/vr/ - Retro Games

>>3335456
The PlayStation controller's D-pad is connected under the shell, just like a normal D-pad. It also, like other D-pads, sits on a rubber mat with contacts in it to complete the circuits of each direction when pressed. While the exterior looks different from other D-pads of the era it is still a standard D-pad inside. Picture related.

Cosmic Hunter did not have a D-pad. The main unit had a control grid that was 3 columns by four rows. It was like the number pad on a telephone. Inside the machine is a pressure sensitive pad, like a chiclet keyboard. Over the top of this the the different games would place a grid of 'keys'. See >>3335426. This grid was the same for all games. Some would just be fixed and unusable while others would be mobile. That part varied from game to game.

All Cosmic Hunter did was put a large overlay on the bottom 3x3 area of the control grid. Under that overlay there were still 9 buttons. The corners were fixed so they wouldn't move while the ones in the center were mobile. It is literally no different then putting a scrap of plastic over your keyboards numpad and calling it a D-pad. There is no rubber mat, no contacts, nothing of the standard D-pad technology. Believe it. If Cosmic Hunter would have been any kind of useful prior art you know Sega or Atari would have been all over it like white on rice to get Nintendo's patent overturned.