Did it really take three generations of videogame consoles for Nintendo to figure out that a control pad is all that’s needed to “select” anything? No. It took two.
Hey, I enjoyed the SELECT button.
Gave my ickle Mario big, strong, fire-shooty powers. ::kazow::
In Metroid, start would pause the game while select would change your weapon from “beam” to “missile.” Would you rather never change weapons or never pause?
I liked select. It was like a start button for my left thumb.
In Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages for the GBC, Start pauses and brings up your items menu, and Select pauses and brings up your map. Zelda’s a pretty complex game, but A, B, and Start certainly isn’t enough, IMO.
Actually, it depends on how you define a generation. The NES and SNES both had Select buttons before it died out, but the GB, GBC, and the GBA STILL all have the select button (which I do not want to see go), and given Nintendo’s pattern of maintaining backwards compatibility between their portables, I don’t think we’ve seen the last of it.
PS2 still has a select button. Assuming that the PS3 will be backwards compatible with PS1/2 software, it’ll probably have a select button as well.
Xbox has a select button as well, no matter how Microsoft tries to disguise it with the word “back” instead of select.
Know what I really miss? The rubber start/select buttons. NES and SNES had them, but Nintendo dropped them for the N64 and GCN. All the older GBs had them, but the GBASP doesn’t.
Is Sony the only one who knows how to buy rubber anymore?
Of course, both the iterations of the PlayStation as well as the Xbox have select-ish buttons.
And Nintendo’s Gamecube controller has two directional pads and seven buttons (not including the start button). Normally one of them is mapped to an equivalent function that ‘select’ served. Select’s only sin is that it had a dumb name. Option or function would have been more appropriate.
Or ‘Button for stuff you need to use sometimes, but not as often as other things’.
Curse you Mikahw and your lighting quick fingers!
I’m very disapointed in the controller on the GBASP myself. The rubber start and select are much easier to press (191 Pokemon down, nine to go).
I can’t think of any examples of it actually being used to select anything, not even in the earliest NES games. I guess that might have been the original idea for the button, but the name probably just stuck because --what the hell else would you call it?
I just want the Power Glove back. I couldn’t afford one as a kid. If it comes witha select button, great. 
It was sometimes used for that. There were several games (mostly early ones), in which you had to use Select at the opening screen to choose One Player, Two Player, etc. Pressing up and down on the control pad at that time did absolutely nothing. Stupid, I know.
Several other NES games used Select as pause, which frustrated kids that owned controllers with a slow motion feature that worked by pressing the Start button repeatedly.
The Power Glove had a Select button, but I think that’s about all you can say for it. It looked cool, but it was actually pretty crappy. My friend had one. I tried it once or twice. He didn’t use it many more times than that himself.
without the select button, we could not have had the unified rally cry for our generation of gamer:
“Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, b, a, select, start”
<eh, then again, that was only if you had someone playing as John to your Mad Dog, so I guess you didn’t really need select anyways>
Atari 2600 had a select button on the consol!
Go Yar’s Revenge!
I know someone who bought a t-shirt with that on it!
Now if only I can remember what that was for.
What I want to know is, when are console makers going to learn they only need one button on the console? Press once, console powers up and opens tray. Insert disc, press to close. Play the game. Press the button to open the tray, remove disc, press button to close tray. Console doesn’t detect a disk, console powers off.
Seems like each console has at least one fundamental engineering flaw. Why didn’t they make the GameCube DVD compatible? Why is power switch on the back of the playstation, making it a pain in the ass to turn off when it’s four A.M. and you’re drunker’n hell? Why didn’t they put a light under that big green X on top of the X-Box?
asterion: The famed Konami code was basically the secret code for any game made by Konami for the NES. For instance, in Contra, you would get extra lives with it. Nintendo Power had a list of the top 100 best cheats and codes for Nintendo in their 100th issue. This was #1.
From Miller
IIRC, it was to reduce the size of the thing, for copy protection against pirating (by using property discs), and that DVD playback would have added to the console price due to royalties.
Wasn’t there a game where the Konami code would result in instant death?
Back to the OP, I owned a N64. Still reckon that the system was inherently flawed without a select button. It needed more buttons!
Indeed, Gradius III for the SNES did this. The Konami code worked for the old Gradius for the NES. In Gradius III, if you used L and R instead of left and right, the code would work, giving you full weapons.
Those are pretty stupid reasons. If the thing did double duty as a decent DVD device (ha!) it’d make up for the increased size and cost by saving the average consumer from having to buy a seperate DVD player. Instead, they become the other console: everyone I know who owns a GameCube owns a PS2 or an X-Box as well. Everyone I know who only owns one console, owns a PS2. Most people are only going to buy one console, and it’s not going to be a GameCube.
And I take it as axiomatic that all anti-pirating attempts are futile.
At any rate, I consider it a serious marketing blunder on Nintendo’s behalf, and I say that with all the authority and experience of a guy living in his parent’s garage.