They’re a Big Game Industry. 3 Innovations Nintendo Invented That Everyone Else Used

In our country, Nintendo consoles have always had an ambiguous attitude. They are either sincerely loved or openly hated. Over the years of their existence, 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 is developing the modern gaming industry.

You’ll be surprised to learn that many of the things you’ve come up with were either invented by Nintendo or popularized by them.

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, most likely, they will correct. And they will be right.

Joysticks existed before Nintendo entered the gaming industry. For example, the Atari 2600 had a joystick — stick with Work. And the Magnavox Odyssey had a joystick. You can see what they looked like in the illustration below. Notice what they lack first? That’s right: a cross.

The development of the classic cross-shaped button for movement control belongs to one of the leading experts 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 Game and Watch Portable (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 was made in 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 Nintendo’s first 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 have preserved it as “Dandy”) all companies continue to use variations of the crossbar in their gamers.

But there was another interesting shape for controllers. Remember when the first microphone appeared in gamepads? No, not on the PS 4. Much earlier. The first microphone in a gamepad was also in Nintendo on the same Famicom. And it was even used in several games (in the Japanese version of The Legend of Zelda, for example).

But in the concept and the American version, the gamepad microphone was removed.

No modern gamepad can do without these buttons.

The next milestone in the development of gaming game controllers was the gamepad for the Super Famicom, better known in the West as the SNES. Its shape is shoulder buttons, as beautiful as the main bumperswhich are very convenient to control. After the release of the SNES, almost all controllers began to be released with diamond-shaped button arrangements.

I was surprised that many people still think that Sony was the pioneer of industrial analog sticks and vibrations in the gaming industry. However, this is not true. The first Sony PlayStation controllers had neither sticks nor vibrations, and the DualShock, familiar to everyone from modern games, was first introduced as an additional accessory. It was only in the very latest versions of the original PlayStation that it became a standard component.

Sony’s first gamepad, called the PS 1 controller, the DualShock was the last controller of the PS 1 era.

The analog sticks and vibration in DualShock are an evolution and improvement of 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 configuration, 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 sticker 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 there was an expansion slot where you could insert, among other things, a Rumble Pak – a device that added vibration feedback to the gamepad. After this, vibration will become the standard in gamepads of all game console developers.

To conclude this segment, it is worth noting the fact that Nintendo has invented and created almost all functional modern gamepads, but the influence of the great giant in the industry does not end there.

Portable console

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 will make portable consoles at all. In fact, Nintendo is currently developing the portable console industry.

It all started with the Game and Watch toys. They were fairly simple, using segmented LCD screens (which for Nintendo are produced by Sharp, a company known for its calculators) and relatively primitive gameplay. They were invented again by Gunpei Yokoi.

According to legend, the idea for Game and Watch was born in Gunpei during a high-speed train ride in 1979. At that moment, he noticed a bored businessman, who was typing various numbers on a calculator for lack of anything better to do. 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 of ​​progress and improvement of its line of pocket toys. The task was risky – to transfer the gameplay 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 computer was replaced at the start of sales.

Then something interesting happened – according to Game Boy, there was one minimal drawback – a screen without backlighting. Sega and Atari released their competitors with fully colored screens, but stumbled due to several factors. The consoles received much more in production and, most importantly, did not hold a charge well. There was also a problem with games – in the Sega Game Gear library, which Atari Lynx 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.

After that, Nintendo’s portable consoles were always top sellers, and sometimes even changed the way we think about games. For example, the Nintendo DS became the second best-selling console in the world after the classic PlayStation 2. In general, Sony was the only one who could continue to compete with Nintendo in the portable console market, but unfortunately, they lost and left this segment. We’ll talk about this another time.

Finally, it is worth noting that if Nintendo had not paid attention to how to make pocket entertainment and how to increase the market segment, we might not know either the PSP or the Steam Deck.

Innovative controls in games

Meet the main consoles of the generations: 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.

Although the Wii was significantly weaker than the Xbox 360 and PS3 in terms of technology, it managed to surpass its competitive advantages in terms of sales. And in the portable segment, the Nintendo DS was at the same time a confident leader, somewhat behind the PlayStation Portable.

The controller was somewhat reminiscent of a TV remote control. The speaker in the middle is often used in games as an immersive element. For example, in Silent Hill, phone conversations sounded from it.

The basic form of the Wii Remote, compared to its competitors, is a motion sensor, allowing the player to control the game characters and objects on the screen by moving their hands or “pointing” at objects displayed on the screen. This is monitored by 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 with the accelerometer. It created a collection of games where the controls weren’t just an extra component, but worked well and were as engaging as traditional game cutscenes. People suddenly loved it.

Sony announced its own controller, the PS Move, which failed to gain popularity due to the almost complete loss of the game. Microsoft also offered its own version, the Kinect, which was very cool, but unfortunately, it also failed to gain popularity.

The concept of motion control has appeared in one form or another on the following consoles. Yes, there are almost none that are completely tied to motion, but the standards set by Nintendo are still used today.

And these are only the largest kitchens.

If you list all the things that Nintendo has come up with, but use them all, you will need more than one or two materials. 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.

It is impossible to assume that I also have many genres of slot machines that Nintendo actually invented from scratch, and the rest could not find a worthy analogue. For example, in the world there is still no good analogue of the fighting game Super Smash Bros., cooler than racing Mario Kart of this form also never came out (with the exception, perhaps, of Crash Team Racing), and all similar ultra-popular Pokemon failed.

You may not like Nintendo, the company has plenty of downsides. But to belittle its influence on the industry and not respect it for it is very stupid. I am voicing this to you with this thought. Have a nice day!