What is this NES controller/accessory?

[wa27]

Does anyone know what the heck this is?


edit: Haha, I spent a half hour trying to figure it out before posting this, then found it five minutes later.
http://gaming.wikia.com/wiki/Arkanoid_Controller

[Hobie-wan]

They make Arkanoid much nicer to play, but as you can imagine they're pricey to obtain.

[CRTGAMER]

Curious if it the controller is true Analog or simulating multiple taps of the direction pad. Will the in game screen paddle actually zip across faster with an Arkanoid Paddle vs a regular NES Pad?

[wa27]

Curious if it the controller is true Analog or simulating multiple taps of the direction pad. Will the in game screen paddle actually zip across faster with an Arkanoid Paddle vs a regular NES Pad?

I'd like to know this as well. And are there any other paddle controllers on the NES? I can't really think of any other games that would benefit from one, which is weird because there were a lot more on the Atari. I guess paddle games got tired by the 8 bit generation?

[Hobie-wan]

Curious if it the controller is true Analog or simulating multiple taps of the direction pad. Will the in game screen paddle actually zip across faster with an Arkanoid Paddle vs a regular NES Pad?

It has an actual variable resistor inside. But there are other chips and things inside, so it is probably sending pulses down different wires that the game as to expect. Other games go not make your character move left of right when it is plugged in. If you spin faster, it does move faster.

[noiseredux]

that's the Vaus!!

[wa27]

Well, I ended up buying one, which may end up a bust since it's untested (damn impulse buys). Is there any way to test one of these without actually having an Arkanoid cart?

[CRTGAMER]

Curious if it the controller is true Analog or simulating multiple taps of the direction pad. Will the in game screen paddle actually zip across faster with an Arkanoid Paddle vs a regular NES Pad?

It has an actual variable resistor inside. But there are other chips and things inside, so it is probably sending pulses down different wires that the game as to expect. Other games go not make your character move left of right when it is plugged in. If you spin faster, it does move faster.

Thanks, that confirms possibly a true analog feel due to the variable resister-potentiometer. Will the on screen paddle zip across faster with the Vaus Controller vs using a regular NES pad? I have Arkanoid on the NES and wondering if the paddle offers a faster across movement and tighter true paddle control.

[Hobie-wan]

Is there any way to test one of these without actually having an Arkanoid cart?

It only works with Arkanoid. Loose carts are cheap though. You've for the expensive part.

Will the on screen paddle zip across faster with the Vaus Controller vs using a regular NES pad? I have Arkanoid on the NES and wondering if the paddle offers a faster across movement and tighter true paddle control.

My NES and game is put away right now, but I'm pretty sure the controller will let you move it faster than the pad.

[Limewater]

Thanks, that confirms possibly a true analog feel due to the variable resister-potentiometer. Will the on screen paddle zip across faster with the Vaus Controller vs using a regular NES pad? I have Arkanoid on the NES and wondering if the paddle offers a faster across movement and tighter true paddle control.

Virtually every analog-control video game discretizes your input at some point, and usually it's in the controller.

I don't know specifically how they handled it in Arkanoid, but they could have easily set up a hot-swappable control configuration leaving access to a pause and action button and still been able to spit out 32 discrete knob positions. If they didn't need a hot-swap system, they could get 64 and still keep pause and action buttons.