

Similar directional buttons were also used on the Atari Game Brain, the unreleased precursor to the Atari 2600, and on some early dedicated game consoles such as the VideoMaster Star Chess game. A precursor to the D-pad also appeared on Entex's short lived " Select A Game" cartridge based handheld system it featured non-connected raised left, right, up and down buttons aligned to the left of a row of action buttons.

The Intellivision's unique controller featured the first alternative to a joystick on a home console, a rotating circular pad that allowed for 16 directions of movement by pressing it with the thumb. A precursor to the standard D-pad on a video game console was used by the Intellivision, which was released by Mattel Electronics in 1980.
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They are also far less demanding in maintenance and do not protrude very far from the controller, making them ideal for portable consoles such as the Game Boy, Nintendo DS and the PlayStation Portable Games.ĭ-pads have appeared on other kinds of electronic equipment, including A/V remote controls (especially since the appearance of DVD players, which are heavily menu driven), calculators, PDAs, smartphones, and car stereos such as the AutoPC.Ī precursor to the D-pad was the four directional buttons used in arcade games such as Gremlin's Blockade (1976) and SNK's Vanguard (1981). However, combinations of two directions (up and left, for example) do provide diagonals and many modern D-pads can be used to provide eight-directional input if appropriate.Īlthough D-pads offer less flexibility than analog sticks, they can easily be manipulated (requiring little movement of the thumb) with very high accuracy. Like early video game joysticks, the vast majority of D-pads are digital in other words, only the directions provided on the D-pad buttons can be used, with no intermediate values. To learn more about the Coolmath Games titles we mentioned earlier, you can check out our Coolmath Blog on oVo here, and our Black and White blog here.Sega Master System D-pad providing eight-directional buttonsĪ D-pad (short for directional pad or digital pad officially referred to by Nintendo as a +Control Pad) is a flat, usually thumb-operated, often digital, four-way directional control with one button on each point, found on nearly all modern video game console gamepads, game controllers, on the remote control units of some television and DVD players, and smart phones. Running, jumping, dodging, and ducking are all the standards in platformer games, which almost always makes for some fun and fast-paced gameplay.

This style has remained popular for good reason, they’re just really really fun to play. From the first games, such as Donkey Kong and Super Mario World, to the newer games like oVo and Black and White, the goal has remained the same – get to the end of the level. Platformer games have a long line in gaming history. See if you have what it takes in this action-packed playlist. With each new level comes a new challenge, and the stages will progressively become harder and harder. If you have any hope of succeeding, you'll need to leap over chasms, defeat dangerous enemies, and avoid hazardous traps, at the very least. Run and jump your way through thousands of challenges in these side-scrolling games.
