The Future of Video Game Controllers

is all about control and lack thereof. No, okay, no, just just control. We're normally out of control on this podcast, right. The genesis of this comes from a little listener mail. Yes, listener mail comes from Josh and not not our Josh, not Josh Josh creepy hands clark. Um, this is different, Josh says, Hey guy, I was just wondering if you could do a podcast explaining Xboxes project and at all

and how it works. Thanks Josh. So let's start. We're gonna actually talk about the sort of the future of video game controllers in general, but we could spend a little time talking about the toll. Yeah. I thought it would be interesting to discuss, like, very very briefly, where we've come from, because I mean the very early video game controllers were rock tied to a string attached to a another rock. We call that poe really now, um, now, they were very simple. I mean on Pong, you had

a paddle. Yeah, a paddle, which is essentially a potentiometer, you know, electronics device that goes you know, it's a knob that goes left to right and back again. Um. And it's very you know, are sure that's a that's a paddle or because that sounds to me like a like a dance. I think that's how you did the tutsie roll left and right and back again. Okay, stop it, um, but no, yeah, I mean those the paddles were very early.

And the joystick, um, you know, it's just a series that basically a um, a series of switches that were controlled by the position of the joystick. You know, the early buttons, and those were used in in arcade games, in the early home video games, and you had stuff like your favorite the in television. Now for our younger listeners, there used to be these places called arcades. There's still arcades. Yeah, no,

there are arcades. But you know what's disappointing is that when you see arcade now they're talking about like some sort of like courtyard. It's very few times that you'll find a video arcade. Actually, those were around before video arcades. What I thought that they took their name from. Are you sure? Yeah, I'm pretty sure. But let you see

that Wikipedia page. I'm just kidding. We do not use Wikipedia people, um no, um no. So all right, so yeah, the arcade being a place where you would go and they had lots and lots of video games that you would exchange either quarters or token in order to play them. Yeah, and a lot of them we're talking about very very simple uh switches. I mean you had them. You had

the paddles that go left and right. You had track balls, which are essentially, you know, the old roller style mice turned upside down where you roll the ball with your hand to control stuff like Marble Madness, for example, if those centipede um you know, where you control your the movement of the thing on screen by rolling the ball. Switches.

You had the bi directional joystix, which only get left or right, you know, and then you had the kind where you could do up, down, left and right and again these were just switches he would you would push the joystick in a certain direction that would put pressure on the switch, which would indicate, hey, this guy wants Mario to climb up the ladder. Mario used to go up and down ladders a lot, Yes, he did, was before he had the ability to jump, leap tall buildings

in a single bound. Yeah, go three D turn into a paper airplane, that kind of stuff. Those were the days. Yeah, but no, Uh, video game controllers, you know when they moved into the home, basically used the same kinds of technologies, just the uh, the leaf switches, um and a lot of them. You know, we're very simple. Even a key pad would have a membrane over there with the numbers or whatever else. And in television had that. Yeah, and

those were you know, very very early controllers. Atari trying the the ridiculous with controller and it's you know theoretically three sixty degree non centering joystick, which was a pain in the neck. Oh yeah, yeah, I heard about that. I never had at so I never got to experience the joy of the broken joystick. Yeah. They break very easily because the joy six I mean you could put those behind a truck back over it and it would still work, yeah, and not really being a little exaggerating

a touch, but those they were rugged. Yeah. Joysticks were a lot more, but they were very simple as far as these things that these things go. And I think, um, I think the first game controller that that was like a real game had that I remember was from the NES and Nintendo Entertainment System. There was actually sort of the four runner of the modern four directions direction direction pad and the two buttons BN A yes plus start

and select. Yeah. I mean there were other the controllers that were sort of like that, but they were they usually had they were big and he didn't you know, you held them usually sort of vertically like the Colico

Vision the in television HR joysticks like that Dell. They were all sort of vertical, and there was a most first yeah, yeah, and then I mean there were tons and tons you know, the other nintended control pads, and then the Genesis and then the PlayStation pads you know, but they were all sort of you know, evolutionary based on that. They were a little more ergonomic, you know,

they weren't square and candy bar shape anymore. You got to the Dreamcast controls that that was one of the larger controllers that had the um the different analog joysticks as well as the buttons, and then it also had a slot for a memory card. The slot the memory cards actually had a little uh displays on them. You could in some games, actually had many games that would play out on your controller's little miniature screen, which I

thought was kind of innovative and interesting. Now, granted, I got a Dreamcast after the Dreamcast had already gone off the market. I got a used one, and I got a bunch of used games, um, and I even got some old memory cards and stuff. And uh, I was really surprised at how ingenious the Dreamcast system was and and kind of sad that it never really took off, because it was in many ways uh and equal or superior to the other systems that were on the market

at the time. But um, but that controller. You can kind of see similarities between the Dreamcast controller and the Xbox controller. Well that's the thing. I mean, for the last couple of generations of game consoles, just about everybody who's brought something to market has a nice, comfortable, ergonomic controller that is that's easy to hold the button. I hate the PlayStation controller. I okay, look, I love the PlayStation system. I love the games. I think they're great.

I hate that controller. It's just too cramped for my hands. Yeah. And and since since we're talking about hate and controllers and the same thing, I think we should point out we've gotten some some recent comments about about our feeling on video games. And I don't think there's a video game console that I'm speaking for you here that either one of us doesn't like, you know, as a video game console. I think we might well, okay, but I mean, if you had an opportunity to play one, you would

probably take the opportunity to play one. I mean I would even play I had a chance. Sure, I would take the opportunity to play one, because I'm a video game We do not hate any game console in particular. I mean, there's there's always but and and that's an aspect of the thing. But I haven't actually, uh, you know, had a chance to mess with the PlayStation three that much. Um, not because I don't like it, but because I just haven't. I haven't had the time in grad school, um so

you know. But that's the thing is that these are are in general fairly comfortable, They're rounded, they have buttons, in in convenient places. For the most part, some of them have lots of buttons. Depending on the games, it might take a little learning to figure out where are Some of us old folks will still be spending the time saying, all right, which one allows me to jump? And you meanwhile, you sniped us forty three times in a row. Yeah, yeah, we understand. We're not as good

as you are. Ha ha, great, we make more money than you do. Possibly not, but come on, give me something, man, Come on, alright, alright, so anyway, Veronica Belmont befriended me

on Twitter. There I don't have that so um but uh, you know, one of the things that that has come up with the current generation of game consoles is, I mean much has been made of the Wee Remote and Nunchuck because there they were the first to market with a wireless controller that can be used um, you know, because it's got accelerometers and things, and you can actually use it to make motions like you would if you were actually playing, uh, like a phishing game. You actually

act like it's a fishing run, right right. It was. It was the first really innovative step in video game controls that we have seen in a very long time, because everything up to that point had been an evolution of the basic control system. Even even the wireless controllers for the older systems were the same controller that didn't have a leading to the to the actual console. It was the same exactly, and so the we mode was the first time in a very long time that we

had seen some innovation. The Nintendo is actually known for this. They've tried it a few times, not always successfully. Do you remember the power Glove? I do remember the power glove. Not the most successful implementation of a video game user interface, nor the most attractive. Yeah, hey, that thing was pretty you know what, I there are no superlatives I can use that I will actually make it into this podcast.

They'll all be bleeped out. It was. It was cool from a from like a twelve year old perspective, that thing was. It was like you're a freaking robot when you push it on. I mean, every kid wanted that I knew wanted one of these things, even the kids who didn't have any Supernantendo system or whatever, they wanted one. But yeah, as a game controller. Because I actually got to play with one because one of my friends got one. Um, it was it left a lot to be desired. It

just didn't have You know, you weren't able. You you thought you were suddenly going to become like super Leak in all these games because you just be able to point your hand at the screen and make your little guy move around and jump and fire, and it would all be at a twitch of a finger. It didn't quite work that way. Um. However, it did show that Nintendo was already even back then, thinking of ways to create new forms of gameplay so that, uh, you know,

they could sell more games. I mean, ultimately it means making more money, but it also means not falling into the trap of just doing the same thing over and over and over again. What's something else that Nintendo is often accused of doing because they depend so heavily upon certain franchises like the Mario franchise of the Metroid franchise. Um, but they also are known for really being innovative when

it comes to hardware. So the We mode was another step in that where you finally finally get to a point where this is a system that actually works. Unlike the power Glove, this system worked pretty well. You could do lots of neat things with the game. The biggest Prominintendo's faced since the introduction of the Wii is a real lack of compelling software. It's not that the hardware is is a lackluster It's just that there aren't enough really great games for the Wii too for people to

to have their attention be held by this device. I mean, most people will say, I got a Wei, I played the heck out of it for about three months, and then I turned it off and haven't turned it on since. M Yeah, it seems like, um, well, it's the very first that the titles that came with its launch, there were very few that really took advantage of the we remote capabilities. I think it would be safe to say means WE Sports did definitely do that quite a bit.

Sure there, but their third party title, sure, the third party talk well, I mean when you think about it, they were okay, but they weren't as advanced as the ones that are currently in the market. And that's the danger of creating a really innovative form of gameplay is that you have to hope that developers can keep up with you and create content that takes advantage of your new hardware. Um, if you have created a brand new

style of gameplay. Then that that's a big hurdle. It's not like, oh, we have to learn how to program for this new video card, or we have to make sure that the game system sound card UM is supported that kind of thing. It's we have to figure out how how we want to interpret certain motions and and translate them into game action. It's a totally different way of thinking. So it's actually, when you think about it that way, it's a huge challenge from a game developer standpoint.

So I'm not terribly surprised that the early third party games UH did not take advantage of the MOATS capabilities to the extent that most of us had hoped. And then, of course UM over the past year, year and a half or so, you know they've started they released the add on, the Motion Plus, which plugs into the back of the more precise UM and that's you know that that will probably give it a little more life to it.

I think the other issue we need to look at it's not just the gameplay for the WEI, but also the target audience, because we really targeted casual gamers in a way that the other game systems don't. UM. Not to say that there aren't casual games on the p S three or Xbox three sixty. There are, uh. And not to say that there are no hardcore type games on the Wii, because there are core games as well. It's just that, in general, the perception is that the

we was for casual gamers, like families. You know, it's the sort of thing that a mom and dad could play with their their kids. Um, not just because the content, but because the control system was so intuitive that you didn't have to sit down and learn, oh wait, I need to do half circle forward be a to pull off that move. It was just you know, you flip your wrist and you push a button and there you go.

And UM. The thing about that is that, yeah, these casual games are fun, but it's like a board game. You know, you don't want to play it every day. It's not the kind of game that gets you sitting down in front of the television and playing for hours on end, day after day after day, like other hardcore games. So ultimately, yeah, you're gonna lose interest in these games. It's just that's the way we work. We don't tend to want to play the same sort of casual things. Uh.

For a prolonged period. I mean, you might want to go and revisit them now and then, but it's not like, you know, you're not making time to do it all the time. Yeah, well, I don't know. I mean I think it sort of depends on on the gamer, but I think it's the same. I mean, casual games have an appeal in a way that that the hardcore games, uh don't depend It depends on the obviously depends on

the game. There are a lot of them that have a story that goes along with him, and once you've played through to the end of the story, a lot of people don't go back to the start of the story and go again. They go find a new game. Well yeah, but even like even like party games that kind of stuff with like little mini games things like that. Yeah. Um, and I mean it's the sort of thing that could definitely still be brought out every now and then whenever

you got friends over. I just don't think that it's the I mean, we've seen this in sales figures where uh, November of two thousand nine excluded, uh, the we sales started to kind of drop off. Part of that was probably for another session. Part of that was because back in September we had the Sony announcing the price cuts for the PlayStation and and Microsoft announcing price cuts for

the next plus three sixty. And also think part of it is that the stores actually have We's in stock now as a normal thing, that the demand has been meeting the supply. A lot of people, a lot of people who wanted to WE already have one, so that also helps. Um. But but the point being that that interest in the WE appears to be waning. It's a WE waning and Nintendo has admitted that that that's going on, that they're selling fewer of the consoles. But but at any rate, the WE what it did do is it

spurred both Microsoft and Sony. I mean, you could argue that maybe the WE didn't spur it. Okay, well, I'm sure the companies would, but they've started to develop their own innovative game controller systems. Yeah. As a matter of fact, Sony was and I know for a fact that Sony was working on uh some motion sensitive controllers for the

PlayStation for for a quite a long time. So I imagine though that that's the kind of that having the WE out there and having it be a success as the kind of think that proves that, yes, people really are interested in having this kind of experience when they play games, right, you might want to ramp up the research and development on those kind of projects once you see the success of the Wei um and yeah, and Sony had some experience with this already because they had

their their eye toy stuff, the uh, the camera based games that for the PlayStation two, where you would hook up a little it's kind of like a webcam to your PlayStation two and you would you could play games. You would be inserted into the game system. You might see like little bubbles floating around you as you look at the screen and you see yourself and you move your arms around you pop the bubbles. And they had

lots of little mini games like that. Actually know someone who used to work on that project, and um, he had done a lot of mo cap stuff motion capture stuff as well, sou. But that was just kind of, um, that's kind of like the the very the beta version, if you will, of some of the control systems were starting to come out. Now, now you said you had looked into some of the other stuff Sony had done, well, yeah, because um, because you know, it was just last summer. Uh,

and it makes them look late to the game. But I don't really think that they were. I think that they were actually sort of um investigating it and doing R and D on it. Um. But last summer, Sony announced um that they were going to come out with a WAND type controller. UM. As a matter of fact, I believe they're unfortunate timing there. Um press, you know, formal press announcement came the day after Microsoft announced project at all. But um, Sony actually announced this WAND style controller.

It's got. Um it looks kind of strange. It really does look like a wand because it's got a glowing ball on the end of it. UM. Maybe maybe not depends on the game. Uh, but no, it actually works in conjunction with the PlayStation I and uh, by the accounts I've read about it, Uh, this particular controller is

extremely precise. Um, and especially for things like fighting games, could be really uh you know, could out we the we as far as the you know, how precise the controller is and how how well you can capture the motion even when you're interacting with the game. UM. Yeah, So I mean I don't know, Uh, the the articles were I was checking out. We're immediately following that in pre we Motion Plus. So I mean I haven't seen

any uh you know, hard evidence of either. Of course, the wand control of the new UM motion controller for the PlayStation three isn't due out until next year. But you know what kind of game I'm gonna want for that? Yeah? What what type of game this? You're gonna say something involving a lightsaber? Yes, I want a lightsaber game. That's awesome. I'm I'm guessing that Lucas Arts will be happy to

help you out with that, I should hope so. Because he still owes me for episodes one, two, and three, I'm holding him personally responsible on behalf of true Star Wars fans everywhere. As long as I get the payoff, I'm happy to bear that burden. Yeah. But the but the weed doesn't actually have a camera. You know, it does have you know, infrared, and it has the accelerometers

and it could tell what's going on. Um. But the the PlayStation does has the combination of the PlayStation I and this one controller, so you should be able to be somewhat more immersive. The camera is able to track the motions of the one. The one itself has its own accelerometers and everything in it, so so it should be pretty cool. I think I'd like to have a

chance to to mess with it. Of course, again that's very different from what Microsoft is proposing with Roget and that really took off again because the popularity of you know, the Wei. Of course, they were kind of dismissive of it at first, Oh, this is just a toy, but you know, it proved doubt that people actually liked the game that way. Yeah, and and the thing about at All is that kind of took everyone by surprise at three this past year. Yeah. Um, I was at E

three when they announced it. I was not at the press conference where they unveiled it. I actually arrived too late to attend that that press conference. But that was all I was hearing on the show floor that first day. It was about Project Natal and at the time I had no idea what it was. I sadly was not one of the lucky individuals grabbed off the showroom floor to be dragged into Microsoft's demo room, kicking and screaming to be given a full demo of Project at All.

I've seen the videos of people who were and actually they weren't kicking and screaming. Most of the time, a rather nondescript person would just come up and say, hey, do you want to see this cool thing we've got working at Microsoft. And if they didn't immediately get a creepy vibe, they'd say sure. You know, they weren't using Steve Bomber. If they had been using Steve Bomber, you just would have heard cries and screams of of of fear as as fires broke out across the showing floor.

But they used someone with a little better, uh, you know, a little gentler approach, and uh. And so people went up and they checked it out. And the thing about Project and at All is it's considered it's kind of a controllerless system. You don't hold a wand you don't hold any kind of remote control. You you control the game with various motions of your body and that you know.

The first yeah, the first version of this I saw involved a game where all you were doing is swatting balls being thrown at you back at the the far end of the game board the room. It's like dodgeballs being thrown at you and you just you know, you're swatting them. Out of the air and knocking them back to where they from where they came from, and um, to where they came from. And so you're just you know, you're using your whole body. You're jumping back and forth,

you're kicking, you're you're swatting your hands. You look like a crazy person in the middle of this room. If you were standing on the same side of the room as the television, you think this person is having a fit. If you were standing behind the person and seeing the television, you think, wow, that's really cool. He or she is blocking all of these digital objects using their own body.

And depending on where you stood, Like if you stood closer, you'd be a larger presence, if you stood further away, you'd be a smaller presents Like it could detect the distance that you were at, uh from the from the actual screen. So yeah, it wasn't just left right up and down and how slow could perceive depth. Um kind of a it's kind of a neat little radar kind of system, although it's not actually using radar. But it can recognize your face. Yes, it can recognize your face. Um,

you can. So theoretically you could have a family of people who all have profiles on project at all, and the game would recognize who was going to be playing the game and could set things like even difficulty settings. Let's say little Billy is awesome at this boxing game on the Xbox three sixty that uses project at All, and Dad thinks he's a great boxer, but he's a glass joe, So they can't play on the same level because if they did, Dad would be knocked unconscious within

thirty seconds. So when Dad gets out there to play this game, the game says, oh, let's just turn this to nube and Dad will have a fighting chance. So that's that's kind of the idea here. And uh, the neat thing about is not just that you you know, like I was saying, the first games I saw, you could do things like you're blocking dodgeballs coming at you. But they also had a racing game. And in the racing game, you sat down and it could still recognize

that you were there. You put your hands out as if you were grasping a steering wheel, and you put your foot out to indicate your stepping on the gas, and this you could race. You know, you turn your hands as if you're turning the steering wheel. And your car turns. You can actually control without holding a controller. Yeah, it's pretty neat to look at. It's really innovative. Is

it going to take off? I don't know. I mean part of it is just that we've kind of grown accustomed to using controllers and it seems odd to try and control a game just through gestures. Right. Well, you know what, that's actually one of the things that the Sony engineers said. They said, you know, hey, this is the TNAL thing is really cool, we admit, but um, actually I don't know that they said that, but they did say, okay, this isn't at all it is you know,

you don't use any control at all. We believe that people want controllers. We've you know, from what we've done, we have learned that people want to hold a controller. This is why we came out with the WAND. Yeah, definitely. Like I think it's the same thing if you were playing, say a fencing game. I say you're playing a fencing game using either the Sony WAND system or project at all,

it might feel more natural that with the WAND. Because you actually have an object in your hand, it's easier for you to visualize where the point is going to go. You tilt your wrist up or down, and you you control the point's very precise. When at all, even if it's very good at detecting you know, how your hand,

how you're holding your hand, it's gonna seem weird. You're gonna have to judge based upon what you see on the screen, like, Oh, I guess I'm tilting my my wrist up a little higher than I thought it was a better tilted down. Uh, it's not gonna necessarily translate as well, because you don't have something physical in your hand that you can, you know, quate with what's on the screen. So I think that maybe we will eventually move there. The question I have is whether or not

project at all is ahead of its time. Um, maybe we need that evolutionary step that the we mote and the Sony wand are providing before we can go to complete gesture control. Well here's um, here's what I'm thinking. I think. Number one, it's kind of funny that something that you know that the current generation of consoles. One of the reasons Nintendo was sort of counted out at the beginning was Sony and Microsoft were competing with one another to deliver the crispmas graphics and you know, high

deaf and surround sound experience. You know, the hardcore gamers really wanted this immersive experience. And I think that the success of the WE style gameplay. Now, I think the next generation of consoles is going to be about the controllers, because I mean, we're you know, the the the machines themselves graphically are matching the state of the art, and televisions, I mean they're not. They can play on high definition systems,

although the WEI is behind in that step. Um, but I think that that that we finally have gotten to. You know, let's go Shakespeare here the plays the thing. That's a different play. Yes it was a different play, but still, I mean, I think the gameplay majesty should be what two is? Why day is day? Night? Night and time is time where it's nothing but to waste night, day and time? Are you done? Well? It's polonious. He doesn't get done for another page? And I know, but

I know. But the gameplay is is the the experience of the gameplay is where it's at right now. And I think all three of these manufacturers, I think the next console is going to be about gameplay. Now, the trick is, uh, you know, is Project at all going to give you the same amount of fine control that we Motion plus and the Sony PlayStation three controller. It's hard to say because so little has been seen of it. Yeah, so we don't know that answer. See, here's here's the

problem I see with that. That premise not that you're wrong. I'm not gonna say that you're wrong because I think I think you're right. I have no idea, but I think I think that the gameplay. I think Nintendo's approach the gameplay proves that that is enough to attract people to your console. It is not necessarily enough to keep people on your console. For that, you need the really

good software. I think if Nintendo had really, really, like if they had managed to keep up on the same level as the PS three and the Xbox three sixty with the games, if their game library were as strong as the uh, the other two, then maybe we would be able to make an easier conclusion, Because what then we could say for sure whether or not Nintendo was winning based mainly upon its control system along with the

game library. It's not an equal footing though, because it's game library is lacking It's hard to say what's more important. Is it more important that you go and create this kind of system that caters to the hardcore gamer, or is it more important that you control create a a control system that is as inclusive as possible. That's the thing that was brilliant about the Wei was that its control system was so easy to pick up that you know,

you have senior citizens who were playing the games. You know, you didn't necessarily hear about folks over at the Senior citizen home breaking out the Xbox three sixty four little Call of Duty. I mean, you know, for one thing, that airport level would probably freak them out. I don't know, maybe not all of them. Probably some of them were in the original version of Call of Duty, which was

called World War Two. Well yeah, well the current once I'm talking about our modern warfare where saw this small squad stuff? But no, no, no, yes, I've been getting back to right, like this game is this game is giving me flashbacks? Um, I get that every time I play Sonic anyway, So I had a Hedgehog problem when I was younger. I'll go into it in another podcast. The but but yeah, because the game, because it doesn't

have the library. It's hard to say. Is the the user interface enough to to attract and keep people with your console? Um, but I think once we see the Wand and the Tall come out, if those systems not only are successful, but people develop really good games to go along with those systems take advantage of the capabilities, then maybe we will actually see an evolution or true

evolution of the video game console system. Because really, I know, you can always go you know, higher definition and faster processors. I mean, there's always that that place, But eventually you're gonna hit a hit a law of diminishing returns where yeah, the improvement is there, but is that enough for people to say this is a game system worth owning? Because uh, look, this helmet looks twelve more realistic than it did on

the old system. Well on the next generation of consoles, I'm I can I could guess that what's going to succeed is a combination of you know, high end capabilities plus an awesome control system, plus the library games. I hope that all three of them make it through, yeah, because I mean they're the competition is obviously doing all three of them good, and those of us who buy the consoles as well because we have the opportunity to

play these really cool games. We should also point out that some people have suggested that things like the Sony Wand and Project at all. Uh, the real reason that they're coming out, I'm not necessarily saying this, but this

has been said. But the real reason they're coming out is just to extend the life of both of those consoles um so that you know, because people have talked about the PS three it was supposedly having a ten year lifespan, Yeah, which I mean the PS two, they're still games coming out for that, so, I mean, it's it's completely believable, so that people have some people have suggested that these these new systems are really just a way to kill time before they have to come out

with whatever the next you know, mind blowing video game system will be, whether it's the PS four and Xbox seven twenty or whatever they're gonna be. Uh, if there anything like the current generation, they're going to be extremely

expensive to develop and manufact after the first ones. Yeah, well, I mean, if you always want to try and get the most out of whatever hardware you're putting out as possible, I mean, come on, Microsoft, they still need to make an Xbox three sixty that doesn't break out, dude, Like when you're breaking rate rage is close, you have got a serious problem. I am an Xbox fanboy, Okay, I make no apologies for it, but man, that red ring

of death stuff that is out of control. So um, I don't want to get into a long thing here because we probably need to wrap this up. But I'm also interested to see what this means for PC gaming. I mean, obviously that's a different audience, but I wonder if any of this is going to make it over to the computer. And well, another thing what we should mention is that Microsoft has has said that they hope to include just your controls within Windows operating systems, so

not just games, but also other applications. So this could actually make it over into say office. So well, you think about any like, you know, it's like like Minority Report. You know, you move your hands around and you can, you know, think about we've got the surface, Yeah, exactly,

You've got to think of it. You know, just say I have like a wall of photos and you flick your hand around and you scatter the photos around, or you pick a specific one you gesture and it expands very much the same sort of thing as multi touch on screens like the iPhone or whatever, except that you are no longer even making contact with the screen and just making gestures and that is executing commands. And I think it, uh, you know, the popularity may have its roots.

You know, are basically introduced introduced to the public from video games, right, you know, it's pretty cool. I mean video games have spawned a lot of other things as well. But we can We'll want to do a podcast, a full podcast, just on the technologies that video games have helped, uh push along, Like virtual reality is the number one that I can think of, augmented realities way up there too. All right, well, um, let's wrap this up. I guess what we can do is we can do another tiny

little uh listener mail. This is your mail comes from loop. Loop said, hey, on the mr Fusion thing, the car's flight was powered by the mr Fusion and it was electrical. The lightning at the end of part two damaged it. It was in Duc's letter. Also, that thing you spoke of about seeing information about people and their company and online conversations the opposite the future, well, it was predicted in Back to the Future to remember when Marty was talking to Niels and later his boss on the TV

and the den. It showed the name of the person, stuff about them and their favorite color and food and stock quotes when their company also be careful using that way back. Machinist Peabody stated the time machine was too tricky, but when he built the way back, it was could have been machine, and it showed what happened, only in a different little slant. On the Newton NP have to

and still use one regularly. And yes, the handwriting recognition can be bad, really bad, I'll give you that, But the Newton NOS was designed to recognize normal print and normal cursive writing, your regular alphabet you have been taught since kindergarten, whereas the poem used graffiti, which is a proprietary alphabet that you have to teach yourself to right so it can understand you. So you have to put

that into perspective on the tech. April Fools Gags I g N made a trailer for Legend of Zelda and release it on April first, a couple of years ago, and the head fool's folks believing it also Hello Loop that Loop, you are a wordy person. You also have a really interesting tone. I don't know how that came through. I don't know where that came from. That was that. I think I might have actually been channeling a little of Molly Wood there, although she does an amazing nerd voice.

Um and loop. I don't mean to suggest you're a nerd. I'm a nerd. I just as I was reading and I was like, this is how I would say it if I were saying the things you were saying. Also, you're right, So part of me gets all snoughty because you're correct and I was wrong. And I made this statement about gasoline powering the flight of the car, and you were right, and Chris was right and I was wrong.

Gosh to think that I got something wrong about a movie about a about time travel that if you actually examine it for more than two seconds, completely falls apart. I feel really terrible about myself. All right, guys, Well, if you have any other emails that you wanna, you know, send us so that I can feel badly about myself. Um well, our email address is tech stuff at how stupp works dot com. Remember we have a live show

every Tuesday one pm tex Stuff Live. You can find that at the blogs at how stupp works dot com. Just look on the right side you'll see the links there. Um lots of interesting stuff on the blogs. It's not just me and Chris. We have tons of writers here at how stuff Works and editors contributing to that blog, including a brand new fans Stuff contributor, Chanel. She is awesome.

You guys are gonna love herself. If you like genre type stuff like science fiction, fantasy, horror, those kind of things. I guarantee you she's got some interesting perspectives on that on that stuff, and she's a big fan. So check it out. We will talk to you again really soon for more on this and thousands of other topics. Does it how stuff works dot com and be sure to check out the new tech stuff blog now on the house stuff Works homepage. Brought to you by the reinvented

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