Sony Develops a Universal Game Console Controller 62
Go Rumors has discovered that Sony recently applied for a patent on a "universal game console controller." According to the patent filing, the controller "includes a hand-holdable housing and a touch sensitive liquid crystal display (LCD) on the housing. The LCD is caused to present, depending on what type of game console a user has selected, a controller key layout for a first type of game console or a controller key layout for a second type of game console. A key layout includes plural keys selectable by a user to input commands to a game console."
Seems useful enough... (Score:1)
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I owned a couple of Mad Catz controllers, both for PlayStation2. One was just average 3rd party fare, whereas the other was actually a very nice remodelled controller in a smaller form factor that I initially much preferred to Sony's official controller.
Unfortunately, they barely saw two month's use before the analogue sticks went out of alignment, with no way to recalibrate them, rendering them useless for most games. Whether their products have improved much in the past 5-6 years, I couldn't say.
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I had much the same experience with them back during the era of the original Playstation. I have no idea if their controllers have improved either, because I had such a crappy experience with them that I'll never buy their products again.
Looking at their recent designs, it looks like they still have the problem where they try to design controllers that "look cool" instead of ones that are actually comfortable and practical.
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If you need a PS style controller for the PC, I've had good look with a pair of Nyko AirFlo EX controllers I bought on Woot a year or so ago. The fan in them is kind of gimicky, but the controllers are pretty comfortable and they've worked with no issues so far.
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I've had two of their PS2 controllers. They were nice ergonomically. And the ability to force the use of analog sticks in games without analog stick support, such as with many PS1 RPGs was nice. But they wore out way to fast. On both controllers I had the analog sticks develop dead spots in around 2 to 3 months.
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It depends. If they want to, they can make something that no other manufacturer can touch outside of individuals making their own. The SF4 Tournament Edition stick [kotaku.com] is often heralded as the BEST stick you can buy, as it uses Sanwa parts and is laid out in a very logical manner... not to mention it's user moddable.
Oblig (Score:1, Flamebait)
And I suppose even that will come laden with DRM, so that it can only be used with the console you purchased it with.
You want to go over your friends house and play 2up, you'll have to buy another controller.
The haptic hell waits for them ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Everbody says the same about these newly fangled "touch"screens and their inputschemes: Give me back my haptic feedback.
As long as the screen does not press back I will suck at the input. I need some input from my fingertips to show me that I am over "the" or at least "a" button. If it's on a screen I have to look at the screen to see if my fingers are positioned correctly.
DO NOT WANT!
Don't get me started on Sony last "new" input scheme, the Sixxaxis. In theory it's great, in reality the missing "weight" feedback destroys every immersion and fun in using the controller like e.g. a valve or a steering wheel.
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The day they made a homebrew Bluetooth stack and started added Wiimote support to the emulators was the day retro games (other than RPGs) became playable.
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Maybe this would interest you: http://icontrolpad.com/ [icontrolpad.com]
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I agree.
Here's a blue-sky idea that could help.
Ferrofluid touch interface
http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Ferrofluid_20touch_20interface [halfbakery.com]
Another idea that could help is having analog buttons and joysticks with tiny OLEDs mounted on the keys/buttons/sticks (like the Optimus keyboard). Perhaps even the physicals components could be reconfigurable like the Rubik cube.
Also wonder if it would be possible to build constructive interference with several piezo sensors to generate feedback
Anyway, here's to ideas and i
God no (Score:4, Insightful)
Sony controllers have the worst layout, with the analog sticks in a horrible position, with a form meant for girly hands. They should just give up and use the 360 controller and replace the d-pad with the one from the NES, and there you go, the perfect console controller.
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The only appreciable difference between the PS3 controller and the 360 controller is that the analog/digital location is switched. I do agree, though, that the 360 controller d-pad should be replaced with a Nintendo one. The current one feels about as awkward as the d-pad from the NES Max controller.
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*Shrug* I personally prefer the PS3 controller (own both systems). The 360 controller still seems big and bulky to me, and the d-pad is pretty much worthless.
The 360 one probably has a better layout, in theory, but for some reason (the two above don't fully answer it), I still prefer the PS3 controller. Not by a huge margin, but, yeah...
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Everybody likes the same thing, huh? I much prefer the symmetrical layout and flatter profile of the PS3 controller. I just wish Sony would fix the rubbery triggers (and MS would fix the damn D-pad).
What really annoys me, though, is that the aftermarket controllers all try to use the same basic design of the official controller. Why are there so few XBox-like controllers for the PS3, and so few PS-like controllers for the XBox? Surely such a crowded market would welcome another niche. Or, is the design
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BluePad (Score:2)
Coming Q4, 2010
Useless (Score:2, Interesting)
Somehow I doubt the LCD could stand the amount of pressure a typical controller button receives. And who would be able to play without feeling the button? I don't want to have to look at the controller only to make sure my finger is over the correct button.
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Well, the iPhone has already demonstrated how that would work (answer:not very well).
Nice idea but I think it'll suck (Score:3, Insightful)
Part of the problem is tactile feedback, since you need to locate buttons by touch during a game. However I think durability might be an issue. People tend to be hard on their game controllers and I can't see a touch screen holding up to the same kind of abuse as buttons.
I like the idea of a reconfigurable controller, I don't don't think we have good tech for it yet.
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I think a keyboard actually comes pretty close to an arcade stick for precision because you operate each button with a different finger on it too.
Until you get to 2 players (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Until you get to 2 players (Score:4, Informative)
Couldn't you solve this by plugging in a second keyboard?
When you plug in multiple keyboards, you have the expectation of being able to assign WASD on each keyboard to control each player's character. But DirectX combines keypress events from all keyboards into one virtual device before passing them to the application. It does the same thing with mouse movements. Some versions of Windows have a "Raw Input API" that distinguishes among multiple keyboards, but Microsoft doesn't promote it to the extent it does DirectInput and XInput. I have a couple conspiracy theories about why: Microsoft wants to sell more Xbox 360 gamepads for use with PC games, or Microsoft wants to sell more copies of Windows on which to play games that need a separate PC per player. Besides, it's a lot harder to fit multiple full-size PC keyboards around one monitor than two arcade-style joysticks around one monitor.
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I'm always curious about the high praise for 360 controllers. First of all, I'm not that keen on the shoulder button arrangement, but that is a minor gripe. For me the issue was always the analogue sticks. I find that they feel rather loose, providing little to no resistance and I therefore find fine control tricky (of course, a balance is required here – analogue sticks that are too stiff are even worse).
But, since I seem to be the only one I know who has this issue, maybe my experience has been t
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The 360 analog sticks do seem to require a lighter touch than the PS3 controllers.
I own all three consoles, but I prefer my 360 for the controller, Xbox live, and achievements (it's a Pavlovian thing, sue me). I have one of the 40gb PS3 controllers with no rumble, which makes the controller feel too lightweight and flimsy to me. I've been thinking up picking up a new one, but I just don't play all that many PS3 games. Generally, the 360 just feels better ergonomically to me. I'm just praying MS is smart
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Anyone who can afford to, get an arcade-style joystick for your system of choice. They tend to be expensive, true; but if you are into fighting games, 2D platformers, anything old school -- hell yes, it will be worth it!
I have to disagree. I've been gaming for a lot of years on a lot of different systems and, in my experience, if you're not playing a flight simulator or something with similar control scheme, a decent d-pad will beat a full-size joystick every time. Nintendo's unified "cross" pad being the best of breed, Sony's bastardized split-design next, with the horrible, horrible 360 pad in 30th place. The stick is ideal for games where you need the ability to move both quickly and precisely (say, to whip to the lef
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I played it on PC, with WSAD for movement, and it was still a pain.
-:sigma.SB
P.S. You forgot to mention that the knives were on fire, too.
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Ugh. I feel your pain. Never been a fan of WASD for platformers either, but let's be honest: The Meat Circus is Nightmare Fuel-squared. It would be a pain with a direct perfect neural interface.
Re:Awful (Score:4, Informative)
As someone else mentioned, Sony should have no say in controllers because their controller is a piece of junk. It was a terrible design in 1994, it is still terrible.
Well, the original ps1 controller was essentially a snes pad with l2 and r2 buttons also. the shapes instead of letters is probably to avoid lawsuits from nintendo.
Same with the xbox360 controller, it has x/y a/b but the colours and positions of the letters are different in order to be lawsuit friendly
But I must say that even the best gamepads are not good enough. No console comes with a truly good controller; in fact, only one console ever did: SNK's almighty, eternal, venerable, insanely expensive NEO FUCKIN' GEO!
neo geo controller was a lovely piece of kit, finest you could straight up buy, but I highly recommend fabricating your own with arcade parts, all of the non usb/bluetooth controllers work basically identically, a parallel to serial converter (exceptions: mega drive, master system, c64, neogeo) which you can implement with any microcontroller easily these days, attach a few different connector endings and have switches attached to the micro for selection of what controller standard to use.
I made a jamma to snes connector because I was tired of wiring 14+ wires all the way just for a single controller, serial cuts that to five. (and I can now use custom arcade controller on snes)
Sony makes a reconfigurable controller (Score:2)
...And the D-pad will still suck harbles. /I'm looking at you too, Xbox360
Wii's concept controllers... (Score:4, Insightful)
When Nintendo announced their new console, they hinted that the way we use the controller will surprise us. Various amateur 3D concepts popped up around the net, and most of them displayed a Nintendo controller with a touch-controlled LCD display, controls would change depending on the game.
Now we see Sony applying for a patent on the very same idea, a bunch of amateurs came up with in their free time few years ago.
Obvious patent is obvious.
TV remote controller (Score:2)
Not to mention that this has been done with TV controllers for, what, years ?...
I already had an application to turn Palm PDAs into such controllers back in 2000.
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>> Obvious patent is obvious.
And wouldn't there already be prior art, considering you can use the DS to control some Wii games in this manner already?
You can't patent something so obvious, can you? (Score:3, Insightful)
mistitled (Score:3, Interesting)
Wouldn't this be better titled "in another desperate attempt to control a marketplace, Sony is developing new controller which they will tout as 'universal' but in actuality will be used by less than 5% of their own console's owners because it sucks so bad"
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Bad Title (Score:2)
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360 uses a microsoft-rebadged form of bluetooth
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RandomTitle (Score:1)
Sony patents bad idea (Score:1)
Good news for owners of the other consoles.