What's the future of the "system's in a controller"

[Anthony1]

What I mean by this, is ultimately, where do you think the whole system in a controller market is going to go?

If you don't know what I mean by system in a controller, then you haven't been to GameStop lately. They have these controllers that have old video game systems built into them, with a number of games hardwired into them.


For example, Atari has one with the old atari joystick and a number of classic games for $19.99. Namco has one with Pac Man and Galaga and a few other games, for $19.99. Somebody has one that has been licensed by Sega and it has a game pad that looks very similar to a Genesis 3 button joystick and it has about 7 or so Genesis games built into it. Atari also came out with a Paddle one, that has Breakout and some of the other paddle games on it.


My question though, is what is the future of this?

Do you think eventually we will see a SNES controller with games on it? A TurboGraphx controller with games on it? An Atari Jaguar controller with games on it? A Sega controller with 32X games on it? A Neo-Geo controller with Neo Geo games on it? Now that would be something to see!

Can they ever somehow put actual CD-Rom games on these? Like a Genesis controller with Night Trap and Sonic CD built in?


Hmmm, interesting.


Do you think there will ever be a controller that instead of having just 5 or 8 or 10 or 15 games on it, it will have like 100 or more games on it?

Also, what exactly is in the controller? How do these things actually work? Is it some type of emulator? Or has the system been reduced to one chip and a flash card with the roms on it?

I would be interested to know what is inside the Genesis controller. Could one somehow get different Genesis games on there somehow?

It will be interesting to see what Hong Kong thinks about this. Will they come out with a knock off Genesis controller that has a built in slot for a Flash Card? Where you can put your own roms on it?

Or a Genesis or NES knockoff controller that has a USB cable with a built in 1GB storage?

It would be blank, but you can easily put a NES or Genesis emulator on it and all the roms you could fit?

Hmmm, interesting.... Interesting indeed.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

I doubt seriously that we'll see any of these with expansion or play-your-own-ROMs capability. The last thing most of the companies licensing these things out to manufacturers like Jakks and Radica want to do is encourage emulation.

I think they're probably nearing the apex of their popularity though - generally, when something gets named a "hot Christmas toy of the year" (which it's interesting to note that Jakks' Ms. Pac-Man 5-in-1 just did get named), they make a boatload of 'em the following year, and oversaturate the market. (Case in point: Tickle Me Elmo, Furby, etc. etc.) The original Pac-=Man 5-in-1 and Atari 2600 stick 10-in-1 got some buzz, but it was mainly "Hey, those were neat, weren't they?" and it was a surprise hit. This year they're expecting them to be a hit, and they may very well be...which usually means they're about to crest and head downhill again.

But I'm sure they'll make their money out of the deal this year, as will the other companies making similar gadgets. I'd be surprised to see these things still doing well in, say, three years from now, though.

[Flack]

Do you think eventually we will see a SNES controller with games on it? A TurboGraphx controller with games on it? An Atari Jaguar controller with games on it? A Sega controller with 32X games on it? A Neo-Geo controller with Neo Geo games on it? Now that would be something to see!

I know there has been a Commodore 64 one in development for quite a while now. I'm expecting it to surface before Christmas.

There was a time when I had planned to collect all the Jakks sticks, but there are so many different ones out and coming out that I kind of gave up.

I need to finish my review of the SpongeBob one one of these days. I bought it for my kid and whenever he gets tired of playing I usually take over for a half hour or so.

[Ed Oscuro]

Figures - his excess topic with no replies is the one that gets bumped x_x

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=43432

This is related, too:
http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=43429

[Anthony1]

I appologize for having a number of posts that are all very similar in their scope, but the thoughts about them are somewhat different.


What I'm asking about in this post, is the future of these devices. Where do you see the future of them going?

Is this just a phase and a fad ? Or are we actually going to see these "console in a joystick" things for years and years to come?

I think it would make perfect sense for Sega to release a Genesis controller that is virtually identical to a real Genesis controller, but it has a special slot for a mini game cartridge. And on this cartridge would be 15 of Sega's classic Genesis games. Then there would be other cartridges available that you could buy individually, that also have 15 games on them.

NEC could do the same thing with the PC Engine/TG-16.

Neo Geo could do the same thing with Neo Geo.

Atari could do it with the Jaguar.


I know that there already is a Genesis one that has about 7 Genesis games on it, but that's not what I'm talking about. That particular Genesis one has a real crappy controller, with real crappy buttons. It looks like a Genesis controller, but it looks like it was built very cheaply.

I'm talking about one that is actually made by Sega themselves, that would have a little slot for a tiny game cart that would contain a mix of 15 games or so.

[dan2357]

Lately a few of the kiosks in the middle of my mall have been selling the Power Joy *000( dont remember the number) at one of them it has 7600 games on it and the other version is scaled down to 1200 with different menu. when ever I walk past there allways playing games like Super Mario Bros., Duck Hunt, Paperboy, and countless other NES original games. I know the larger of the 2 is selling for $25 and he has had them for a while. I haven't check the price on the other yet. I am always tempted to buy one, comes with 2 controllers and a gun, But I feel its just going to break or stop working so why should I bother.
On the other hand, If it was an offical Nintendo product, I would pay twice that for 1/4 of the games.
I think companys would be smart rereleasing there own games especialy when there are others doing it for them and making all the money.
but come on lets stop with the 2 wire hook up allready. When was the last time you saw a tv or vcr with mono inputs?

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Actually, if the current business model is any indicator, we're more likely to see these companies license their properties out to other entities that'll make the hardware to emulate them. Atari and Activision have licensed games out to Jakks, and Sega's in bed with Radica for a Genesis multi-game controller. I was, shall we say, rather surprised to see Atari doing Flashback by themselves instead of staying in bed with Jakks.

[Anthony1]

Lately a few of the kiosks in the middle of my mall have been selling the Power Joy *000( dont remember the number) at one of them it has 7600 games on it and the other version is scaled down to 1200 with different menu. when ever I walk past there allways playing games like Super Mario Bros., Duck Hunt, Paperboy, and countless other NES original games. I know the larger of the 2 is selling for $25 and he has had them for a while. I haven't check the price on the other yet. I am always tempted to buy one, comes with 2 controllers and a gun, But I feel its just going to break or stop working so why should I bother.
On the other hand, If it was an offical Nintendo product, I would pay twice that for 1/4 of the games.
I think companys would be smart rereleasing there own games especialy when there are others doing it for them and making all the money.
but come on lets stop with the 2 wire hook up allready. When was the last time you saw a tv or vcr with mono inputs?


Yeah, the lack of stereo sound sucks.

The Genesis had stereo sound, so why the mono white plug only?

[zektor]

Radica's Genesis controller is pretty neat, although it kind of sucks that they could not get the sound going correctly...especially Sonic.

That being said, these are cool gadgets, but all seem to have flaws...either in emulating the graphics, sounds, or gameplay like the originals. For these reasons I would give the prediction that most people purchasing them are looking for that blast from the past, will enjoy it for a little while, then most likely hit ebay to hunt down the real thing after realizing these flaws were not part of their memories. The joysticks will continue to sell well for the time being at the price ($20-30 mostly), but I really can't see them still in production in 3-4 years from now.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Same reason for not using even a scaled-down version of the original hardware: it's cheaper. ;)

[classicb]

The iQue Player is a new Nintendo console. The controller-style console plugs directly into the TV and comes with a 64 Mega Bytes Flash Memory Card to store the games. Games are not available in the traditional way, but can be downloaded via Download Stations to the Flash Memory Card in Nintendo-affiliated retail, compact disc and bookstores throughout China. There are also plans to sell games online.

http://image.lik-sang.com/images//large/nintendo-ique2.jpg

[zektor]

Lately a few of the kiosks in the middle of my mall have been selling the Power Joy *000( dont remember the number) at one of them it has 7600 games on it and the other version is scaled down to 1200 with different menu. when ever I walk past there allways playing games like Super Mario Bros., Duck Hunt, Paperboy, and countless other NES original games. I know the larger of the 2 is selling for $25 and he has had them for a while. I haven't check the price on the other yet. I am always tempted to buy one, comes with 2 controllers and a gun, But I feel its just going to break or stop working so why should I bother.
On the other hand, If it was an offical Nintendo product, I would pay twice that for 1/4 of the games.
I think companys would be smart rereleasing there own games especialy when there are others doing it for them and making all the money.
but come on lets stop with the 2 wire hook up allready. When was the last time you saw a tv or vcr with mono inputs?

By the way I have that Power Joy. 76000 games my ass! :) More like 400 games, and 75600 slight variations of them. It is pretty cool however in the sense that it is easy to bring it somewhere (a friends house perhaps), hook it up and putz around with the games. The gun actually works great believe it or not, probably even better than the Zapper did at least with Duck Hunt. It's made cheaply of course, and the one I purchased does not work with the batteries even tho the manual says it should. Oh well, I guess I should be happy that it even works at all!

[Flack]

By the way I have that Power Joy. 76000 games my ass! :) More like 400 games, and 75600 slight variations of them. It is pretty cool however in the sense that it is easy to bring it somewhere (a friends house perhaps), hook it up and putz around with the games. The gun actually works great believe it or not, probably even better than the Zapper did at least with Duck Hunt. It's made cheaply of course, and the one I purchased does not work with the batteries even tho the manual says it should. Oh well, I guess I should be happy that it even works at all!

I have the same one. Mine works fine with the batteries, but one of my buttons broke the first day (had to open it up and fix it that way). I bought mine for taking along in the van. Our minivan has A/V inputs for the flip down screen. You would be surprised how quiet a little kid (and daddy) can be while playing games in the backseat!

[Brian_Provinciano]

A dream job of mine would be coding games for these "systems-in-a-controller" running NES clone CPUs and original 8-Bit games. However, I feel the market has already become saturated with them, and I don't see too much of a future for them a couple years down the line.

[Avenger]

on the negative side, what if you break one of the buttons or one of the sticks...instead of just having a broken controller...you now ALSO have a broken console

[Raedon]

I love these things.. The Atari stick one is already showing up used at flea's. Reminds me of the days of the mini-arcade LCD games. Within 2 years they were all over the place at garage sales i I remember back that far correctly.

These things will add a little "slice of history" to my collection.

[Ze_ro]

Frankly, I always thought these things were silly. Wasn't the whole idea of a console so that you could play different games without having to buy a new system every time? I mean hell, these things are basically just advanced Pong systems...

I'd rather see companies put out these game collections on REAL consoles. The manufacturing costs should be cheap enough, and then I wouldn't have to screw around with batteries and A/V connectors.

--Zero