Nintendo 64 controller
Encyclopedia
The Nintendo 64 controller (NUS-005) is the standard game controller
included with the Nintendo 64
. Released by Nintendo
in late 1996 in Japan
and North America
, and 1997 in Europe
, it features ten buttons, one digital "Control Stick" and a directional pad, all laid out in a "M" shape.
. It could be held by the two outer grips, allowing use of the digital D-pad, right-hand face buttons and the "L" and "R" shoulder buttons (but not the "Z" trigger or analog stick). It could be also held by the center and right-hand grip, allowing the use of the single control stick, the right hand-buttons, the "R" shoulder button, and the "Z" trigger on the rear (but not the "L" shoulder button or D-pad). Finally, one controller could be held in each hand with a thumb on each analog stick and index fingers on the "Z" trigger. This setup allowed dual-analog control on some first-person shooters
such as Perfect Dark
. More often than not the analog stick was used in games while in some, both the control stick and directional pad could be interchangeable (ex: Mortal Kombat Trilogy
). Very few games used the directional pad exclusively; two examples are the 3D puzzle game Tetrisphere
and the side-scrolling platformer Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
.
The controller also included four "C buttons", which were originally intended to control the camera in the N64's three dimensional environments. However, since the pad only contained three other face buttons, the C-buttons often became assigned to ulterior functions. An example of this is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
, where three of the C-buttons can be assigned to secondary items and the upper C-button is used to orient the camera.
Europe
an controllers have a special Ferrite core
about 4 centimeters from the connector plug, to prevent the user from being shocked by the power being supplied to it by the system if the wires become exposed. It also acts as cable tensioner.
One game, Robotron 64, allowed one player to use two controllers to control an avatar
. This way the game played like its predecessor, Robotron 2084. Star Wars Episode 1: Racer, GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark also used this set up for slightly different gameplay experiences (in terms of control, at least) compared to the standard single controller option.
The controller initially came in six colors (grey, black, red, green, yellow and blue) but other colors were released later, many of them coinciding with the release of a similarly color or designed system. Some of these others include: smoke black, watermelon red, jungle green, fire orange, ice blue, grape purple, and special edition colors like gold, atomic purple, extreme green, "Donkey Kong 64" banana bunch yellow, "Pokémon" blue/yellow and "Millennium 2000" platinum.
technology, instead preferring the digital D-pad
. It was not until the emergence of 3D gameplay that the analog thumb stick was put into widespread use. Using a D-pad
in a 3D game greatly limits the player's ability to accurately utilize 360° of motion.
However, with the prevalence of analog sticks, the aforementioned D-pad limitation was no longer an issue. Though the Nintendo 64 wasn't the first console to use an analog thumb stick (the Vectrex
was first), it did popularize the idea. Its release followed Sega's analog Mission Stick for Sega Saturn (which launched on September 29, 1995) as well as Sony's Analog Joystick and was followed during the fifth generation by Sony's Dual Analog
and DualShock
controllers for the PlayStation system as well as Sega's 3D control pad for their Saturn
system.
The N64 Analog stick does not use analog potentiometers. It uses light emitting diodes and photo detectors controlled by sensor wheels. The sensor wheels are plastic hubs which produce a shutter effect allowing for an accurate direct digital read. The sensor wheels give direct correlation to the stick position compared to potentiometers which can change resistance values over time. However gameplay function of the stick itself is not on or off digital, but analog in a sense, the more the stick is pushed the faster a game character would walk or run.
The analog stick was prone to some long-term reliability issues. If used excessively, the stick became "loose", which means it will not fully return to center position, which may render gameplay more difficult by giving unintended, non-user input to the system. This loosening can be caused by rotating it intensively - a common practice in games like Mario Party
where it offers an advantage for some mini-games. Excessive rotating of the analog stick even resulted in blisters and burns to the hands, and Nintendo offered protective gloves to prevent injuries.
and required two AAA batteries
. Its specific use was to provide haptic feedback during gameplay; an effort to make the gaming experience more engaging. It was designed to be inserted into the controller's memory cartridge slot, which prevented the use of the Controller Pak. This usually had little impact, as Nintendo 64 games were cartridge based and had the ability to store saved data in the cartridge itself. This was also true because the insertion of a controller Pak was prompted at every point of save in case a Controller Pak was not already in place.
and Nintendo released a controller and game playing service for various hotels in the United States. A slightly modified N64 controller that could hook into hotel televisions (and not an actual N64) was able to act as a remote control and game controller. You could pick from a large library of N64 games (including most first-party N64 titles) and play at a rate of $6.95 for every 60 minutes. The controller and video game rental service is still available and in use at some locations.
Game controller
A game controller is a device used with games or entertainment systems used to control a playable character or object, or otherwise provide input in a computer game. A controller is typically connected to a game console or computer by means of a wire, cord or nowadays, by means of wireless connection...
included with the Nintendo 64
Nintendo 64
The , often referred to as N64, was Nintendo′s third home video game console for the international market. Named for its 64-bit CPU, it was released in June 1996 in Japan, September 1996 in North America, March 1997 in Europe and Australia, September 1997 in France and December 1997 in Brazil...
. Released by Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
in late 1996 in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, and 1997 in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, it features ten buttons, one digital "Control Stick" and a directional pad, all laid out in a "M" shape.
Design
The controller for the Nintendo 64 was designed to be held in several different positions. It was designed around Super Mario 64Super Mario 64
is a platform game, published by Nintendo and developed by its EAD division, for the Nintendo 64. Along with Pilotwings 64, it was one of the launch titles for the console. It was released in Japan on June 23, 1996, and later in North America, Europe, and Australia. Super Mario 64 has sold over...
. It could be held by the two outer grips, allowing use of the digital D-pad, right-hand face buttons and the "L" and "R" shoulder buttons (but not the "Z" trigger or analog stick). It could be also held by the center and right-hand grip, allowing the use of the single control stick, the right hand-buttons, the "R" shoulder button, and the "Z" trigger on the rear (but not the "L" shoulder button or D-pad). Finally, one controller could be held in each hand with a thumb on each analog stick and index fingers on the "Z" trigger. This setup allowed dual-analog control on some first-person shooters
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
such as Perfect Dark
Perfect Dark
Perfect Dark is a first-person shooter video game developed by Rare for the Nintendo 64 video game console. It is considered the spiritual successor to Rare's earlier first-person shooter GoldenEye 007, with which it shares many gameplay features...
. More often than not the analog stick was used in games while in some, both the control stick and directional pad could be interchangeable (ex: Mortal Kombat Trilogy
Mortal Kombat Trilogy
Mortal Kombat Trilogy is a fighting game developed and published by Midway in 1996. It is a compilation of content from the previous Mortal Kombat titles, based primarily upon the gameplay mechanics of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3...
). Very few games used the directional pad exclusively; two examples are the 3D puzzle game Tetrisphere
Tetrisphere
Tetrisphere is a falling block puzzle video game for the Nintendo 64 console. Developed by Canadian company H2O Entertainment, a nearly-complete version of the game was originally slated for release on the Atari Jaguar in early 1995...
and the side-scrolling platformer Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, known as in Japan, is a platform game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64...
.
The controller also included four "C buttons", which were originally intended to control the camera in the N64's three dimensional environments. However, since the pad only contained three other face buttons, the C-buttons often became assigned to ulterior functions. An example of this is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
is an action-adventure video game developed by Nintendo's Entertainment Analysis and Development division for the Nintendo 64 video game console. It was released in Japan on November 21, 1998; in North America on November 23, 1998; and in Europe on December 11, 1998...
, where three of the C-buttons can be assigned to secondary items and the upper C-button is used to orient the camera.
Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an controllers have a special Ferrite core
Ferrite bead
A ferrite bead is a passive electric component used to suppress high frequency noise in electronic circuits. It is a specific type of electronic choke. Ferrite beads employ the mechanism of high dissipation of high frequency currents in a ferrite to build high frequency noise suppression devices...
about 4 centimeters from the connector plug, to prevent the user from being shocked by the power being supplied to it by the system if the wires become exposed. It also acts as cable tensioner.
One game, Robotron 64, allowed one player to use two controllers to control an avatar
Avatar (computing)
In computing, an avatar is the graphical representation of the user or the user's alter ego or character. It may take either a three-dimensional form, as in games or virtual worlds, or a two-dimensional form as an icon in Internet forums and other online communities. It can also refer to a text...
. This way the game played like its predecessor, Robotron 2084. Star Wars Episode 1: Racer, GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark also used this set up for slightly different gameplay experiences (in terms of control, at least) compared to the standard single controller option.
The controller initially came in six colors (grey, black, red, green, yellow and blue) but other colors were released later, many of them coinciding with the release of a similarly color or designed system. Some of these others include: smoke black, watermelon red, jungle green, fire orange, ice blue, grape purple, and special edition colors like gold, atomic purple, extreme green, "Donkey Kong 64" banana bunch yellow, "Pokémon" blue/yellow and "Millennium 2000" platinum.
Analog stick
For many years, console designers and manufacturers ignored analog stickAnalog stick
An analog stick, sometimes called a control stick or thumbstick, is an input device for a controller that is used for two-dimensional input. An analog stick is a variation of a joystick, consisting of a protrusion from the controller; input is based on the position of this protrusion in relation...
technology, instead preferring the digital D-pad
D-pad
A D-pad is a flat, usually thumb-operated directional control with one button on each point, found on nearly all modern video game console gamepads, game controllers, on the remote control units of some television and DVD players, and smart phones...
. It was not until the emergence of 3D gameplay that the analog thumb stick was put into widespread use. Using a D-pad
D-pad
A D-pad is a flat, usually thumb-operated directional control with one button on each point, found on nearly all modern video game console gamepads, game controllers, on the remote control units of some television and DVD players, and smart phones...
in a 3D game greatly limits the player's ability to accurately utilize 360° of motion.
However, with the prevalence of analog sticks, the aforementioned D-pad limitation was no longer an issue. Though the Nintendo 64 wasn't the first console to use an analog thumb stick (the Vectrex
Vectrex
The Vectrex is a vector display-based video game console that was developed by Western Technologies/Smith Engineering. It was licensed and distributed first by General Consumer Electric , and then by Milton Bradley Company after their purchase of GCE...
was first), it did popularize the idea. Its release followed Sega's analog Mission Stick for Sega Saturn (which launched on September 29, 1995) as well as Sony's Analog Joystick and was followed during the fifth generation by Sony's Dual Analog
Dual Analog Controller
The PlayStation Dual Analog Controller was Sony's first attempt at a handheld analog controller for the PlayStation, and the predecessor to the DualShock...
and DualShock
DualShock
The DualShock is a line of vibration-feedback gamepads by Sony for the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation 3 video game consoles. The DualShock was introduced in Japan in late 1997, and launched in the North American market in May 1998...
controllers for the PlayStation system as well as Sega's 3D control pad for their Saturn
Sega Saturn
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console that was first released by Sega on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America, and July 8, 1995 in Europe...
system.
The N64 Analog stick does not use analog potentiometers. It uses light emitting diodes and photo detectors controlled by sensor wheels. The sensor wheels are plastic hubs which produce a shutter effect allowing for an accurate direct digital read. The sensor wheels give direct correlation to the stick position compared to potentiometers which can change resistance values over time. However gameplay function of the stick itself is not on or off digital, but analog in a sense, the more the stick is pushed the faster a game character would walk or run.
The analog stick was prone to some long-term reliability issues. If used excessively, the stick became "loose", which means it will not fully return to center position, which may render gameplay more difficult by giving unintended, non-user input to the system. This loosening can be caused by rotating it intensively - a common practice in games like Mario Party
Mario Party
is a party video game for the Nintendo 64 game console, developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on December 14, 1998, in North America on February 8, 1999, and in Europe on March 9, 1999...
where it offers an advantage for some mini-games. Excessive rotating of the analog stick even resulted in blisters and burns to the hands, and Nintendo offered protective gloves to prevent injuries.
Rumble Pak
The original Rumble Pak, designed for the Nintendo 64 controller, was released in April 1997 to coincide with the release of Star Fox 64Star Fox 64
, known in Australia and Europe as Lylat Wars, is a scrolling shooter video game for the Nintendo 64 video game console. It is a reboot of the original Star Fox, and the only game in the Star Fox series to be released on the Nintendo 64....
and required two AAA batteries
AAA battery
A triple A or AAA battery is a standard size of dry cell battery commonly used in portable electronic devices. A carbon-zinc battery in this size is designated by IEC as "R03", by ANSI C18.1 as "24", by old JIS standard as "UM 4", and by other manufacturer and national standard designations that...
. Its specific use was to provide haptic feedback during gameplay; an effort to make the gaming experience more engaging. It was designed to be inserted into the controller's memory cartridge slot, which prevented the use of the Controller Pak. This usually had little impact, as Nintendo 64 games were cartridge based and had the ability to store saved data in the cartridge itself. This was also true because the insertion of a controller Pak was prompted at every point of save in case a Controller Pak was not already in place.
LodgeNet Variant
In 1997 Lodgenet InteractiveLodgenet Interactive
LodgeNet Interactive Corporation is a provider of media and connectivity solutions for hospitality, healthcare and other guest-based businesses. LodgeNet provides digital video on demand solutions, broadband Internet solutions, satellite TV and professional services to approximately 10,000...
and Nintendo released a controller and game playing service for various hotels in the United States. A slightly modified N64 controller that could hook into hotel televisions (and not an actual N64) was able to act as a remote control and game controller. You could pick from a large library of N64 games (including most first-party N64 titles) and play at a rate of $6.95 for every 60 minutes. The controller and video game rental service is still available and in use at some locations.
External links
- N64 Joystick Repair Guide Small guide to cleaning and attempted repair of the N64 controller.