Down on the D-Pad's original Design

So, once more to the breach, dear friends, to join to ranks of lackluster English.

Yes, I'm reading volume 2 of the History of Nintendo by Florent Georges and Isao Yamazaki. And the English is quite plainly translated indeed. However, where the first volume's errors were mostly minor oversights, I'm noticing that this one has a few issues with tense in the first section. I wonder if they could use an editor over at Pix'n Love?

I know for a fact, though, that Pix'n Love has no need for more researchers - the history of Nintendo's Game & Watch handhelds is as thorough as a 28 page piece can be. It's chock full of diagrams and pictures, and has a few newspaper-style block quotes in it, as well. For good measure certainly. With all of this information packed into such a small space, it's also a grand summary of Gunpei Yokoi's work on the series of toys. That man was truly a genius, and definitely very gifted. Except on one point.

The Donkey Kong Game & Watch was the first video game to ever have a D-Pad.

Yes, that now ubiquitous multidirectional analog control was invented by Gunpei Yokoi (add it to the pile, I say).

Now, of course, Yokoi can't be faulted for the creation of this little four-directional button, but his original idea was to have it on the right hand side of the Game & Watch (and consequentially, it would likely have wound up on the right hand side of controllers in general).

As a life-long gamer, this not only seems incredibly odd, thinking about switching which hand does what while playing games just doesn't compute. Like trying to kiss an elbow, using your right hand for the D-Pad just does not process properly if it's thought about. The right thumb's for various buttons!