Neither Nintendo nor Gumpei Yokoi invented the d-pad
Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2024 8:47 pm
I see this brought up a lot and I'd just like to clear the record: Nintendo and Gumpei Yokoi did not invent the d-pad, for multiple reasons.
Of the first, most literal reasons, Gumpei Yokoi was merely the head of the department behind the game & watch series, not individual games. The Donkey Kong game & watch which did feature the d-pad was attributed to Ichiro Shira, a hardware engineer at Nintendo. He did this in 1982, not Gumpei Yokoi.
However, that alone is not what I meant by the title. Rather, Nintendo's patent for the D-pad came in 1987, after being filed in 1985. It is a patent for their d-pad which was seen in 1982's Donkey Kong game & Watch. But well before this, TIGER ELECTRONICS had created and even PATENTED the D-pad!
In 1979, an engineer at Tiger Electronics named William F. Palisek created the first, modern D-pad. By modern D-pad, I mean a d-pad meant to rock under one's thumb on a central pivot, so only one of any two opposing directions can be pushed at the same time. Prior to this, buttons in a diamond cluster exited elsewhere, but you could press, say, up and down together. A modern d-pad pivots, preventing this from happening. This D-pad by Palisek was put into use in 1980 in the game Playmaker by Tiger Electronic, which is the first game to use a D-pad:
In 1981, Palisek got a patent for his D-pad: https://patents.google.com/patent/US4256931A/en
How did I find all this out? By reading Nintendo's patent for their D-pad! Their own patent references Palisek multiple times as an example of prior art for the d-pad!
That's one of many examples of him being referenced in the patent, here on the very first page!
Just an FYI, hopefully going forward this "common knowledge" will be corrected and Tiger Electronic's role in gaming history along with William F Palisek will be championed as they should be.
Of the first, most literal reasons, Gumpei Yokoi was merely the head of the department behind the game & watch series, not individual games. The Donkey Kong game & watch which did feature the d-pad was attributed to Ichiro Shira, a hardware engineer at Nintendo. He did this in 1982, not Gumpei Yokoi.
However, that alone is not what I meant by the title. Rather, Nintendo's patent for the D-pad came in 1987, after being filed in 1985. It is a patent for their d-pad which was seen in 1982's Donkey Kong game & Watch. But well before this, TIGER ELECTRONICS had created and even PATENTED the D-pad!
In 1979, an engineer at Tiger Electronics named William F. Palisek created the first, modern D-pad. By modern D-pad, I mean a d-pad meant to rock under one's thumb on a central pivot, so only one of any two opposing directions can be pushed at the same time. Prior to this, buttons in a diamond cluster exited elsewhere, but you could press, say, up and down together. A modern d-pad pivots, preventing this from happening. This D-pad by Palisek was put into use in 1980 in the game Playmaker by Tiger Electronic, which is the first game to use a D-pad:
- 384px-Tiger_Electronics_-_Playmaker.jpg (46.7 KiB) Viewed 185 times
- patent_pic.png (125.88 KiB) Viewed 185 times
- patent.png (99.97 KiB) Viewed 185 times
Just an FYI, hopefully going forward this "common knowledge" will be corrected and Tiger Electronic's role in gaming history along with William F Palisek will be championed as they should be.