The Mega Controller from Bandai for NES

[SoulBlazer]

On page 341 of the Secrets of the Games: Nintendo Games Secrets by Russel DeMaria is a oicture and a blurb of this controller. I had never heard of one, nor do I recall seeing one, back in the day. But if what the blurb says about it is right, this is a controller I would have LOVED to have back in the day. (The book was published 1990, so I'm thinking the controller was the same year.)

The blurb about the controller says:

The Mega Controller from Bandai is one of the more unusal control pads made. It features a digital readout window that can show the mode you're using or store passwords for later. Special programmable rapid fire and slow motion modes are included as well as some other extra special features. There is even a button you can use to lock down the fire button.

Now, THIS sounds like something I would LOVE! A small confertable looking controller (from the pic) that has turbo mode, the ability to enter and store codes and passwords for NES games, and slow mo? All in one was pretty rare in those days!

It's listed in the DP guide as a R5/$5, meaning it's just uncommon at best. Still, I'd never seen or heard of one. It also does'nt say much about it, save that it also has batteries that are used to store the data. And I wonder how much it sold for?

So, does anyone have one? Does it work as well as it sounds like it would? It was probaly a better controller 'back in the day' and not so much now.

[Jive3D]

I had one back in the day. I beleive that I bought it due to that very same advertisement. That was back in the day when Nintendo posters adorned every corner of my wall and I could not sleep soundly unless I had my Zelda pillow case and mario towel for after showers. The reason that I'm going off on those side products above it b/c that's what I thought of the Mega. It was neat, but just another controller or Ninten do related product that was churned out at that point in time. Sure, it looked cool, but the Turbo didnt work nearly as well as the one on the NES advantage. after using the Mega for a few days I quickly went back to the regular NES pad. I mean I preffered my Epyx red joystick controller to the MEGA. It did look damn sexy though, and that's why it should be remembered.

[davidbrit2]

I've got one of them. The password storage feature isn't nearly as impressive as they make it out to be. It basically just records a sequence of button presses. So basically you put it into record mode, put in the password, and save. It doesn't have a very large memory though, so longer passwords might not be fully recordable.

And I can't remember for sure, but I think you might possibly have to play some obnoxious button mashing game on the controller itself just to get to the password storage. I can't remember for sure if that was required for accessing that mode, or if it was for accessing something else. But it was a pain in the ass, and very, very weird.