A rather old, but still intersting Revolution article.

http://eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=59858

Mmm...it's no touch screen for sure anyway.

 

I bet it's like a rubix cube you twist into different shapes, kinda like a hybrid of transformers and lego.

 

Well, its nice and all that Nintendo showed it to developers, but why not show it at E3? Are they afraid of the backlash that may come against it?

 

i hate their excuse to not show their controllers: ''it's because it's so great, never seen before and all, that we don't want to be copied!''

it's just pretencious and just doesn't have any sense. Hey ninty, if someone copy you, then don't worry, we'll know who thought it first, so we'll know wich one we should congradulate. And what are copyrights for anyway?

what i think is, like we were able to read more recently, that nintendo doesn't even know what the fuzz is all about either. they're still trying to figure how you'll play your games in your sweet home, Hence the ''we don't want to be copied!'' excuse.

showing it to developers but not giving them dev kits seems rather pointless anyway.
''Hey look! that's why we call our next system revolution! Amazing, uh? No, we won't give you any dev kits, but you can imagine your projects in your heads and what could be possible for now, and wait at your mail box with patience!''

Anyway, hope they will really risk something unforseen, unexpected and really revolutionary, because it may be the last console that might interest me, and for now, i still believe.

 

I think I know what it is. I've seen this idea work elsewhere. If it is what I think, it's SO going to rock!

Anyone here seen this Universal/TV remote control (Available in Radio Shack) called "the Chameleon"?
It's basically a rectangular control, with a blue screen and no visible buttons on it. You configure it with the functions you want, and the ones you require light up. I think, though I'm not sure, the buttons are even animated, can be assigned different functions and locations.
The article says something about being able to house every control configuration. I think a similar system, with analogue capabilities, is the thing that might be able to do this Revolution configuration. You want NES games? Then the controller shows a NES layout. Snes? The same. Hell, newer games could each have their layouts and ways of touching the controller (this is where the DS technology and the Revolution are similar, as said before).
Of course, I think the thing is going to have to need L/R triggers and perhaps a little stick, but it could work even without it.
It would be so cool! Kind of like Intellivision/Colecovision controllers with overlays, only the overlays are electronic!

Ah, and for the record, here's a description of the Chameleon from a UK vendor. http://www.avukltd.com/kameleons/kameleon_4.php

 

I dont want to dissapoint you Xerdo, but nintendo already said that DS and revo wont be compatible like GC and GBA.

This touchscreen controller is only good for 2 types of games: RTS and RPG. The 1st runs like crap on consoles, mainly becos it needs a mouse. Ill suggest a trackpad, but a touchscreen could do the job, and you can make extra buttons for weapons and stuff.

In the 2nd case, most RPGs needed a mouse in the past, now they need a keyboard to imput data. A touchscreen could help with custom-by-player buttons with special tactics and messages.

The only thing about touchscreens is that they wear out quiclky, and that goes against the nintendo creed that a game machine has to be as resistant as possible. Anyways, they already included one in the DS (and we all know that portables goes trough much more damage that consoles) so WTF, they can include one in the revo.

Now, what the REAL dilemma? The only (decent) FPS in GC is Metroid, and the only RPG that can use this benefit is PSO.

Honestly, i would prefer a gyroscope controller rather than a TS based one :douga

 

Yeah, I didn't say it would use the DS, I meant the controls would be DS-like, in terms of the technology - but otherwise speaking, I see your point and it makes sense.
I was thinking about the Gyroscopes earlier too, it would rock but not as much as a context sensitive universal pad.
I do think, however, they are talking about context sensitive controllers. At least the button configuration and some others are likely to be a touch-screen of some kind with other analogue capabilities. The only other option would be a module based controller and I don't even want to go into that.

 

I reckon the pad will have a gyro in it, as opposed to a touch screen. It's only a controlpad at the end of the day: surely ppl won't be happy with paying £40 for a new TS controller. A gyro is sounding like a cheaper, mass production alternative.

The DC showed us that, whilst the VMU is damn cool, devs just don't really bother with these things.

I am impressed that Nintendo are making the pad as universal as possible following the last revolutionary pad (N64), that was really only designed for Mario64 and the Zeldas.

 

Nintendo already said that the revolution wouldn't be a home version of the ds, nor use the same technology, So the cameleon thing can't be right. They want the DS and rev to be different. Buying 60 dollards pad wouldn't be really exiting too, as for the ''cameleon'' thing again, remember that a touch screen isn't affected by the weight you put on it, and that there's no relief in it, so you would have no tactile point de repaire, and you couldn't just put your finger on the button either, since it would think your pushing it (it's 0 or 1 on a touch screen(you're touching it, or you're not), for a tv remote control, it's ok, but it's another thing for a console system. and i wouldn't call this revolutionning at all.

it would be cool if you could replay all your old nintendo games with a new twist, a new way to controll it and all, that would make me pay to replay those old games i already own.

and i might sound stupid, but what the heck is a gyroscope anyway?

right. i hope it won't be as gimmickly as this. i don't want something that could remove from the controller and still play like if nothing happened, i want something that litterally changes the way you play and that have an importance.

 

Still, a sort of VMU with the capabilities of a GBA, with a rechargeable battery, small LCD screen, flash memory (say 256MB/512MB/1GB), and a plug for headphones (music playback) would make it quite nifty to say the least. ;p

 

and quite expansive.

 

Stupid is whomever has doubt and doesn't ask. Therefore, you are smart for asking that which you want to know.

A gyroscope is a series of gyrating/rotating elements that produce torque and therefore can influence balance, or cause some sort of "force feedback" thanks to inertia and ... I think, centrifugal force or something similar.

This wikipedia article will help

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyroscope

 

I thought the gyroscope possiblility rumors had been slowed, I've read a few articles such as this one:

http://www.neoseeker.com/news/story/4720/

Suggesting that they had come up with the gyroscope idea for the GBA and GC, and had not really utilized it yet (and apparently never will for those systems) But in any case, that certainly doesn't mean it isn't a technology that they will use for the revo.

 

Im pretty sure you can make touch screens presure sensative.

 

Yes, it can happen. That's the analogue capability I was talking about.
I'm curious, but I still think my theory is plausible.

 

You cant, cuz they are already invented

Theres scratch-resistant TS too, and ones that you can touch in different places at the same time (THAT being needed for a controller)

The problem? their are incredible expensive. The scratch proof one is developed by a french firm, and they carge like 5K for a tablet-PC version of the screen. The one thats pressure sensitive is still in experimental phase (and dont think it`ll be cheap. And the last its only availvable in a professional music editing keyboard thats worth like 6K.

Gyros at the other side are much more cheaper. So much that you could equip a 40$ controller with 4 of them (one for every axis) thus making the pad ultra sensitive.

You may think "why so many gyros?" well, you should try the sidewinder that came in 99. It came with only 1 gyro, what made it a pian in the ass to use. With multiple gyros you can control a game by just tilt the pad the way you want the character to move.

 

if they really make a gyro controllers, then i would like them with a glove shape. two gloves, replacing the two joysticks of a normal controller and an individual finguer movement sensitive thing (maybe mercury in some king of plastic tube where they could see if you finguer is up or down (a bit like on today's cameras with the turning screen) so you could control the game like if you were typing on a keyboard and dancing with your arms. that would seems less stupid than tilting the controller like everyone did the first time they touched a controller (or jumping at the same time that mario is jumping).

as for the TS, i think it can definitivly be erased from the list, for good reasons: Nintendo said then wouldn't do anything that's already on the ds (including the TS), it would be way too expansive, the fact that you can't touch the ts screen in two different area at the same time (thx jti2k), that analog touch screens doesn't exists yet, and that the tactil feeling with the buttons wouldn't be there (you would be watching at you controller all the time to be sure you're alignated with the buttons.)

 

Honestly, i dont know wich of the 2 situations is more embarrassing

Anyways, i sense some Powerglove nostalgia (although that thing sucked). In that case, the glove would need 6 gyros: 4 in the upper palm, and 2 in the finger. With that you could do multiple combos with only one hand, let alone what you could do with both.

No prob :smt023

Though I dont think that youll need to see at the screen the whole time. But it would be necessary to practice some time to be accustomed.

 

The two gloves thing sounds like a module based controller, which is another, very different form of personalisation.

I think a module based controller, maybe not the gloves, but two modules or more, could also be the revolutionary part. The TS would be insanely cool, but then again, so would a good implementation of the gyros. Not only the fact of transmitting motion, but the fact that the Gyros have strong torque and that can create REAL motion/force feedback.0
That would be rocking.

It's coming out in march, right? When do you think we'll know?

 

i just don't want a controller in my hands anymore, controller equal past! (still, i like the past )

and what is coming in march? the revo? say march '07, yeah.

and yeah, i was thinking about an evolution of the power glove.