N64 control stick: Analog or Digital?

[Jamisonia]

I was hoping maybe you guys could clear something up for me. I was always under the impression the Nintendo made popular the self centering analog thumbstick. However a thread on another forum has one poster arguing that the stick was in fact digital in nature, but with enough points that it simulated an analog feel. He cited this article from 1up http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.off ... Id=3143627 and the wikipedia article on the N64 controller http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_64_controller.

So can anyone shed light on this subject. Was Sony or Sega then in fact the ones who popularized the self centering analog thumbstick?

[Breetai]

I'm pretty darn sure it is analog. I've opened the analog stick casing before and it is a stick that is spring loaded connected to the controller PCB with a connector. It seems as analog as can possibly be to me. I have never seen any support whatsoever for the claim that it is digital, other than a few random unknown people on some forums claiming otherwise while providing no proof.

[Hatta]

However a thread on another forum has one poster arguing that the stick was in fact digital in nature, but with enough points that it simulated an analog feel.

This is a distinction without a difference. All analog joysticks get sampled eventually into digital data.

Also, self centering analog joysticks were the standard in the early ibm PC/apple II days. I'm guessing they stopped being popular because dpads are cheaper than potentiometers. The N64 can claim responsibility for the resurgence for sure though.

[Ziggy]

N64 joysticks didn't use pots, not official first party controllers anyway.

[flamepanther]

Either way, they're still responsible for the popularity of proportional control thumb sticks. It really doesn't matter at what level they're analog or digital, because the function is the same either way. Even if they're not analog, people are going to call them that regardless.

[Limewater]

This is a distinction without a difference. All analog joysticks get sampled eventually into digital data.

I came here to pretty much say this. With modern video games, when you get down to it, everything ends up being discretized at some point. If you really, really wanted to be anal, you could make the claim that, apart from Tennis for Two and SOME (not all) variants of PONG, virtually no video games have truly analog controls. (I'm sure there have to be some others which I am overlooking.)

As Hatta said, all of these analog thumb sticks end up getting sampled and digitized. The ones on the dualshock controller use a pair of potentiometers which feed an analog to digital converter (or possibly two converters. It's possible to do it with either one or two.) The ones on the N64 instead use an optical gate system to accomplish the same thing. Technically, they both even contain analog electronics.

[Hobie-wan]

As Hatta said, all of these analog thumb sticks end up getting sampled and digitized. The ones on the dualshock controller use a pair of potentiometers which feed an analog to digital converter (or possibly two converters. It's possible to do it with either one or two.) The ones on the N64 instead use an optical gate system to accomplish the same thing. Technically, they both even contain analog electronics.

Right. Most analog sticks use potentiometers which are analog, then it is converted to say integers from -128 to +128. The N64 sticks spin wheels with slits that pass between IR sensors like old ball mice and trackballs. Technically it is counting on/off switched and is digital even before converted to data to send to the console. It just has enough slits to count that it seems to be smooth just like the range of 256 points of the analog stick has for this example.

[Breetai]

I feel like I've learned something here.

[pakopako]

I feel like I've learned something here.

Too bad YOU'RE DEAD!
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Sorry, been on a Scott Pilgrim vs the World marathon recently. (TV no baka!)

[Jamisonia]

I feel like if the distinction is moot then the Wikipedia article I posted should either be changed to address why the distinction is moot or the reference that they are not analog should be erased.