Funny how the things that you would never imagine affecting you do. This morning I heard the news that James Doohan, the actor who portrayed the engineer Scotty on Star Trek, had died. It was like a blow to the stomach.
Scotty has long been one of my favorite characters in Star Trek. To me, Star Trek was more than just about Kirk and Spock. It was an ensemble piece. Unlike many of the other characters, if it weren’t for Scotty, Kirk and Spock would never have been as successful as they were. He was the man behind the scenes who made it all work.
I guess I have always admired the unsung hero behind the scenes who sometimes just made the main character’s job a little easier, sometimes made it even possible. Characters such as Q,Artemus (from Wild, Wild, West) and the ultimate, Scotty, the Engineer. I’ll miss you Scotty.
Well, it seems that I’m nowhere close to being correct about the controller. This blog purports to reveal the functions of the new controller, including
- gyroscopic motion
- pressure sensitive trigger/pads
- heating and cooling pads
- C trackball to replace the C stick
- left and right triggers to replace Z button
I’m sure the heat/cold stuff will draw the most attention, but I think the pressure sensitive areas would be more useful. I don’t know about gyroscopic motion. Used in a limited way, I’m sure it would be cool, but having had a Sidewinder with some sort of gyroscopic motion, it didn’t impress me.
It sounds pretty whacked, but I’m sure that developers will come up with some cool ways to use it. Also, very interesting blurb about voice command in the comments. Cool! 
Still, I must say that a configurable controller layout had me pretty jazzed. I’m sorry to hear that isn’t part of it.
Microsoft has come out with a new Shareware Starter Kit that includes
- Multi-Threaded Splash Screen
- Integrated E-Commerce
- Product Activation
- Product Registration
- Product Feedback
- Exception Handling Reporting
which is the short list of features that you don’t put in until beta.
For now, there is only a C# and VB version which both require the .NET 2.0 framework, but at the bottom of the page it assures us that an unmanaged C++ version is on the way. Yeah! (Assuming that unmanaged C++ also means .NET free).
To be honest, I’m so far from being done with my game that it really doesn’t matter that I see this now, but it’s nice to know that Microsoft is at least thinking of the µISV.
