Innovative Controllers

The controller

The Famicom/NES controller is one of the most iconic and influential pieces of interface design in videogaming.

The basic layout of the controls by Uemura and his team has provided the blueprint for game controllers ever since. Take a look at almost any subsequent videogame controller and you will find the fingerprint of the NES/Famicom pad. With its combination of left hand control for moving an on-screen character, right hand action buttons and interface buttons in the centre, we see this layout in Sony and Microsoft’s designs as well as those of Nintendo’s themselves.

Even devices like Nintendo’s Wii Remote whose motion controls make it seem so utterly revolutionary owe a debt to the Famicom. In fact, rotating the Wii Remote through 90 degrees reveals a controller that isn’t just inspired by the Famicom pad, it is the Famicom pad.

Uemura and his team at Nintendo spent a huge amount of time researching, developing and refining the Famicom’s control pad. Even though the console had been intended to bring Donkey Kong into the home, the team rejected the idea of a joystick as they thought it would be too fragile.

Early in the development of the Famicom, Uemura and his team used a modified Game & Watch to prototype the final design for the control pad.

The Nintendo Power Glove

The Power Glove used fibreoptics and ultrasonic transmitters and receivers and allowed players to control games by moving and tilting their hand. Today, we might recognise this as an early form of VR controller, but in the mid-1980s, this kind of gesture-based interface had only been seen in science fiction movies or experimental NASA laboratories.

Only two games – Super Glove Ball (a puzzle/maze game), and Bad Street Brawler (a fighting game) were released that made use of the Power Glove’s special features. Two more titles were announced but never made public although the buttons on the back of the Glove meant that it could be used as a standard NES controller for any game- even if it was a bit cumbersome!)

Find out even more about The Power Glove as it featured as October 2022’s Object of the Month

R.O.B. (Robot Operating Buddy)

Along with the Power Glove, Nintendo took their ‘Family Computer Robot’ – gave it a lick of grey paint, renamed it R.O.B. (Robot Operating Buddy) and put it centerstage in the marketing of the NES in the US. Using cameras to watch and interact with the action on screen, and motors to rotate its head, body and arms, R.O.B. could stack different coloured counters or spin gyroscopes or… well, actually, that was it. Like the Power Glove, just two games were ever released that took advantage of R.O.B. But, in reality, R.O.B.’s role in marketing the NES as an innovative, futuristic piece of high technology was absolutely crucial.

In truth, neither the Power Glove nor R.O.B. functioned particularly reliably, but they looked great in promotional videos and adverts and helped sell 33 million NES Control Decks in the US. By 1987, Nintendo had become a household name.