8bitwidgets.com Posted March 8, 2023 Share Posted March 8, 2023 (edited) Hi everyone, I've been making a serious of controller couplers for folks on various game systems (see others here). Today we have the NES coupler. This is designed with Smash TV and Spookatron in mind. I don't know if there are others that use this configuration, but I also wanted to make this a means to empower Homebrewers to be able to create dual d-pad games that players can play comfortably and affordably in the future. It's on ebay here (although I can get you a better price if you message me directly) it's more like $8 + shipping but ebay fees have to be factored in etc.. https://www.ebay.com/itm/115725431357 A quick video here of it: Edited March 8, 2023 by Caleb Garner 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Austin Posted March 8, 2023 Share Posted March 8, 2023 Great idea! Any idea if there are other twin stick shooters on the system, or is Smash and Spook-'O-Tron it? I'll probably grab a set regardless. It would be cool to see more NES titles created in this sub-genre. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8bitwidgets.com Posted March 8, 2023 Author Share Posted March 8, 2023 2 hours ago, Austin said: is Smash and Spook-'O-Tron it To my knowledge yes, so far that's all I have come across, but I could be wrong. I'm hoping this might inspire some homebrews down the road. My Odyssey 2 coupler I was excited to say quickly got two accomplished O2 homebrewers to star work on two new games for that platform. Also i was able to confirm that with smash tv you could play two player with four controllers with the 4 port expander. I just bought one to test it first hand. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bratwurst Posted March 8, 2023 Share Posted March 8, 2023 The Famicom port of Crazy Climber would also be able to make use of this configuration, I believe. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8bitwidgets.com Posted March 8, 2023 Author Share Posted March 8, 2023 3 hours ago, Bratwurst said: The Famicom port oh that's cool but is that available for NES as well? I recall they are compatible hardware, but i think maybe the cartridges are different? I've never had a famicom. Also I can't say this coupler works with Famicom unfortunately. the controllers do look slightly different and with these things even 0.5mm difference or less can make a huge difference as to how well it holds the controllers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki Posted March 9, 2023 Share Posted March 9, 2023 Though, not intended, I would say you could while holding it horizontally find largely useful utility in playing Silent Service with it. The game required the use of two controllers. The second player which most people don't realize (and therefore adds a lot to the confusion and hate of the game) has some very vital functions. 1/3 of your torpedo count is the rear tube only 2P can fire. 2P also lets you on the surface look around fast with binoculars without turning the entire sub slowly which is a key strategy. And vital to live if you're taking on water is the ability to blow the ballast tanks. If you're sinking due to being depth charged pushing the button will release all the ballast on the sub and it power surfaces fast, a last ditch save only refilled if you're in the right mode and return to a port for repair. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bratwurst Posted March 9, 2023 Share Posted March 9, 2023 14 hours ago, Caleb Garner said: oh that's cool but is that available for NES as well? I recall they are compatible hardware, but i think maybe the cartridges are different? I've never had a famicom. Also I can't say this coupler works with Famicom unfortunately. the controllers do look slightly different and with these things even 0.5mm difference or less can make a huge difference as to how well it holds the controllers. Yes, the controllers are molded differently, the ideal scenario would be using a Famicom cartridge converter or playing the game through an Everdrive flash cartridge on the NES. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8bitwidgets.com Posted March 9, 2023 Author Share Posted March 9, 2023 (edited) 1 hour ago, Bratwurst said: Yes, the controllers are molded differently Yea if someone sent me their famicom controllers i could make an alternate version.. 1 hour ago, Bratwurst said: Everdrive flash cartridge on the NES. I bought one of these on aliexpress yesterday for $58. So I'll be able to play smash TV.. went ahead and got one of these as well yesterday to do two player dual joysticks Edited March 9, 2023 by Caleb Garner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8bitwidgets.com Posted March 9, 2023 Author Share Posted March 9, 2023 (edited) 1 hour ago, Tanooki said: in playing Silent Service with it. Wow I never knew that! I will definitely check that out and see how it feels. Sub Hunt (intellivision) was always my sub game as a kid. Seems like this would be worth of a quick youtube video demoing it. I just looked up the manual so for SS, it would really be more like an OVER/UNDER orientation right? like rotate the controller in the STV orientation counter-clockwise 90 degrees.. I could see keeping player one on the bottom and player two on the top would probably be better.. so you reach up to access the extra buttons and dpad.. very cool. i'll have to play this for sure. Edited March 9, 2023 by Caleb Garner 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki Posted March 10, 2023 Share Posted March 10, 2023 (edited) @Caleb Garner Yeah that's why I said horizontal. Whatever the player is most comfy with, though I too think 1P on the bottom and just reach up for the secondary functions would be best. As a kid I thought it looked cool and I think I bought it, could have been gifted, but I've had it since the era. I had the advantage of the manual so I really got great at the game where I could take on the imperial navy alone with the dual difficulty settings at max. When you have a nice run on a destroyer causing your crap, a nice trick would be a few pop shots of the deck gun, pull a turning forward spin away, and using binoculars lock onto the incoming attack, and as the ship strafed it with the turn, you time it and launch a couple fish in the water and watch the sucker chug to a crawl of sink breaking the bow of the ship taking it on the nose at full speed. Another crazy move, risky though, go under them hopefully not detected, then fast surface and blast them with the rear torpedo lining it up again with the binoculars. Cause some possible fire to break out, dive, turn and let em have it from the front as the rear reloads. Edited March 10, 2023 by Tanooki 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8bitwidgets.com Posted March 10, 2023 Author Share Posted March 10, 2023 2 hours ago, Tanooki said: Cause some possible fire to break out, dive, turn and let em have it from the front as the rear reloads. dang this game seems a lot more involved than i gave it credit. never played it or even seen it played. i remember the name and box art but that's as much of that as I ever saw. Definitely going to check it out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki Posted March 10, 2023 Share Posted March 10, 2023 (edited) 1 hour ago, Caleb Garner said: dang this game seems a lot more involved than i gave it credit. never played it or even seen it played. i remember the name and box art but that's as much of that as I ever saw. Definitely going to check it out! It is, but few give it a fair shake. It has come around to where for some it's just a game people heard it was a crap title, therefore it is. I mean I get it, being a sheep is easy, but for those who try it's quite rewarding. It even has a training mode with some stationary targets to get comfy with before going freestyle or running some actual subs/patrol runs from the war itself to see how you do with it. See for yourself: https://www.thegameisafootarcade.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Silent-Service-Game-Manual.pdf Skimming it now as I got curious, check under combat controls as I even forgot a few tricks. Faking being sunk with a debris release. Changing the angle of deflection of your shots. Edited March 10, 2023 by Tanooki Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8bitwidgets.com Posted March 10, 2023 Author Share Posted March 10, 2023 31 minutes ago, Tanooki said: It is, but few give it a fair shake. Yea I definitely will. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Austin Posted March 10, 2023 Share Posted March 10, 2023 OK, so this is interesting. Now we have a legitimate use for Silent Service as well, that's really cool. Does anyone know of other NES games that actively require (or benefit from) Player 2's controller? 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki Posted March 10, 2023 Share Posted March 10, 2023 I'm rusty as hell at it to be up front about it, but if either of you struggle working the mechanics of it I can give tips. It's truly probably the best damn licensed simulation on the console, though I do think F-15 Strike Eagle I only learned of in the last 6mo (bought it local w/a what I'd call required manual) and it blew me away much like SS did. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Austin Posted March 11, 2023 Share Posted March 11, 2023 Oh man! It just occurred to me--doesn't Gyromite use the Player 2 controller? This thing is getting more and more useful the more I think about it. 😆 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+jeremiahjt Posted March 11, 2023 Share Posted March 11, 2023 3 hours ago, Austin said: Oh man! It just occurred to me--doesn't Gyromite use the Player 2 controller? This thing is getting more and more useful the more I think about it. 😆 Doesn't R.O.B. control the second controller in Gyromite and Stack-Up? If you wanted to play solo, sans R.O.B., it would probably be beneficial. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+jeremiahjt Posted March 11, 2023 Share Posted March 11, 2023 On 3/9/2023 at 10:22 PM, Tanooki said: It is, but few give it a fair shake. It has come around to where for some it's just a game people heard it was a crap title, therefore it is. I mean I get it, being a sheep is easy, but for those who try it's quite rewarding. It even has a training mode with some stationary targets to get comfy with before going freestyle or running some actual subs/patrol runs from the war itself to see how you do with it. See for yourself: https://www.thegameisafootarcade.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Silent-Service-Game-Manual.pdf Skimming it now as I got curious, check under combat controls as I even forgot a few tricks. Faking being sunk with a debris release. Changing the angle of deflection of your shots. I had it as a kid, and I played it a fair amount. It has been a long time, a really long time, since I have touched that game though. I bet I have not played it in around 30 years. I cannot remember much about it, but I do remember sinking plenty of ships with torpedoes and the deck gun. And getting sunk. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8bitwidgets.com Posted March 11, 2023 Author Share Posted March 11, 2023 3 hours ago, Austin said: Oh man! It just occurred to me--doesn't Gyromite use the Player 2 controller? oh snap! Right yea you could effectively be your own ROB assistant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki Posted March 12, 2023 Share Posted March 12, 2023 Gyromite the B and A on the game pad #2 control the crushing pylons, so it would make the game super easy or challenging depending how evil you wanted to be on yourself with those things taking ROBby out of the picture with its slow responses to change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8bitwidgets.com Posted March 12, 2023 Author Share Posted March 12, 2023 58 minutes ago, Tanooki said: depending how evil you wanted to be on yourself lol very true. Well for most people no ROB is available so it would make kicking the tires of the game more interesting perhaps. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Austin Posted March 18, 2023 Share Posted March 18, 2023 (edited) Got mine the other day! Probably going to give it a whirl with the games talked about here later this weekend. I need to do a little more research first and see if there are other NES games that will use both controllers simultaneously. *Edit: I wanted to suggest making a thread in the buy/sell/trade forum. You'll likely get more eyeballs there: https://forums.atariage.com/forum/6-buy-sell-and-trade/ Edited March 18, 2023 by Austin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8bitwidgets.com Posted March 19, 2023 Author Share Posted March 19, 2023 4 hours ago, Austin said: You'll likely get more eyeballs there Thanks for that! 4 hours ago, Austin said: a little more research Awesome, it's exciting to realize there are at least four games that can leverage it. Would be great if there were more! I also hope to inform homebrew devs who might want to explore the possibilities. I was thrilled to see once I made the Odyssey 2 coupler available two different homebrew folks began work on two new games to take advantage of it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Austin Posted March 19, 2023 Share Posted March 19, 2023 (edited) Rolled through Smash TV! It definitely made the game a lot easier. A little uncomfortable on my left fingers in particular, but I lived. I played a bunch of rounds of Gyromite and it is a lot more fun having the controllers so close together. I can really zip through the levels now. Not a lot of luck so far trying to find other games that use both controllers at once. Silent Service definitely works as I just tested it, but other sim-style games like Star Voyager or Infiltrator do not. I did find another neat use though! Rollerball lets you play the game with either controller. So, you could use the d-pad on the upper controller, and the buttons on the lower, or vice-versa, in a staggered layout more like modern console controllers. It's just neat having that flexibility for comfort sake. *Edit(s): I'm experimenting around now on the flash cart since a Google search comes up empty handed. I just found out that Pin-Bot's pause functionality is on the second controller (since nudging is done with select/start on the P1 controller). I never even knew you could pause this game! You can also disable music and sfx via the pause menu. It looks like they fixed this in High Speed and the pause menu is on controller 1. In Wrecking Crew, in Design Mode (where you make your own levels), pressing A+B on Controller 2 wipes out the entire design so you can start fresh. Gimmick apparently allows you to manipulate a specific enemy somewhere in the game on the P2 controller. More games that mirror control functionality to Player 2: - Guardian Legend (move and shoot) - Gradius Edited March 19, 2023 by Austin 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Austin Posted March 19, 2023 Share Posted March 19, 2023 Doh! Edit period wore off. Life Force is another that mirrors controls to P2. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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