I think I sold it a year or two back but I had a controller that worked as a joystick for my master system, c64 and a couple of other similar era consoles with "serial" port connectors via way of a sliding multi throw switch.
Similarly we have seen third party adapters on many import sites for years and all of those were well before the August 2008 filing of this thing.
On the other hand it looks like they are not claiming that as such (at least it is not explicitly detailed in claims).
The USPTO is useless it seems and will only provide free abstracts, fortunately there are other sources:
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2010/0041480.html
I reckon attacking the claims rather than the preferred embodiment will be the easiest. Looking at it it appears to be a house of cards as well and kicking a few claims in the head will take it all down.
The bulk of their claim seems to be a dynamic touchscreen and one with a radial or pulldown menu of sorts. I am pretty sure I have seen overlays on pocket computers for years and I could probably drum up a GPS with similar functionality.
Most claims seem to be embodiment specific, indeed the only truly "innovative" claims would have
1, 10 and 16.
The LCD thing (claim 1 and directly referenced in the next nine claims aside from 6 which is calling 5 which directly calls 1) may clinch it
Touch has been around for years:
http://www.gamersgraveyard.com/repository/...o_touch_360.jpg edit- Feb 2012 for those coming in from the newest headache caused by this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLX5LwI6w68
Application specific or otherwise selectable lighting has also been around for years in touchpads on laptops (ever disabled a scroll section and had the lights turn off under it).
Arguably by way of drivers (drivers are at present somewhat of a software creation though while this appears to be hardware/preprogrammed) so has variable controlling (ever tried to use a scroll section of the track pad without drivers?). On the other hand I have had several "gaming" mice over the years with programmable buttons (whether simple DPI sensitivity switches are good enough or not to displace it remains to be seen).
Similarly I am not sure of the dates here but
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLw1MXTDlAE&fmt=18 might also trouble this claim.
The key I guess will be whether having an LCD with a touch sensitive overlay will be obvious enough to nullify the claim.
Claim 10 seems to be simple enough but I can not think of any prior art, closest I can think of is something like the dreamcast memory/LCD packs/battery gobblers that could display a varying image on the LCD in game
Resident Evil code veronica displayed a ECG type waveform (health) while Sonic Adventures displayed an arrow is memory serves (direction of "secrets"), either way a varying use/layout and I do not think it would be too difficult to argue that as part of a controller scheme.
A tethered GC/GBA thing might help here but I doubt it, if there is an example of a DS doing it with variable touch screen controls then I fail to see how all is not lost.
Claim 16 would appear to be the variable selector switch to determine console type and change the layout accordingly. I could understand a call/response or protocol for determining the console but this appears to be user selection. Otherwise I think I already took this one.
To me this all looks a defensive patent of sorts rather than an outright innovation.
