In fact, this question is not too complicated, before the advent of Kinect, it was also called a fantasy, but since the advent of Kinect, although the controller has not been canceled, this statement is no longer ridiculed.

It's something that is likely to be done in the near future.

It's just that many players don't realize this, but then again, game controllers have been born since the day the game was born. Dr. Simjibson's two-player online game has knob-style controllers, and even that simple two-player online game has attracted far more visitors than any other project in this world-class nuclear physics laboratory.

To be precise, according to Singibson's later recollections, he used an oscilloscope to make this two-player tennis ball just so that the visitors could have something to adjust, but he didn't expect that the number of people who came to try this two-player online game at that time was much higher than all the other sports combined.

Of course, according to Jester's memory, the oscilloscope's two-player tennis ball was permanently treasured by Brookhaven National Laboratory, and decades later, anyone who visited Brookhaven could visit the world's first real video game console.

I heard about the glorious tradition of their lab in video games, so I took the initiative to look for it and take a group photo.

In fact, the controller has changed from two-player online games, to later light guns, and FPS...... It seems that it should be more appropriate to call it a game controller in hand, which is a very magical little thing.

When we play shooting games, it is the gun in our hands. With a slight press of the button, the "we" on the screen will pull the trigger and rain bullets on the enemy who stands in our way; When we play the game of flying, it is the joystick in our hands, relying on it to soar and fight in the blue sky, making us think we are in the cockpit of the F16 fighter. And not in some small room; When we play racing games, it is the steering wheel in our hands, and although we haven't moved half a minute, we still feel the pleasure of sitting in a Ferrari sports car.

This wonderful thing is the game controller.

The handle is just one of them.

The game controller will be the gun in your hand for a while, helping you take down enemies that stand in your way; One moment it will be the sword in your hand, slaying the ugly monster for you; After a while, it was the hand of the magician, summoning the debut lightning.

Maybe it's because game controllers are so mundane and common. Many gamers know a lot about games and consoles, but they don't know much about game controllers. At present, the articles about game controllers may stay at the level of introduction and description, and rarely discuss the development of game controllers. or too specialized, except for those who are engaged in related industries, it is more difficult for the average person to understand.

In fact, Jester is very interested in the history of the friend who accompanied him in his gaming career, that is, the controller.

At the end of the day, a controller is a tool, a tool that makes it easy for players to interact with video games, in many cases. If you don't have a controller, you can't play.

There's an interesting opening for a movie.

He explained the evolution of one of the most important things in the history of human civilization -- and that is tools.

In this film there is such a shot.

As the ancient apes tossed the bone rod in their hands high. The camera pans to a spaceship sailing through a sea of stars – a classic scene from the famous movie "2001: A Space Odyssey" that covers millions of years of human evolution. Human beings have gone through a process from simple to complex from walking with long hair and hunched to losing hair and walking upright. At the same time, the tools used by humans have evolved as dramatically as bone clubs to spaceships.

Actually, the development of any tool. It's all like this, from incomparably simple, to incomparably sophisticated, and the handle is the same.

Game controllers are like any other tool invented by humans. There is also a complex and tortuous evolutionary history.

So what is a controller or a game controller?

Any tool needs to set a standard, otherwise, wouldn't you even be able to figure out what exactly a game controller is? And what exactly is a game controller?

It's simple to say it's simple, and it's not complicated to say it's complicated.

If Kinect represents a new controller, what does a traditional controller look like?

Jester felt that it should at least meet the following characteristics.

First of all, one is to use the key operation, which is the characteristics of the operation mode, otherwise what is it called traditional? Secondly, it is early to appear, and the third is a wide range of applications, the first two are easy to understand, and there is no misunderstanding of the third, but the third ~ point is still worth explaining.

The so-called wide range of application means that this game controller does not "pick" games, and can be competent for the operation needs of most games, not only limited to certain types of games. For example, light guns appeared very early, and the operation is mainly based on buttons, but except for some specific shooting games, it is not competent for other games - who has ever seen "Super Mario" played with light guns - so it cannot be included in the scope of traditional game controllers.

However, not all traditional game controllers meet these three criteria, for example, the rotary knob controller does not have key operation as the primary mode of operation, but it still falls under the category of traditional game controllers due to its early appearance and widespread adoption as the default game controller in first-generation consoles.

Local materials are the beginning of primitive human use of tools, and before the birth of special game controllers, the controllers used in games and even the running carrier of the entire game - game consoles are "local materials".

Video games were born mainly due to the fact that some extremely boring programmers wrote small programs for entertainment for various reasons. We may not be able to figure out whether there was a chicken or an egg in a few books, but you don't need a genius brain, you can understand that games were born before game consoles.

There are no chickens without eggs, and there are no chicken wings without chickens, which is the saying that the controller - specialized game controllers only appeared after the advent of specialized game consoles.

Since there is no specialized control equipment. The first games could only play the spirit of "take-it-or-leave-it", emulating the practice of apes picking up bone sticks and using some existing equipment as game controllers.

Those born in the 80s may remember the old black-and-white TV set at home, with two knobs for selecting channels and adjusting volume.

The knobs were generally used to operate various instruments such as radios, televisions, oscilloscopes, etc., but in 1947 Thomas . T. Gousmith II and Esto Ray Mann patented the "cathode ray tube entertainment device", which became the game controller. Yes, in the beginning, the scientific name of the game controller was called a cathode ray tube entertainment device.

The "Cathode Ray Tube Entertainment Device" is an entertainment device that simulates the launch of a missile, and the player can control the course and speed of the missile through multiple knobs.

This is the earliest recorded game with a separate game controller.

As mentioned earlier, in 1958 physicist William Brown. Double-Sided Tennis, designed by Sim Gibson for Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, is generally considered to be the first video game to be displayed graphically, and it was popular with visitors as game controllers using two box-like controllers with track control knobs and a batting knob.

The world's first video game console, the Odyssey, released in 1972, and its predecessor, the BrownBox, also used a device with a knob as a game controller. If you are a fan of the manga "Doraemon", you may remember the scene of playing video games in some episodes~. One of the game consoles uses knob controllers.

If you think about the era of Doraemon's appearance, it is not difficult to see why this is so.

This was the prototype of the traditional handle – the prototype of the knob controller.

However, just as human civilization likes to distinguish between the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, etc., tools are constantly evolving in the process of development, not only the game console itself, but also the controller, which is becoming more and more accessible to the people.

After the knob controller. It's the joystick controller.

The Joystick, also known as the "George Stick", is said to have been invented and named by several French pilots in the early 20th century. The reason why he can replace the knob controller is very simple, that is, he is much more comfortable and flexible than the knob controller, so the second generation of game consoles generally use the joystick as the game controller, and the joystick is often figuratively called a joystick.

The famous Atari 2600. It comes with a joystick with 1 button and a set of battlesticks. There is also the 1978 Magna~voxOdyssey2, which ditched the outdated knob-style controller in favor of a joystick that was more convenient to operate.

In addition, joystick controllers are widely used in arcade machines, which is generally considered to be the most suitable control method for arcade games. Especially in fighting games, even decades later, playing fighting games with joysticks is an exception to any fighting game, especially some fighting games that are rigorously judged.

For example, the famous "Apocalypse of the Wings" or the "Evil Equipment" of the same company.

Then came the gamepad, which is familiar to almost all gamers - this has almost become a symbol of the game controller now and in the future, and can even be abstracted as a representative of the game.

For example, if you use an icon so that anyone can see it from the first moment they see it knows that it's saying something about the game, then there's nothing more appropriate than a gamepad.

The most classic handle, which can also be said to be the prototype of all later handles, is from Yokoi Junhei, the former director ~ of Nintendo's first development department, the inventor of the D-pad handle, and now the director of the handheld development department of Mars Entertainment.

The D-pad he pioneered on GW and carried it forward on FC.

This is really a classic in the history of the game, the FC controller is the first dedicated game controller to set the direction controller on the left side, and from practical experience, for the majority of right-handers, it seems to be more convenient to use the left hand for direction control. Its unique cross-shaped direction controller is easy to use and precise in positioning. In addition, when players use the FC controller, the left hand is responsible for direction control, and the right hand is responsible for button operation, and the reasonable division of labor improves the efficiency and comfort of operation. To this day, most game controllers still follow these designs, which shows how good they are.

There's another type of game control, and that's keyboard and mouse, but there's no need to go into details.

Because keyboards and mice weren't developed specifically for gaming, playing games is just one of their roles, and it's not very important.

The reason why a game controller is called a game controller is because its main or all functions are used to play games.

Somatosensory games will be completely different from these traditional game control modes, and the development of somatosensory games is also a new thing for Mars Entertainment, designers must be very clear about what they can do in the somatosensory environment, in order to make fun games in this environment.

If Shigeru Miyamoto and his intelligence development team didn't have a good grasp of the WII's performance features, then the "Super Horse Silver" series would not be able to talk about it.

For games like Super Horse Silver, technical problems are easy to solve, in fact, the Mario series is not known for its outstanding technology, he is most famous for the level design, that kind of ingenious level, is all the essence of the Mario series.

Many people in later generations like to spray games with bad graphics, for example, players of Fallout 4 like to say that Fallout is not playing with pictures.

But the picture is actually the least worthy of spraying.,A game with a bad picture.,It doesn't mean that he will be sprayed.,A game is sprayed by no means because the picture is poor.,It's because it's mediocre in all aspects.,And the picture is the worst.。

For example, Nintendo's games are recognized as graphic garbage, but why doesn't anyone spray it?

Because for Nintendo, a full screen of mosaics represents a full screen of gameplay.

Jester couldn't possibly bring the entire Ultra Horse Silver series to life, it was too difficult, he could only recall some very classic level designs, and then let his game level team create his own levels based on the design ideas of those levels.

But now there's another question in front of Jester.

The Super Horse Silver he wants to make on the next-generation console, is it going to follow the Super Balotelli series of this world? (To be continued......)