Interfaces devices

Game interfaces



A old version of a computer mouse
without a scrolling wheel

For as long as there as been computers,Home consoles and even arcade machines. there has always been an away to interact with, this is the computer interface. Normally in the case of the computers it is most likely going to be a keyboard and a mouse, while in the case of controllers and arcade it is normally an analog/digital control stick and several buttons.
No matter how you play your games you are always using some form of an interface.

Magnavox Odyssey controller

The first home console the Magnavox Odyssey had a simple controller that was a analog potentiometer, this meant that the player controlled the line by turning the dial and this would change the resistance causing the line to move up. This controller had two potentiometers allowing the player to move left right up and down giving a wider range of games that just pong.

As controllers had become more and more popular then analog became a lot more advanced allowing the player to move in more than just four simple ways at the speed. The player now has a lot more control being able to control how fast the character actually moves around the map. This changed games because they were now able in the third dimension due to the character being able to move in a multiple of different directions. This system is better more most genre of games because it gives the player a more immerse game play with the freedom of movement and speed control.



A digital controller is different to analog controller because an while an analog gives you the freedom of speed and direction, a digital controller makes the player go the same speed and normally one of four directions (up,down,left and right). This system if now mostly used for buttons on controllers because they simply have to be on or off there is no middle point. This kind of control is best more platform games because you don't need the freedom in direction.

While in there industry today there is a mixture of these input devices because the PS3's controller is both due to its digital buttons and its analog sticks. While in the case of the Xbox 360's controllers they are all digital because of a lawsuit made when the control was originally made due to Sony copyrighting   the way that their analog sticks work, this meant that Microsoft had to change the way that they made their analog sticks so under it is another more sensitive D-pad which means there is a tiny bit less control.


As the technology in consoles began to increase as did the interface devices this is meant that the player would have new and interesting ways to interact with the games, a popular way is when a steering wheels and pedals when playing a driving game, i like this way of player because it makes the game feel a lot more realistic.
Another very popular interface device is the light gun, used for gun games such as duck hunt. The gun works on the simple way of when you pull the trigger the screen flashes black and the targets become white squares for a faction of a second far too fast for the player to even notice and the gun detects these white squares and if is aimed at the white square then sends a second signal to the console saying that they made a hit.

Nintendo has an incredible amount of different interface devices several were amazing feats of technology for there time while others failed horribly, The first interface I came across was the Nintendo Power Glove this worked much like the Wii does today but instead of two controls the player wears a glove that the motion sensors would focus on. This wasn't receive with great reviews because it had a habit of not working like it should.

As technology in the actual consoles increased so did the actual interface devices too the point where the 7th gen consoles have wireless controllers and in some cases motion control cameras allowing the players body to control the character. In the case of the Xbox 360 the motion sensor is the Kinect, this is a device that has 3 cameras and voice recognition in order to give as high gameplay as possible and make the games more immersive.