A pictorial history of Nintendo's peripherals

46 Comments by Ross Miller May 28th 2008 9:00PM
Filed under: Culture, Nintendo GameCube, Retro, Nintendo Wii, Peripherals

Nintendo has had its fare share of first-party peripherals. Does anyone remember – or still own, perchance – the Game Boy printer? The Nintendo 64 Pikachu microphone? Our friends and archivists at Nintendo Wii Fanboy have composed a pictorial history of Nintendo's tendency to avoid the standard controller. From the Power Pad to the Balance Board, click here to see it all.

Tags: balance-board, nintendo, peripheral, power-pad

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(Page 1) Reader Comments

Dead Texan: May 28th 2008; 9:05PM

"hey you pikachu' was such garbage, thanks for bringing that memory back

name123: May 28th 2008; 9:06PM

Nintendo is actually the Japanese word for "gimmick".

Jhongerkong: May 28th 2008; 9:12PM

*In Chandler Bing voice:

"Could you BE anymore of a troll?"

gamerprophet: May 28th 2008; 9:13PM

From what I heard it means "leave luck to the heavens"

Jhongerkong: May 28th 2008; 9:08PM

I love the power glove...

ITS SO BAD!!!1!one11!tan(45)

GearSecond! (a.k.a AwesomeStuff): May 28th 2008; 9:44PM

Lol, nice ref

Fernando Rocker: May 28th 2008; 9:09PM

The Power Pad and the Power Glove are not Nintendo made accesories.

The NES and SNES advantage are extremely good controllers. Great for playing SFII.

I always wanted the printer and camera. They were the most awesome peripheral for the Gameboy in that time.

The only accesories that I don't have is the Pikachu and Gamecube microphone, the NES advantage, ROB and the Power Glove. Everything else is on the closet.

Only the NES Zapper and the Wii Wheel are on my TV cabinet right now.

Jhongerkong: May 28th 2008; 9:13PM

NES Advantages are pretty easy to find nowadays. The pawn shop near my place always has a couple for $5 each, but nobody buys it for some reason.

Noshino: May 28th 2008; 9:22PM

And then you wonder why whenever Nintendo releases a peripheral it is seen as a gimmick...

Anyway, this reminds me that I need to look for my SNES AND my Super Scope...

Fernando Rocker: May 28th 2008; 9:27PM

Noshino

But at least Nintendo has always the balls to release something new always. You can be sure next gen systems will have motion and IR Pointer.

The IR Pointer would be the best for all the FPS in consoles.

Noshino: May 28th 2008; 9:34PM

Fernando,

Just like you have looked up all the accessories (first and third party) for Nintendo consoles, then do the same for the PSs, you'll be surprised by how many there are out there and also how different...

Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award): May 28th 2008; 10:31PM

The ONLY reason to own a GB printer is the Legend of Zelda stickers that came during special events on Link's Awakening...

Neebs: May 28th 2008; 9:10PM

More like

ROB

It's what he did to your favorite character's spot.

rodrigo es chingon: May 28th 2008; 9:11PM

cool. i cant wait till nintendo release mario lifting weights and mario shopping at wal mart

Mr Khan: May 28th 2008; 9:13PM

We also know ROB as the pointless hidden character from Mario Kart DS

Seriously. Why MK DS?

majikarp: May 28th 2008; 9:24PM

YES! I have that gameboy printer, haha, and the camera that came with it. I wonder what those are going for nowadays....

Iridium: May 28th 2008; 9:28PM

For a die hard nintendo fanboy you sure don't have a lot of stuff Fernando. You are wrong about the Power Pad though. The Power Pad was bought by Nintendo and released as a first party accessory in the US. It was never called the Power Pad in Japan. My cousin still uses it to play Track&Field with his kids.

The only accessory I didn't get was ROB. I got my NES a year after it came out so the pack no longer had Gyromite. I think the Zapper and Mario were a better trade.

Nintendo accessories for the N64 sucked. The SNES didn't fare very well either. I still have my Super Scope but I lost the eyepiece so it has become a worthless plastic tube.

They also forgot the NES Max. Too bad they didn't release an SNES version becuase it would have made one hell of a Street Fighter controller.

Fernando Rocker: May 28th 2008; 9:31PM

I used to have the NES Advantage and the Power Glove, but I was a kiddo, and they broked up. Now they are in the trash =(

ROB was expensive when I was a kid, but I want to buy one on ebay.

Noshino: May 28th 2008; 9:38PM

Actually, Namco did released on the US, it wasn't until a few years after that Nintendo bought the rights and rereleased it

Arturis: May 28th 2008; 10:30PM

Sorry Iridium, just noticed your mention of the Max after I submitted my own comment about it. Didn't mean to step on your toes, so to speak.

whistlepig: May 29th 2008; 12:02AM

still uses the power pad huh .. must be a damn good once since most pads these days like the ddr pads last for a few weeks to months before they crap out

Danny: May 28th 2008; 9:30PM

I remember my good ol' Gameboy Camera and printer. That was the most fun ever!

Phillip: May 28th 2008; 10:06PM

There was a Donkey Konga 3?!? When the hell did that come out?

NESv1: May 28th 2008; 10:19PM

Most accurate:

ROB

You wouldn't be playing video games if not for him.

trickfred: May 29th 2008; 9:28AM

Of course we still would. Ever hear of a PC?

Arturis: May 28th 2008; 10:24PM

This pictorial is missing a vital NES peripheral, one that got me through many hours of Ice Hockey and Wizards & Warriors:

The NES Max

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NES_Max

jamesFF: May 28th 2008; 10:27PM

I bought: Game Boy Camera, Super Game Boy, Super Scope, and Game Boy Advance Player.

I also have gotten game that came with accessories, such as Donkey Kong 64 (with the expansion pack) and Pokemon Stadium (with the Game Boy cartridge reader).

I also bought third party Accessories like: Game Genie and the Game Boy Advance camera (that thing was crap compared to the B&W Game Boy Camera).

Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award): May 28th 2008; 10:29PM

Where is the U-Force.... of all the odd peripherals to miss.

Officially licensed... http://www.nesretro.com/hardware/UForceAd.jpg

Arturis: May 28th 2008; 10:33PM

Officially licensed, in this case, just means that Nintendo gave the ok for Broderbund to make/sell it, but its not technically a first party Nintendo peripheral.

I remember seeing that add in the magazines of the time, but I never actually managed to try one. I cant imagine that it was very precise.

harvsorrow: May 28th 2008; 10:36PM

Sir Fid,

I don't think the U-Force was a first-party peripheral (evidenced by the Broderbund logo)

Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award): May 28th 2008; 11:00PM

Okay, granted.... maybe I'm just salty I spent $80 on this piece of shit because Nintendo Power described it as "the most awesome way to play Mike Tyson's Punch Out ever." But I was a foolish kid who even bought Yo Noid.

jonathan: May 28th 2008; 11:47PM

oh super scope, why did you always need one more battery than i had?

Zargap: May 28th 2008; 11:49PM

Hell, I still USE my printer.

whistlepig: May 29th 2008; 12:03AM

yea anyway

whistlepig: May 29th 2008; 12:04AM

i think there was a 3 but it never made it to the US

whistlepig: May 29th 2008; 12:05AM

wtf i hit reply to someones comment and it makes it a new comment

wootman: May 29th 2008; 12:16AM

i still have my hey you pickachu mic, by some maricale or curse. The mic actually works with my PC.

Dan CiTi: May 29th 2008; 12:17AM

ROB was in Mario Kart DS.

Extra Cheese: May 29th 2008; 2:43AM

*fair share

Brucie B: May 29th 2008; 6:52AM

I still have my Boy ROB, Hanging out in the Basement!

McWeen: May 29th 2008; 8:28AM

I have the printer but no camera... not sure why. The Pikachu microphone came with the game but I have never played it. I also snagged the NES Advantage back in the day from a garage sale.

TrueDarkFusion: May 29th 2008; 1:26PM

Actually R.O.B. was a playable character in Mario Kart DS prior to Brawl.

PhrawzT: May 29th 2008; 3:22PM

If it wasn't for the Advantage controller, I never would have beaten Mega Man 2.

My cousin had ROB and Gyromite, but it never worked right. :(

bustns: May 29th 2008; 10:13PM

the nes advantage rocked. i got one from my grandfather in the late 80s and i never went back to the old controler. amazingly it still works great

shmokes: May 31st 2008; 11:28AM

It's funny that the standard controller itself isn't on that list. After all, before Nintendo invented it, the standard controller was a joystick.

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