NES Advantage

[joz]

Want the professional feel of a real arcade joystick with your Video Game console? Then the NES Advantage is what you need! Released in 1987 by Nintendo for the NES, any gamer worth his salt will tell you that the NES Advantage is unquestionably the nearest thing to a perfect arcade joystick ever made for any home video game system. A super heavyweight when it comes to gaming controllers, this bad boy weighs in at two pounds and is sturdy enough to withstand just about any type of physical abuse. But just because it's built like a tank doesn't mean that Nintendo neglected it's appearance. With a fabulous frame design and a variety of well placed buttons, this was the only NES controller that had an extra plug so that two players could play with the same joystick. Along with outstanding button functionality, this was a must have for any serious NES gamer.

On top of being a two in one controller, the NES Advantage boasted two other features that were unheard of in it's time. The first was a Turbo-Fire option. This included two knobs, one for each A and B buttons, that adjust the speed of the turbo-fire option which could also be turned on and off individually. There were also two small LEDs that would blink from slow to fast, illustrating the turbo-fire's speed setting at any given moment.
The other feature was a "Slow Motion" button that would basically press PAUSE really fast. Due to this little fact, the "Slow Motion" feature was incompatible with many games such as the Mega Man series where pressing pause would bring up a menu.

All of these features have since been implemented into controllers since, with the Turbo-Fire being the most popular of the bunch. Overall this is an amazing controller and is without a doubt one of the best accessories ever created for the NES, if not the best. It even made it into one of the most memorable scenes in Ghostbusters II, as it was the controller used to control The Statue of Liberty. The NES Advantage also made it's way into Saturday morning cartoon, Captain N: The Game Master's, intro. The only bad thing I can say about it is that it's nearly impossible to play without placing it on a flat surface such as a desk or the floor. Placing the NES Advantage on your lap feels very uncomfortable and tends to move around too much when you play.

If you never had the chance to use a NES Advantage when you were a kid and still own a NES today, you can easily purchase one online for roughly $20.