology reminiscent of The Power Glove (remember that beaut’?). Ultimately, unless this controller is a ‘rock’ and people can get past flingin’ and flappin’ the controller around the air -a’la Tommy Lee on a lonely night- AND there is strong third party support for it’s features …. this controller and likely the revolution itself will go the way of the Dodo, and the Power Glove.
Also see “R.O.B the Robot” and “VR Boy” for other Nintendo peripheral disasters.. 🙂
The Revolution’s controller reminds me a tad of Microsoft’s SideWinder DualStrike (this will give you an idea of what it looked like). It was a game pad targeted at FPS games that was divided into two halves. The second half rotated, which acted as your view….much like the mouse in a keyboard+mouse setup. I used it for a while and I found it very intuitive. The Revolution’s controller sounds like it will act much in the same way.
Anybody who plays a lot of FPS games on a PC undoubtedly finds the two analog stick setup of the PS2, X-Box and GameCube controllers cumbersome. FPS games blow on consoles compared to their PC counterparts. Last Christmas I played Halo 2 and it was dreadful. I just can’t imagine how anybody could aim properly with those controllers.
If you do the ol’ XYZ axis coordinate system thing with your fingers, you could see how easy it is for your hand to understand 3D space. That Revolution controller looks like an extension. Now try doing that with your two thumbs on analogue sticks. No comparisson.
True. R.O.B. and VR Boy didn’t last. But I think they were more gimmicky. I guess we’ll have to wait and see when April rolls around.
Does anyone have any graphics of the “Top Hat’s Amusements” banner? I’d like to construct my own MAME arcade cabinet and I thought that it would be fitting to have the logo of the #1 Timmins arcade.
I’ll come back here in a few years to see if anyone has responded.
Take care.
PS: anyone wanna buy some hash? (inside joke regarding Top Hat’s)