Page 16 - Old School Gamer Magazine Issue #40 FREE Edition

Throughout the course of video gaming’s vast and proud history, there are moments and movements
that decidedly stand out as literally “game-changing”: the invention of the video game cartridge, the birth of a new game genre, the dawn
of virtual reality technology, the publishing of a particularly well- written retro gaming magazine... to name a few.
Perhaps the truest exemplification of the proverbial quantum leap forward in gaming came in the form of a tiny, plastic, cross-shaped button known as the directional pad (or D-pad, as most of us have come to call it).
Developed in 1982 by the legendary
Gunpei Yokoi, the D-pad acted as the directional control interface for Nintendo’s Donkey Kong Game & Watch LCD handheld game device. A simple yet highly effective innovation, the D-pad
is a semi-floating button shaped like a plus sign with a fulcrum in its center. Its primary directional points resemble that of a simple compass with up, down, left, and right directions. Beneath the D-pad is a type of rubberized silicone membrane mimicking that of most standard buttons. When a direction is pressed, the membrane flexes and touches the controller’s circuit board, thus creating a positive input signal. The aforementioned fulcrum acts so not more than two
inputs can register simultaneously. In other words, if the D-pad is pressed in both an up and right fashion, two inputs will trigger and create a diagonal result. In essence, this means that the D-pad can function to provide up to eight input directions.
BACK
Prior to the advent of the D-pad, arcade games and home consoles utilized proprietary input devices which mostly resembled some iteration of the traditional joystick. While many joysticks operated in a somewhat similar method by providing multi-directional inputs, they weren’t always optimal, especially as home consoles became more prevalent. The costly and sometimes temperamental microswitch technology featured in most arcade cabinets wasn’t particularly conducive to home consumer use; therefore, most consoles incorporated the use of spring-loaded directional sticks that were operated with a multi- finger grip or with one’s entire hand. While this method did
work for earlier games and did a respectable job of mimicking the arcade experience to a degree,
it had its drawbacks. As games became increasingly complex, the need for more buttons and finger freedom became apparent.
The earliest iteration of what would become the D-pad came
in the form of Gremlin’s 1976 arcade game, Blockade. In lieu of a joystick, the manufacturer opted for an independent four-button configuration for the player to navigate up, down, left, and right.
THE D-PAD
ITS LEGACY AND IMPACT
By Brian Lesyk
16
OLD SCHOOL GAMER MAGAZINE • ISSUE #40