Hacker News Reader

Comment by Orangeair | Hacker News Reader

> The controller ports aren’t as satisfyingly analog-feeling as the old ones, but that’s really not a big deal.

It's slightly ironic that the author says this, since there is absolutely nothing analog about NES controllers -- they're nothing more than a shift register internally. By contrast, modern controllers do in fact have analog input mechanisms (although they are of course communicated with digitally).

It seems to me that "analog" and "digital" have lost their true meanings over time, and come to mean nothing more than "old technology" and "new technology" over time.

View on HN

I knew when I wrote it that someone would point this out — the feeling in the old connectors was like plugging in, for example, a multi-head RCA connector or something. It felt like putting a plug in a socket, connecting two analog devices like a speaker and amp - and unlike putting in a USB micro connector or DVI cable. But your point stands :)

I think what you're saying is definitely indicative of what I was trying to get at: that analog is more of a "feeling" and less of a technical term nowadays. I didn't mean to vilify you for that; I think it's a fairly widespread phenomenon, and you just happened to illustrate my point well :P

Great article, by the way!

I know that feeling, I would describe it as "robust". A chunky, solid feeling. But I would classify DVI and VGA the same, along with parallel ports, DIN (but not mini-DIN), and basically all mains power connectors.

At the opposite end are USB (especially micro), HDMI, 1394 and other dainty connectors that feel like they would break (and they do) if you don't take utmost care in mating them.

That being said, I don't think it's a feeling unique to "old" connectors; besides the mains plugs mentioned above, modern industrial, military, and avionics equipment connectors remain equally satisfying to mate. It's just that most consumer equipment has sacrificed robustness for compactness and cost.

To me "analog" vs. "digital" was analogous to "continuous" vs. "discrete". I would never have called an NES controller "analog".

Agreed, especially because analog controllers have been common in video games since forever. Apple 2's joysticks were pretty much all analog. Was Pong analog? (I'm pretty sure the Atari 2600 paddle controllers were not analog, they're more like mouse wheel). The Atari 7800 had analog joysticks.

The 2600 had paddles & "driving controllers". The former were potentiometers, the latter used quadrature encoding like a mouse.

All the Pong (and clone) controllers I've come across were analog. But the Fairchild Channel F's controllers were digital.

I've got a bit of an industrial control logic background and that's my go-to framework as well :)

Analog (as in continuous) was the holy grail back then. I was blown away the first time I got to try a real analog stick for a flight sim.

I assume he was referring to the mechanical resistance while connection the plug to the port.

I think you misunderstood. He's talking about the feel of plugging in the controller. "The controller ports aren't as satisfyingly analog-feeling."

Reply on news.ycombinator.com