Game Console Controller - Dismantled for reference and curiosity
Is it a pair of brass knuckles with lollypops on top?
Is it the ergonomic, rainbow apocalypse (finally)?
NO!!! It's the most needlessly, ridiculously overly complex game controller of all time!; yes, I've considered the Steel Battalion one.
So what do we have? An eight direction joystick, a two way roller wheel, twelve keypad buttons and a further four action buttons on the grip. But wait, it's not just any grip, it's super ergonomic and if it's not super ergonomic enough for your giant hand you can clip on an extra piece to make it into something that Big Bird could clock Donkey Kong with.
Not enough? The keypad has slots so you can insert overlays to personalize the controller to whatever game they released them for.
I think basically someone just had a look at the terrible, original ColecoVision controllers and thought, 'I can pimp that' and went a little mental.
The controllers were sold in pairs and were released with the game 'Super Action Baseball'. The idea was that with the four action buttons you could control more than one character on the screen by switching between them. Very little software was released specifically for these controllers with the only notable title being the arcade clone Front Line.
It's not all doom and gloom though. While very few titles intentionally made use of the crazy features you could still use the roller wheel as a substitute for the ColecoVision Expansion Module No. 2 / Driving Controller and it was actually better than the big wheel. The joystick still worked as one would expect so it wasn't all bad.
Probably the best feature is that it's a huge, plastic fist cover that let you thump your fellow sibling in the arm should they beat you at something. They're very sturdy.
I struggled to get my set apart, however thankfully a very kind contributor supplied the great set of tear down photos below. I didn't hear back when I asked how he'd like to be credited or at all so whomever you are. Thank you very much!
** Box art scans courtesy of 'vintagecomputing.com'.
