Revolution-like Controller Turns Up at Asia Game Show

[MelFet Wart]

There was a game at the Asia Game Show in Hong Kong that played very similarly to the Nintendo Revolution, and was open to the public. It was designed and built by a student of the local University as a senior design project back in 2004, early 2005, and it kicked ass. It's called Pebble, and there's a video showing what it's like to play (http://www.gamesfirst.com/?id=1110). Now I can see why Nintendo is so excited, I think. Check it out, since Nintendo is so closed mouthed about their system and videos of actually playing. It also reminds me of how much I miss Marble Madness.

About the time Nintendo was showing off the Revolution's pretty packaging and dropping hints about the future of game controllers at E3 2005, Addi was showing his teachers a video game he'd designed with a controller you tilted and turned to control. He called it Pebbles.

[Mojopin]

Umm, you can tilt the controller? Ok, thats just 1 feature that Nintendo has put in GAMEBOY games. This controller is not that much like the revs so yeah... nice holiday post. ;)

[Vandenh]

Errr.... frankly it didn't look that exciting.

For me the real test is playing myself with the Rev controller. I can see what N is trying to do... open up "intuitive" gaming. I got Zoo Keeper for the girfriend on DS and it took me 5 secs to explain the game. She was playing 1 sec later and never had to ask anything... touch screen is just so easy for certain types of games. I guess N will try to do the same with the Rev. Could be amazing for certain types of games. Still I also want my 360 for my classic gaming ;) Ninja Gaiden on Rev controller? No thanx ;) Zoo keeper? Yes please.

[bapenguin]

THat's not at all like the revolution controller...that's just a gyroscopic motion sensor for movement. You are only having access to 2 axis, while the rev will be 3.

[markster3000]

THat's not at all like the revolution controller...that's just a gyroscopic motion sensor for movement. You are only having access to 2 axis, while the rev will be 3.
Plus, the rev will have the fancy 3D positioning system.

[CapnBob]

On top of all that, the article implies that since this guy unveiled his project first it follows that he conceived of it first, which is not exactly a safe assumption.

[drakkarim]

either way, funny how all the new/interesting designs/concepts come out of everywhere but THIS f'ing country anymore. serves the industry right i suppose for just churning out shit constantly. i suspect in the future all the good games will be coming out of asia/europe, just like the cars.

[Sir_Brizz]

On top of all that, the article implies that since this guy unveiled his project first it follows that he conceived of it first, which is not exactly a safe assumption.
It's not exactly like either idea is that new. Gyroscopy has been dinked around with for years, just about every GDC over the past ten years has had some form of the gyroscopic sword that floats around on the screen while you swing it, or the golf club that follows your movements, or just about any other use you can think of for gyroscopy.

At the moment, none of it makes me very excited. Cooking and rubbing my virtual girlfriend's back don't sound very fun to me, and most games I play play just fine without gyroscopy.

[Furtive]

Yeah i gotta say this is pretty lame. I had a microsoft controller that sensed tiltng about 10 years ago. It was great fun for their motocross game and that was about all. Anyways, I cant wait for the REAL revolution that '06 will bring us.

EDIT: Just finished reading the article... didnt realize he drew his inspiration from that controller i was talking about. Seems he incorporated rotation into the controller too. Still... like bap said... The revolution will bring us all 3 axis + wireless.

[blackzc]

either way, funny how all the new/interesting designs/concepts come out of everywhere but THIS f'ing country anymore. serves the industry right i suppose for just churning out shit constantly. i suspect in the future all the good games will be coming out of asia/europe, just like the cars.


OH brother. :rolleyes:

What exactly do you mean by serves this industry right? is it in trouble? You think everything that comes out of japan is good? Not even close. All the big japan developers put out mountains of shit for the morons to buy just like EA does over here. And EA does put out good games. We dont see that crap from japan becuase its....well its crap and not worth translating and shipping.

[TrackZero]

THat's not at all like the revolution controller...that's just a gyroscopic motion sensor for movement. You are only having access to 2 axis, while the rev will be 3.

Exactly. This thing has been done many times before, it's almost a sham to compare it to the rev.

[if76]

This article is downright infuriating:

"While Nintendo was titillating the gaming community about old technology used in new ways, Addi Lam was beating them to it. "

No I'm sorry. Having a controller that can sense tilt has been around for ages. In addition to sensing tilt, the rev controller can sense movement up and down and side to side AND can sense where in 3d space the controller is. That's a lot more exciting and a lost more useful than just a tilt controller.

"If his student presentation had been set up across the street from the L.A. press conference in mid-May, the gaming media would have made him instantly famous. They would have picked up his gaming controller and been able to say, 'So this is Nintendo's revolution. This is what they see as the future of video games. And a creative media student in Hong Kong saw it first.'"

NO!! If that was the case, then they could've just picked up my microsoft tilt controller I owned in 1997 and said the same thing because it is the same thing. Right now there is nothing the general consumer can buy that mimics the revolution controller or even approximates the experience. There's the gyroscopic PC wireless mouse thing but sense that doesn't have the 3d space sensor, if you move the cursor too far to the left and want to keep going, you have to hold down a button and rotate the controller to the right.

[Lon Lon Rabbit]

From the article:

Christopher Swain and Tracy Fullerton of the EA Game Innovation Lab came to the school to teach game design to a class of about 20 people.

An oxymoron if ever I heard one.

[endrom]

Is it just me or did the guys playing it seem like they wren't having fun. the concept doesn't seem to be showing promise really, creative minds needed here. unless we get mario tilt'n'tumble.