Jul 31

Jul 31 Product Development Lessons from the NES Controller

Lessons Learned, Design Philosophy, Pop Culture

1982. That was a critical year – arguably the critical year – in the history of Nintendo’s product development efforts. The Japanese playing card company was nearly 93 years old at that point and had only entered the video game industry nine years earlier [1, 2]. In the middle of the previous year (1981), the company had its breakout moment with the widely successful coin-operated Donkey Kong video game, which was Japan’s highest-earning arcade game in 1981 [3], and then America’s in 1982 when it de-throned Pac Man [35].

In early 1982, propelled in nearly every way to get people playing Donkey Kong on their televisions at home, Nintendo began development of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) [4] – quite possibly the most influential gaming console of all time [5]. The NES was developed in a year and launched in Japan as Famicom (1983). Later, after an aesthetic overhaul, the console was launched in America as the NES (1985) [6].

Original Nintendo Entertainment System (1985).

The NES is iconic and so is its controller. Do an internet search for NES Controller Art, or NES t-shirts and you’ll see what I mean.

In this article, we examine the NES controller and use its story to teach three valuable lessons of product development.

Important Contextual History, in a Nutshell

To extract the product development lessons from the NES Controller development, it’s helpful to know what the computer and gaming environments were like leading up to the 1980’s.

In the late 1950’s, roughly 30 years before the NES was launched, the invention of the MOSFET and Integrated Circuit ushered in modern computer technology as we know it [7, 8]. In the 1960’s, large mainframe computers became a part of various industries [9]. By the 1970’s the personal computer had made its way to desks of working professionals and into some homes but had not yet become a common household object [10].

The 1980’s, however, was the decade of the home computer. It was so societally influential that the computer was named Time Magazine’s “person of the year” in 1982 – the only time a machine was selected for this recognition [11, 12]. The 1980’s brought us the massively popular Commodore 64 computer, the Apple II, and the x86 IBM PC series [13]. This global computer scene set the stage for the birth of the NES.

Time Magazine’s 1982 Man of the Year given to The Computer.

Enabled by the rapid infusion of computer technology into society, the evolution of video gaming happened in parallel, starting when coin-operated video game cabinets began to appear in arcades next to classic pinball machines in the early 1970’s [14]. Atari – which was to become a massive Nintendo rival – led the efforts when it launched the first commercial arcade video game: Computer Space in 1971 [15], and then the universally popular Pong in 1972 [16].

Computer Space Arcade Game (1971, Atari).

In 1978 Space Invaders was born (mfg: Taito) [17], followed by Asteroids (1979, Atari) [18], and Pac Man (1980, Namco) [19] – all arcade superstars [20, 21]. Although not the first video game maker to seize the home console opportunity, Atari entered the console market in 1975, and, by 1982, was the North American market leader, having sold approximately 12 million consoles worldwide and 120 million game cartridges [22].

Atari, Video Computer System (VCS) later renamed to Atari 2600.

Nintendo had also joined the home console market in 1977 with a series of cartridgeless consoles (Color TV-Game) that sold 4 million units over 5 years in Japan, which was the only place it was released [33].

This was the video game market environment when Nintendo began NES development in 1982.

The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) Development

It’s useful to know that leading up to 1982, Nintendo had divided its development team into two units: Research and Development 1 (commonly referred to as R&D1) and Research and Development 2 (R&D2) [23, 24]. R&D2 was responsible for console development (Color TV-Game) and arcade video game development including arcade Donkey Kong, which saved Nintendo’s American subsidiary from financial collapse and revitalized Nintendo’s arcade presence with innovative game play [25, 26, 32].

While it was R&D2 that ultimately developed the NES that propelled Nintendo into the company we know today, R&D1 was Nintendo’s power house development team [27].

A year before arcade Donkey Kong, R&D1 enjoyed significant success with its LCD handheld games, selling 14 million Game & Watch units the year it was released (1980) [28].

Although not universally believed within the company, it was widely held that Game & Watch was the future of Nintendo [27]. It was natural, therefore, for Nintendo to put forth a massive effort – through R&D1 – to produce a Donkey Kong Game & Watch, which launched in June 1982, selling 8 million units that year [28, 29].

Nintendo Game & Watch “Donkey Kong” (1982).

By the start of 1982, R&D1 was absorbing most of Nintendo’s development resources (including staff), and R&D2 was shrinking [27]. Masayuki Uemura – who ultimately became the chief NES designer – was the head of R&D2 during Donkey Kong’s arcade reign and yet struggled to find the small team’s next big thing amid dwindling resources. Eventually, he became focused on providing people with opportunities to play the arcade super hit Donkey Kong on a cartridge-based home console. Nintendo president, Hiroshi Yamauchi, feeling that the company needed to look beyond Game & Watch, charged Uemura with the rapid development of a very low-cost home console [27].

Nintendo Family Computer “Famicom” was essentially the NES stylized for Japanese market (1983).

After a year of development Nintendo launched the console in Japan as Famicom (1983), and later as the NES in America (1985) after a cosmetic overhaul by Nintendo America’s head designer Lance Barr [6, 30]. Compared to everything else of its time, Famicom/NES dominated the market as shown in the table below [31].

In a 2005 interview with Lance Barr, Margetts and Ward asked [34] “How do [you] feel about the fact that the NES design has inspired the industry and generations of gamers? People love the original NES, and specifically the controller, as evidenced by t-shirts, belt buckles, etc.”

Barr’s Response: “As a designer you are always making new, and hopefully better designs and products, so as you move on to the latest project, it's great to look back on some of the things that people noticed and appreciated. When I designed the controller, I never thought it would be the icon that it has. But I have to tell you, it's weird when my daughter comes home wearing the NES controller design on her shirt.”

Product Development Lessons from the NES

What caused this kind of market and pop-culture success? How did Nintendo’s NES take essentially all of the market leader’s business (Atari’s business) and more? Was it timing? Luck? Genius? We’ll never know a precise answer to that. But we can extract some essential actions taken by Nintendo that surely contributed to, and likely enabled, the NES success. I believe these design actions are universal and can be applied to any new project.

They knew the technology, deeply
Before R&D2 was charged with the NES development, they were already very in tune with the technologies that would ultimately be chosen for the NES. Choosing that which they were already good at was a smart choice for such a rapid development project. This was evident not only in the NES controller, but also in the NES accessories (light gun) and the NES console.
For the console, Nintendo had gained the needed experience and confidence with the Color TV-Game consoles it developed and sold in Japan, partnering with and learning from Mitsubishi as the manufacturer. The NES console was heavily influenced by the computer hardware of the coin-operated Donkey Kong cabinet, which was overpowered for Donkey Kong, but enabled more color, more storage, and advanced refresh rates compared to competitive consoles [37].
The Zapper light gun, which was designed as a plug-in accessory for the NES, was based on Nintendo’s already successful light gun technology, with which it broke into the arcade business in the early 1970s [36].
For the controller, the essential technology comes directly from the Game & Watch Donkey Kong (see photo above), which had already made its way into 22 million hands before the NES was released.
It’s not insignificant that the team chose these elements: The main design action to walk away with here is that they used technologies they were already expert in. This is different than simply using existing technology. The team used what it knew, and it lowered the product development risks significantly.
Interestingly, the main failure of the NES was the one feature the team had virtually no experience with: The ‘zero force’ cartridge insertion method — the problem that caused endless blowing on the ends of cartridges to try to make the console read them (this made it worse by the way).
They understood the market
Before, during, and after the development of the NES, Nintendo was in tune with the market and its trends. Nintendo’s strategy to design first for the market they knew best — Japan — was not random. They had already built a name in the Japanese console market with Color TV-Game, and being a Japanese company, they understood the unique characteristics of the market. For example, the Famicom console was designed to rest on the floor in front of the TV and to be played while sitting on the ground. This caused two specific and unique controller design decisions — the second of which has influenced game controllers ever since.

The first was that the controller cord was short (approximately 1 meter). It did not need to be long since living spaces in Japan were small and the console sat on the ground near the players. To keep costs low, the controllers were not detachable from the console.

The second controller design decision was also based on the fact that the console would sit on the ground and the controllers would likely be stepped on. The design choice was to make a controller that acted like a joystick (the industry standard at the time) but was flat. What resulted was the infamous D-Pad (cross-shaped directional controller).

““If you look at any contemporary game controller, it’s a Famicom controller in some way,” says [Professor James] Newman, noting that the console established the blueprint of button layouts and the D-pad. “The legacy of the Famicom is pretty much all of the gaming devices that we have in our living rooms today.”” [4].

Keen awareness of the market was evident throughout the entirety of the NES development. While the Famicom development and launch were very rapid and surrounded by not-so-research-intense stories of how the Famicom name and its color scheme were chosen, significant testing was done before the NES was launched in America. This is due in part to what was called the “video game crash of 1983”, which was largely an indication of the American market becoming disinterested in yet another video game console [39] — not a good situation for Nintendo’s fledgling cartridge-based console business.

Nintendo survived the crash of ‘83 by being keenly aware of the market. It was at this time that key decisions were made to brand the console as an entertainment system (not a video game console), use a blocky light-toned computer-like aesthetic that mimicked VCR technology (state-of-the-art technology) in how games were inserted. Nintendo carried out various tests at the Consumer Electronics Shows, pivoting in response to the market. Below are a few concept sketches that reflect the company’s willingness to adjust.

Early NES Technical Sketch with Notes, Source [39].

3. They used existing technology In Innovative Ways

Nintendo has an interesting, proven, and engrained philosophy called “Lateral Thinking with Seasoned Technology” [40]. The idea behind this philosophy is to use low risk technologies in unexpected ways. This is exactly what happened with the NES time and time again during its development.

To illustrate how this was executed by Nintendo, we’ll again consider the NES Controller. The NES Controller takes everything Nintendo knew and understood from Game & Watch and turned it into a wired handheld controller. This is true not only in obvious ways such as the placement of the D-pad and jump buttons, the shape and structure of the start and select buttons, but also for the architecture of the controller itself. The controller is assembled by stacking each layer into the controller’s front cover thus simplifying assembly and reducing costs.

Basic Architecture of the NES Controller. CAD model by C. Mattson.

As an illustration of Nintendo’s use of this design philosophy, it is helpful to know that the Game & Watch designers were inspired to create the product after seeing a Japanese business man playing with his LCD calculator on a commuter train. The Game & Watch architecture is identical to that of contemporary calculators. Relatively low cost objects such as calculators, remote controls, and others made significant use of membrane switches (sometimes called blister switches). These switches have compliant membrane structures with a conductive contact pill on the underside that completes a simple circuit by touching adjacent exposed traces on a circuit board. This technology is extremely low cost and reliable. Such a membrane switch is found underneath the NES controller’s two red buttons and the D-pad. The start/select buttons of the controller are also membrane switches, but without a hardshell cover.

As an illustration of how engrained this philosophy is in Nintendo, it is worth recognizing that the controller was designed by R&D2, but using technology fully refined by R&D1 during Game & Watch development. There was no prevailing not-invented-here attitude within the R&D2 team — a significant feat given that R&D1 was getting more attention and resources during the NES development years.

Final Thoughts

At first glance it may seem that Nintendo emerged out of nowhere when it launched the NES in 1985 — but this is not true. Not only had the company been around for nearly a century, but they had also become a significant part of the video game industry with light gun expertise, cartridgeless consoles sales in Japan, worldwide success with Donkey Kong, and as a leader in handheld gaming (Game & Watch eventually evolved into the Game Boy and then the DS). By the time the NES team was given its directive, Nintendo understood the key technologies of the time and would use them in the NES.

Further, Nintendo was connected to suppliers, distributors, and competitors before making its play with the NES. These connections enabled the NES success. Whether in the video game industry or not, it can be seen time and time again with innovators: Start small, develop expertise in a specific area, then with knowledge of the technology and key players, make a move for something bigger. Nintendo’s willingness to be flexible relative to the market (vis-a-vis the crash of ‘83) is an indication of how much it valued the market itself.

Finally, Nintendo’s willingness to use existing technology in innovative ways allowed them to keep the NES cost extremely low both for consumers and for Nintendo development teams. Not only was it faster and less expensive to use technologies that were proven, but also the risk of failure, rework, and customer dissatisfaction were significantly minimized.

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