In our country, Nintendo consoles have always had an ambiguous attitude. They are either sincerely loved or openly hated. In all my years of observation, I have not been able to see a happy medium. However, I have noticed that those who do not like Nintendo have often heard about the company only from certain bloggers.
I’m not calling on everyone to suddenly change their image and start wearing red caps and moustachesIn this article I want to talk about how the Japanese giant influenced the development of the modern gaming industry.
You might be surprised to learn that many of the things you’re used to were either invented by Nintendo or popularized by it.
Crosspad and gamepad
It’s hard to imagine a modern gamepad without a cross now, isn’t it?
Let’s start with the basics. Game controllers are now commonly referred to as “gamepad» or «joystick” And in the second case, you will most likely be corrected. And they will be right.
Joysticks existed before Nintendo entered the gaming industry. For example, the Atari 2600 had a joystick — stick with button. And the Magnavox Odyssey had a joystick. You can see what they looked like in the illustration below. Notice what they are missing first? That’s right: a cross.
The development of the classic cross-shaped button for movement control belongs to one of the main figures in the history of the gaming industry – Gunpei Yokoi.
For the first time, a crosspiece (the appearance of which is patented by Nintendo, and you will literally not find the same cross anywhere else) appeared on the portable toy Game and Watch (In the USSR there was an analogue of this series of toys. The same “Elektronika”) with Donkey Kong on board.
It is worth noting that the toy itself is also unique in that it had the form of a folding bed, and it was suggested to play on two screensYes, the concept of the Nintendo DS was laid back in the 80s.
Later, the cross would appear in the controllers of the first Nintendo stationary console. It was with its release that the term “gamepad” was introduced – literally a horizontal board for playing. Before that, controllers were of a different shape.
It was after Famicom (We know it as “Dandy”) all companies have begun to use variations of the cross in their gamepads.
But the controllers had another interesting feature. Do you remember when the first microphone appeared in gamepads? No, not on the PS 4. Much earlier. The first microphone in a gamepad was also on Nintendo’s Famicom. And it was even used in several games (in the Japanese version of The Legend of Zelda, for example).
But in the European and American versions of the gamepads, the microphone was removed.
No modern gamepad can do without these buttons.
The next milestone in the development of game controllers was the gamepad for the Super Famicom, better known in the West as the SNES. Its main feature is the shoulder buttons, also known as bumperswhich turned out to be very convenient to control. After the release of the SNES, almost all controllers began to be released with a diamond-shaped arrangement of buttons.
I was surprised that many people still think that Sony was the pioneer in the use of analog sticks and vibration in the gaming industry. However, this is not true. The first Sony PlayStation controllers had neither sticks nor vibration, and the DualShock, familiar to everyone from modern games, was initially sold as an additional accessory. Only in the very latest versions of the original PlayStation did it become a standard component.
Sony’s first gamepad was called the PS 1 Controller, and the DualShock was the last controller of the PS 1 era.
The analog sticks and vibration in DualShock are an evolution and improvement of the ideas proposed by Nintendo. In 1996, the Nintendo 64, the company’s first 3D console, was released. And in order to correctly control games in the new dimension, a rather specific-looking controller was developed.
In the middle of it was the so-called “Control Stick”. The mechanism of its operation was similar to the mechanism of the ball drive of a computer mouse. Two disks in contact with the stick tracked its position relative to the position at the moment of switching on the console. This mechanism had a drawback, since active use of the controller led to wear of the disks and deterioration of the stick.
And at the back of the gamepad was an expansion slot where you could insert, among other things, a Rumble Pak – a device that added vibration feedback to the gamepad. After that, vibration would become the standard in gamepads from all game console developers.
In conclusion of this segment, it is worth noting the fact that Nintendo invented and made standard almost all the functionality of modern gamepads, but the influence of the red giant on the industry does not end there.
Portable consoles
Another example of history being cyclical – in the last century, Nintendo was a monopolist of the portable market, where it destroyed all competitors in the bud. In 2024, no one except Nintendo makes portable consoles at all. In general, the fact is that Nintendo actually created the portable console industry.
It all started with the Game and Watch toys. They were relatively simple, using segmented LCD screens (which were developed for Nintendo by Sharp, a company known for its calculators) and had relatively primitive gameplay. They were invented again by Gunpei Yokoi.
According to legend, the idea for Game and Watch came to Gunpei while traveling on a bullet train in 1979. At that moment, he noticed a bored businessman who, having nothing better to do, was typing various combinations of numbers on a calculator. Watching this picture, Nintendo’s chief engineer realized that the world lacked a miniature gaming device that could help pass the time on trips.
However, by the time Famicom was released, the company had an idea to expand and improve its line of pocket toys. The task was risky – to transfer the gaming process from a large console to a pocket. That’s how the Nintendo Game Boy was invented. The industry’s first full-fledged portable console with a mission to bring games to everyone and for everyone, from the full-fledged The Legend of Zelda to the simple but addictive Tetris. In 1989, the portable was swept away at the start of sales.
Then something interesting happened – according to competitors, Game Boy had one critical flaw – a monochrome screen without backlighting. Sega and Atari released their competitors with fully colored screens, but stumbled over several factors. The consoles were much more expensive to produce and, most importantly, did not hold a charge well. There was also trouble with games – both the Sega Game Gear library and the Atari Lynx were significantly inferior to the games from Game Boy.
The concept of Nintendo’s handheld devices was very clear: to attract as many people as possible. Among them were adults who could while away the time in queues playing Tetris, and avid gamers sad because of the storylines of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, who tried to awaken the Wind Fish, and fans of catching Pokémon. Yes, it was on the Game Boy that these pocket monsters appeared, which became a real phenomenon.
Subsequent portable consoles from Nintendo were always hits in sales, and sometimes even changed the idea of gaming. For example, the Nintendo DS became the second best-selling console in the world after the legendary PlayStation 2. In general, Sony is the only one who could compete with Nintendo in the portable console market for a long time, but, unfortunately, they lost and left this segment. We will talk about this another time.
In conclusion, it is worth noting the fact that if Nintendo had not shown how to make pocket entertainment and how to develop its own market segment, we would probably not know either the PSP or the Steam Deck
Innovative controls in games
Meet the main console of the generation, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
I once wrote about the world’s first motion controller, which, unfortunately, did not gain widespread popularity. In 2006, the Nintendo Wii appeared – a console that radically changed the gaming industry.
Mercury Joystick! 5 Incredible and Even Dangerous Game Controllers That Were Ahead of Their Time
Although the Wii was technically significantly weaker than the Xbox 360 and PS3, it managed to outsell its competitors in terms of sales. And in the portable segment, the Nintendo DS was at the same time a confident leader, leaving the PlayStation Portable far behind.
The controller was somewhat reminiscent of a TV remote control. The speaker in the middle was often used in games as an immersive element. For example, in Silent Hill, phone conversations sounded from it.
The Wii Remote’s main feature, compared to its competitors, is its motion detection, which allows players to control game characters and objects on the screen by moving their hand or “pointing” at objects displayed on the screen. This is achieved by using an accelerometer and a light-sensitive matrix. In addition, the controller had a speaker and vibration (the latter was not in the first PS3 controllers, by the way).
Nintendo set the standard for motion control using the accelerometer. It created a unique collection of games where this type of control was not just an add-on, but a core element that worked well and was as engaging as the cinematic cutscenes in competitors’ games. People unexpectedly liked this innovation.
Sony then released their own controller, the PS Move, which failed to gain popularity due to the almost complete lack of games. Microsoft also released their own version, the Kinect, which was very cool, but unfortunately failed to gain popularity either.
The concept of motion control appeared in one form or another on consoles of the following generations. Yes, there are almost no completely motion-based ones, but the standards set by Nintendo are still used today.
And these are just the biggest examples.
If we list all the things that Nintendo came up with but everyone uses, it would take more than one or two articles. I have selected only the most important and basic points. Left behind is HD vibration, which first appeared on the Nintendo Switch, and now in a heavily modified version has appeared on the PS5 controller.
I also didn’t mention a whole layer of game genres that Nintendo practically invented from scratch, and the rest were never able to provide worthy analogues. For example, there is still no good analogue of the fighting game Super Smash Bros. in the world, there are no racing games of this format that are cooler than Mario Kart (with the exception, perhaps, of Crash Team Racing), and all analogues of the ultra-popular Pokemon have failed.
You can dislike Nintendo, the company has plenty of downsides. But denying its influence on the industry and not respecting it for it is very stupid. I leave you with this thought. Have a nice day!
Source: www.iphones.ru
