Nintendo 64 controller

Nintendo 64 controller

Nintendo 64 controller
Manufacturer	Nintendo
Type	Gamepad
Generation	Fifth generation
Retail availability	June 23, 1996
Input	Rumble Pak
Connectivity	N64 controller port
Predecessor	SNES controller
Successor	GameCube controller

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 an "M" shape.

"Lance Barr, the head designer at NOA, worked with the NU64 design team in Japan on the controller. The sculpted shape of the radical new Batarang-like controller was so complex that it couldn't even be modeled on a computer. During development, the first mock-up was created out of clay."

"The first time [Nintendo's lead game designer Shigeru Miyamoto] played with the controller, because he’s working most of the time on Mario 64, he would have seen Mario 64 with it. It wasn’t so much that controller dictated Mario 64, it was just that was the game he was working on. Mario was the way of testing it out. Probably more the other way around. The actual movement of Mario came from the N64 controller, the way you move the central stick."

"I think that’s a misnomer to say that the N64 controller was designed around Super Mario 64. Yes, Mr. Miyamoto wanted analog control because he had a vision of how he wanted that game to work, but the controller wasn’t designed specifically for one game."

The controller was designed by Nintendo R&D3, who were directed to try out new ideas that would break from the standard mold of gaming controllers. With original visual designs having been mocked up in clay form, and extensive test group studies being performed before and during the design phase, the Nintendo 64's controller design was eventually solidified in tandem with that of Miyamoto's gameplay mechanics in Super Mario 64.

Nintendo of America's head designer, Lance Barr, said that the design studies revealed that "most games use a few buttons for most of the main controls, such as jumping and shooting, or accelerating and braking. That's why the A and B Buttons are placed for easiest access on the new controller and why they are larger than the other buttons. They're the buttons that get high traffic."

The controller was designed to be held in three different positions. First, it can be held by the two outer grips, allowing use of the D-pad, right-hand face buttons and the "L" and "R" shoulder buttons (but not the "Z" trigger or analog stick). This style was intended to optimize play in 2D games by emulating the setup on the Super NES controller. It can 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). This style was intended for 3D games. Finally, the controller can be held by the center and left-hand grip, allowing for a combination of the D-pad, L-shoulder, analog stick and Z button. This was implemented in GoldenEye 007. Additionally, though the controller was not designed with this setup in mind, one controller can be held in each hand with a thumb on each analog stick and index fingers on the "Z" trigger. This setup allows dual-analog control on some first-person shooters such as Perfect Dark. The analog stick and right-hand face and shoulder buttons are usually used in games. In some games such as Mortal Kombat Trilogy, the control stick and directional pad are interchangeable. Very few games use the directional pad exclusively; two examples are the 3D puzzle game Tetrisphere and the side-scrolling platformer Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.