I never had one of these as a kid; but nearly thirty years later-after suffering a spinal cord injury that left me with impaired finger/hand function-this controller made my favorite games accessible again after I thought “twitchy” gaming was lost to me! Love this thorough video! Always quality content!
I love how simple the circuit board is inside them! I could build a complete reproduction of one with actual arcade parts and a few off the shelf parts!
I have one of these brand new in its original packaging. I bought it for about $25.00 back in about 2001 or so. I don’t know why I have never opened it however it is definitely one of my top favorite NES controllers. The other two are the NES Max and the Samsun pad with the headphone jack on it.
Huh, didn't think it would be very quality but pleased to see that it is. I started collecting/building arcade machines before I got into playing the older consoles and I have always loved playing the games from that era with a joystick. Definitely going to pick one up if a decent priced one pops up near me or on fleabay.
Thanks a million, it definitely seemed overwhelming at first but you made it real easy. If i had one thing to add, id say before you remove the backplate keep it upside down in your lap. Keeps the buttons in order, cleaned them 1 at a time and replacement was a breeze. I found in mine(problem was a non responsive joystick) that there was excess plastic around the right button. Trimmed it, cleaned it now no one can beat me at marble madness. 👍
After removing the back plate and sanding away the rust, I masked the silver Nintendo logo with tape and gave the plate a few thin spray coats of matte black paint, letting it dry between coats. It looks like new and there was no need to remove all of the old paint first. Except for the paint drying time, it couldn't have taken more than 15 minutes, start to finish.
Yeah, I'm gonna take it back apart again and do some work on it. I was working in a limited window and by the time I'd set everything up for filming, etc., I was running a little short. Glad to know that worked for you - thanks for sharing.
Gunsmoke was the only new game I had for one whole summer so to keep myself challenged, I tried to beat the game with my feet using the advantage. Beat it quite a few times that way. Which reminds me, I really should clean my advantage soon...
Actually, I had Star Voyager back in the day... it was one of my favorite NES games! You really SHOULD give it more attention! I've always loved space sims - TIE Fighter, Wing Commander, Freelancer; my most played game at the moment is Elite: Dangerous, but I got started with Star Raiders on the Atari 2600. It's incredible how well Star Voyager scratched that itch back then - GREAT game!
Star Voyager was released originally in Japan as Cosmo Genesis. There is a Japanese only Namco game for the Famicom that resembles this game called Star Luster. Both games obviously have a resemblance to Atari's Star Raiders.
When I was a kid I was very used to Arcade and Atari 2600 joysticks. The directional pad was something I had to adjust to. However with the Advantage I not only received the Turbo upgrades but I got the responsive and durable joystick to boot. It really helped me transition to the directional pad.
Bro this was the best accessory I ever got for my Nintendo. This made all Nintendo games better. We even had a TV set off the ground and I had a little podium I set my controller on to feel like I was playing in the arcade. I miss arcades. That was the most fun ever. A 5 dollar bill gave you 2 handfuls of joy for an hour. Back before 1 play on a game was a dollar.
I got one of these for Xmas '87 and found it indispensible for games like Life Force, Track & Field II and Gunsmoke. The lights were actually useful because some games didn't function well at full speed, like Contra, where the shots would group and then pause if it was too fast. Overall, a useful controller, unlike the NES Max, which was total crap.
I saw one of these online years back made into a guitar distortion pedal. It looked pretty sweet on a pedal board. As a kid I must of tried to land the plane on Top Gun a million times and never accomplished it once. I had to wait another thirty years and see it on TH-cam.
Wowwww. I used to have one of these beasts way back when in the long, long ago. You could play games with it or alternatively crack open up the skulls of your enemies 😅 Great video sir, really brings me back to the good ol days.
I really wish I had taken Shop/Vocational classes in high school instead of Art and Spanish..... thank you God for the internet, TH-cam and also for folks like you who create and share things like this!
My favorite use of the slow motion feature is in "Godzilla, King of Monsters" where the start button triggers the special attack. Because of this, the slow motion button acts as an auto fire for special attack. This is really useful for Mothra, who can continuously spam special attacks against bosses, especially at higher levels. It's pretty good for Godzilla during boss fights also, he'll automatically fire atomic breath when he's charged enough.
Nice. For restoring yellowed plastic, you'll really want a higher strength peroxide. I usually use 90+%, you can find it at salon stores sold as a hair bleaching agent.
Great video Aaron! I enjoyed it immensely. I never had one as a kid so I only ever knew about it from friends. Just curious how long did it take you to make this video? Please more videos like this one, you are a wizard at these. Thanks again man!
The NES Advantage was my brother's favorite controller. I rarely used it. Although as I told you on Twitter, the one game where we felt the NES Advantage was essential was Konami's Track and Field II; especially for the Hammer Throw and it didn't seem to hurt for Diving either. I am not sure how game designers expected you to do well with the Hammer Throw without an NES advantage. Cool video and while you weren't completely satisfied by the retro treatment, it still was a pretty big improvement over what it originally looked like. I'd be too afraid that I'd wreck the controller by taking it apart. I still have the NES Advantage we had as a kid, with a bunch of dopey Nintendo Power stickers on it. If I wanted to use the turbo feature for shooters like Gradius, I normally would just hook up my NES Satellite.
Got two of them when I got a box from the thrift store ( my lady works at one so I get first dibs ) also in the same box was a Sega Genesis ,NES and a pile of games. Six button Genesis controllers too. Great controller.
Enjoyed this waaaay more than I should have. Still have mine somewhere. It was a bit of a holy grail at the time. Was convinced turbo would be the game-changer I wanted so badly. Much like you stated here, I could never do much on platformers but flying games and others were a bit better. Not much, but enough.
I had one of these growing up, but I didn’t use it much on games, except for Track and Field and 1943. Not that it was bad or anything, but you have far more control of certain gameplay with your thumbs on standard controllers.
The NES Advantage appears to have been designed in-house by Nintendo. While it is similar to products from ASCIIWARE, it is of a very high build quality. There were other arcade-style joysticks. Camerica brought over the Freedom Stick and the TurboTronic, the latter has the same button layout as the ASCII Turbo Jr Stick for the Famicom. Beeshu marketed the Jammer and Ultimate Superstick, but the only thing ultimate about it was the terrible build quality. The Quickshot Arcade was another arcade-style stick. The Ultimate Superstick and the Freedom Stick are wireless infrared sticks. The NES Advantage uses a light gray color for its plastic like the NES front loader. It comes with crevices cut into the plastic to give it some style. These crevices are hard to clean if they get really filthy and I always thought they were a bit over the top. The red lettering on the top can also get worn down by sunlight and abuse. The bottom of the NES Advantage has a metal base and four rubber feet. This gives it some heft. To open the advantage, you need to remove the bottom feet (which are attached to the base by an adhesive) and the turbo knobs, because they screw into the top plastic with hex nuts on the potentiometers. The NES Advantage has three spring latched switches for the Turbo B, Turbo A and Slow buttons. It has a sliding switch for the 1/2 Player button. The four directionals and four regular buttons use rubber domes to make contact, just like a regular NES controller except these are larger. Most arcade sticks of the day came in two varieties, leaf switches and micro switches. Leaf switches are quiet but may be less precise, while micro switches are noisy but clicky. Each button or directional has a separate pad, making replacement somewhat easier. The stick has a knob that can be unscrewed and has a metal coil inside it to recenter it like a spring. The Turbo control knobs allow for a very finely tuned turbo selection for each button independently. This is very important because some games work better with a lower Turbo setting and other games work better with a higher Turbo setting. An adjustable Turbo setting may simulate pressing the button one time per second, fifteen times per second or thirty times per second. Some games do not respond to the Turbo at all, as in one shot at a time games like Galaga. The LEDs above the buttons flash with the button presses. As you turn the dial up on the Turbo knows, you will see the LED light up faster and faster until it turns a solid red. At that point your eyes can no longer track the discrete turning on and off of the LED. Because there are switches on the Turbo to turn it on and off, you never need to bother with it if you don't want to. For many sidescrolling games, the A button is used to jump. Turbo is not usually helpful in this instance. The NES Advantage is often used where only the B button has any Turbo on it. Nor is it useful in shooter games to activate a secondary weapon with a limited supply of ammo or select a weapons option. The Slow button is essentially a Turbo Start button. This means that you will often hear the annoying sound assigned to a press of the Start button. Also, not every game allows you to pause, making this useless when it is pressed. Other games will bring up a menu or subscreen, which is very distracting. Pressing the Start button can cause you to lose other button presses, making this feature really something of a novelty. The cable for the NES Advantage has two connectors on the end. The end connectors are separated for the last four inches of the cable length and one of the connectors has a white stripe. This allows you and a friend to use your own NES Advantages. The connector with the white stripe always goes into Controller Port 1 and the connector without the white stripe always goes into Controller Port 2. You also need to make sure that the Player 1/2 switch is set appropriately. You can use four NES Advantages with a NES Four Score or NES Satellite. The NES Advantage plugged into Controller Port 3 should have its switch set to Player 1 and the NES Advantage plugged into Controller Port 4 should have its switch set to Player 2. If you are playing a two-player alternating game, you can share the NES Advantage between you and your friend. In this case, you must flip the switch when you pass the NES Advantage back and forth. This is useful even when you are playing alone for practice because you can play two games at once. Overall, the NES Advantage is very durable and very responsive. One complaint about the internals is that the buttons can get stuck. I have read that this usually happens when the carbon pads underneath the A and B buttons get worn out or are not properly underneath the button. You should test the buttons before you buy one if possible. When Nintendo releases a first-party product for the NES with a Turbo and Slow features, is it really cheating to use them? You may recall that Nintendo released the NES Satellite, which also had Turbo support, in the NES Sports Set. Sega also put out a Genesis controller with Turbo and NEC's Turbo Grafx-16 came with a Turbo-supporting controller. Under these circumstances, it is really hard to say that Turbo is cheating. After all, Turbo is only simulating the rapid pressing of a button. If one takes the argument further, then what about the Game Genie? Nintendo never licensed the device, which came out for the NES, SNES and Game Boy. However, Sega did license the Genesis and Game Gear versions. What games use the NES Advantage? Many of Nintendo's early releases were based off arcade games. Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Donkey Kong 3, Popeye and Mario Bros. are direct ports. Balloon Fight is a clone of Joust and Mach Rider is a clone of Hang-On. Galaga, Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Xevious, Defender, Joust, Millipede, the NES port of Kung-Fu Master called Kung-Fu, 10-Yard Fight, Tag Team Wrestling, Karate Champ, 1942, 1943: The Battle of Midway, Commando, Ghosts 'n Goblins, Trojan, Section-Z, Track & Field, Ikari Warriors, Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road, Ikari Warriors III: The Rescue, Alpha Mission, Athena, Ring King, BreakThru, Kid Niki: Radical Ninja, Elevator Action, The Legend of Kage, Spy Hunter, Sky Kid, Tiger-Heli, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, Punch-Out!! (or Punch-Out!! featuring Mr. Dream), Renegade, Gun.Smoke, Legendary Wings, Double Dragon, Double Dragon II: The Revenge, City Connection, Gauntlet, Gauntlet II, Lee Trevino's Fighting Golf, Seicross, MagMax, Bump 'n' Jump, Cobra Command, Rampage, Xenophobe, Bubble Bobble, Rainbow Islands: The Story of Bubble Bobble 2, Paperboy, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Q*Bert, Gyruss, Kung-Fu Heroes, Marble Madness, John Elway's Quarterback, Ninja Gaiden, Mappy-Land, Sky Shark, Operation Wolf, Tengen Tetris, P.O.W.: Prisoners of War, Guerilla War, Super Sprint, Thundercade, Dig Dug II: Trouble in Paradise, 720, Twin Eagle, Rolling Thuner, Road Runner, Vindicators, After Burner, Alien Syndrome, Shinobi, Toobin', Fantasy Zone, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Tengen version), RoboCop, Klax, Pac-Mania, Skull & Crossbones, Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Super Off Road, Magic Johnson's Fast Break, Twin Cobra, Heavy Barrel, Astyanax, Mechanized Attack, Bad Dudes, Silkworm, Cabal, Super Spike V'Ball, Dragon Spirit, NARC, Rally Bike, Thunder & Lightning, Puzznic, Arch Rivals, the NES port of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Arcade Game (to avoid confusion with the 1st NES game based on the franchise), Qix, Kiwi Kraze (port of The New Zealand Story), Touchdown Fever, Smash TV, Trog!, Snow Bros., Toki, Cyberball, Rampart, Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat, Joe & Mac, the list can go on and on. The NES Advantage offers a somewhat more authentic arcade style experience when playing these games. The NES Advantage has its place elsewhere. The classic Konami games, like Gradius, Rush'n Attack, Stinger, Top Gun, Double Dribble, Life Force, Blades of Steel, Contra and Super C can all take advantage of the NES Advantage's Turbo. Star Force, Mighty Bomb Jack, Rygar, Solomon's Key, Star Soldier, Compile's top-down shooters, Zanac, The Guardian Legend, and Gun-Nac are also good games for the Advantage. The Legend of Zelda, Blaster Master, Fester's Quest becomes much more playable with the Turbo function of the Advantage. The few fighting games for the NES like TMNT Tournament Fighters could benefit from the smooth motion of the stick. I own the NES Advantage.
Nice catch. I need to replace the 72-pin connector in my NES console. But in the meantime, sometimes jamming a second cart in over the main cart helps establish a connection ... it kinda presses down on the cart you're actually trying to play thereby compensating for a loose 72-pin.
I saw a guy who turned one of those into a guitar effects pedal. You could move around the joy stick and it would make crazy sounds and the buttons did different things. Look it up online. If your a guitar player you know you want one on your board.
Man, you woulda been ballin outta control to have two of these! I sure didn’t know anybody who did. We definitely got ours early on though. Going from the joystick on the 2600 to the d-pad on NES felt really unnatural. After getting the advantage I don’t remember there being any game where I’d switch back to the original controller. Problem was playing at friend’s houses with the d-pad again I’d usually suck For some reason I never had any problems with the original SNES controller, or any console after
I think somebody pulled one over on you. They told you that it was in a Christina Aguilera video so that you would have to research and watch all of them to find the footage. LOL
Back in the day, This controller was the only way I could be the game called Abbadox, The ending section was ungodly fast, Hell the game itself was tough but the slow motion setting on the advantage gave me well.. an advantage! I liked the NES Max controller too. I actually had the max first because the advantage was pretty expensive. Back in the 80s' peripherals was expensive.
Interesting that you had music playing while you showed Top Gun. In the US release, as you know that music plays during the refueling part. In the Famicom version it actually plays during the mission. Other changes from the Japanese to US include the map. Japanese actually uses a map of the Arabian peninsula, the US it is a fictional middle eastern coastline.
Still have the NES Advantage. But I don't use it bc I feel it's too loud. I'm glad you mentioned how noisy it is. I was also (like you said) too used to the simple d-pad, so I never used it. But I'm letting my kids play a bit now. Ironically they'd rather play my retro-pie (raspberry pi 3+ in a NES case of course) because the Neo-Geo and MAME games allow infinite lives by adding more coins. Maybe they will prefer more challenge when they get a little older...but for now my 5 year old loves all of the Metal Slugs.
This is what NES controllers should have been. I was used to sticks anyway growing up with arcades, Atari, and home computers. Gamepads are terrible for carpal tunnel. I only play NES games on an arcade stick. I remember when gamepads came out I was very uncomfortable with them. I got used to them but still think sticks are far easier to play with.
I was able to get one of these new in box in the 90's when Toys r Us was clearing all 8-Bit game stuff. I'm still pissed off at myself for not picking up more of them since there were so cheap and there was no limit.
Unfortunately I never did own one of these beasts. A good controller but, I was always happy with the standard controller. Hey, I got Top Gun too for Christmas with my NES. Ha, Dr. Mario's music reared it's head in the vid, I see Aaron. Lol 🤘
lol I wondered if somebody would notice :D ... that's awesome that you got Top Gun too. Yeah, they told me I had to save the small present until last and open the big present first. I couldn't understand why, but then I open up the big one and it's the NES. Then the little one was Top Gun.
That's how I always did it too! The biggest present had to be the best one... except in my case it was usually a winter coat with a generic sports logo on it lol.
Great video sir. I own 2. Some ppl seem to not know that you can plug and use 2 of them into the nes at the same time. Got em some years ago for like $10 a piece. Looking for 2 Sega 6button sticks these days now
Nintendo did apparently subcontract these to a couple of different companies at times, including I think Hori, and if you take a number of these things apart you may notice that they are actually built a little different inside. As cool as the NES Advantage is, the whole thing was always let down by the rubberdomed joystick, which I never thought was any good.
while the top plate was soaking outside, you could have put masking tape over the backplate sticker and spray painted the back plate with matte black rustoleum spraypaint. It would have taken 15 min.
RC Pro Am was one of the best NES games. A stand alone video on that and that Star Voyager game would be cool. What about the NES Max controller ( I think that is the name)? Cool little ergonomic design, turbo options with a d pad? I prefered that over thr advantage as it had no down side to the stock controller . Turbo itself can be a cheat in certain games. In Capcom's Gunsmoke, for example.. The machine gun power up for the twin six shooters seemed like a power up... In my house.. Where I only had stock controllers, but in a friend's house with turbo.. It was nothing, as turbo was a cheat power up identical to it.
The pins in my NES are stretched a bit. So I stick in Ninja Turtles and press it down, but then pop in another cart on top of it to give a little extra downward push to Turtles or whatever cart you"re trying to play. It helps make sure you're getting a good solid connection on the pins. Really, I need to replace the 72-pin connector in the console but who has time for that.
I play anything I can with my fight stick even retro games/my Castlevania collection/anything that doesn't require dualshock type controls so I would love to have one of these with a proper lever and buttons.
I hate to say, but back in the day, this controller was the only way I was able to beat both Back to the Future and Fester's Quest, via using the slow-motion button!
Not sure you check old video comments, but Retro Bright is kinda weak sauce. There is this guy on TH-cam OddTinkering who has the best process. Believe it involves soaking in Hydrogen Peroxide within a plastic tub with led lights taped to the inside of the tub. He has tutorials and it delivers outstanding results. Cool stuff man!
Just got my hands on a NES advantage. Joystick is squeaky. I wiped around it with water and a little dish detergent with a q-tip but it has not helped. Did the NES advantage joysticks come pre-lubricated on the joystick, because I'm starting to think I accidentally wiped the lube off if any. Or is the joystick just squaeky die to age?🤷
To my knowledge there wasn't any sort of lubricant applied, but maybe it's the spring that's around the base of the joystick that's squeaky? And if so, perhaps a little dab of WD-40 would do the trick.
Slow motion was hilarious on this thing. But this controller was great. Unlike the cons of the power glove or any type of wireless controller back then which were horrible.
Slow motion is for training or to explore hard games when you can't get to higher levels mechanically. it's a pretty cool feature. The only cheating would be to yourself if you actually thought that you beat a game on slow mode.
I love you videos I'm 46 and I still go at it with a Nintendo and those Sony PS1 PS2 I actually just got Metal Gear Solid for my PS1 I started playing that today I'm going to go home tonight and play Metal Gear Solid all night after work
Am I the only one that actually prefers NES MAX? Once you get used to the control pad, it's SO much better ergonomically than the original boxy controller. I used that almost exclusively until I got a dog bone controller, and even then, for shooters that required rapid fire, I'd switch back.
Another fella on here said he used it as well. I never had one and always thought the D-looked weird, but I may have to track one down. Ergonomically, it looks great though. It's weird because I'm a big fan of the PS1-2-3-4 controller style and consider that "the standard" as far as ergonomics go. But when I pick up an NES game and that stupid rectangle controller... the muscle memory kicks in and it just works for me lol. I don't mind those divots it makes in my hands.
I just use the "ring" part of the D-pad and it works great. Once you get a dogbone controller, though, man, you'll never go back to the rectangular one.
I love the Max controller, specially on Ice Hockey. I was able to get a couple new in box of this controller when Nintendo was clearing up their warehouses years ago.
Quality certainly is good on it, much better than most similar ones then. Not that I doubt you but, where would you need Turbo dialed down? Electronic static attracts hair and dust from the outside to inward, no need for dog kisses inside. ;) Most of my criticism of the controller is in the dual-port usage, if you're going to do that might as well add more face buttons(Use both player's button count together.) which would have been handy for some arcade ports that struggle with two face buttons and tended to be single player only anyway. Also it could have made "NES Advantage" supported games mean more as a feature to push sales of it. Something for the 2.0 version lol.
Just depends on the game... sometimes being able to dial the turbo back helps with shooters depending on how quickly the game registers input or fires off shots. It's subtle but it can make a difference. You're right - it would have been cool to add more buttons. They could have made this into a really fancy "cockpit" controller for space sims like Star Voyager or Elite (PAL only) where it utilizes buttons from both inputs to do cool stuff in your spaceship. Then just have the game accept inputs from Port 1 and Port 2 respectively.
@@FridayNightArcade Ah okay, need more shooters on NES to try that out more. ;) With the dual plugs I had the impression it used both at first but then you learn it's using one at a time IE. 1 to 2 Switch, keep forgetting that heh. Neat you can share one Advantage but I'd probably just stick a gamepad on Port 2 instead. Yeah that cockpit idea sounds cool. Funny we had a lot of insensible NES peripherals like the Roll 'n Rocker but no fancy flightsticks, or steering wheels, or a new Paddle design maybe. :\
I never had one of these as a kid; but nearly thirty years later-after suffering a spinal cord injury that left me with impaired finger/hand function-this controller made my favorite games accessible again after I thought “twitchy” gaming was lost to me!
Love this thorough video! Always quality content!
Used to have one of these and can confirm they can survive a high velocity aerial maneuver across the basement. I'm looking at YOU mega man.
LOL
yeah i mean i totally didnt rage like this once and punch a hole through the sheetrock in my drywall >.>
I love how simple the circuit board is inside them! I could build a complete reproduction of one with actual arcade parts and a few off the shelf parts!
I have one of these brand new in its original packaging. I bought it for about $25.00 back in about 2001 or so. I don’t know why I have never opened it however it is definitely one of my top favorite NES controllers. The other two are the NES Max and the Samsun pad with the headphone jack on it.
I just got mine about 3 week’s ago and brought back so many memories of when I was a kid playing contra. Oh the nostalgia!
Huh, didn't think it would be very quality but pleased to see that it is. I started collecting/building arcade machines before I got into playing the older consoles and I have always loved playing the games from that era with a joystick. Definitely going to pick one up if a decent priced one pops up near me or on fleabay.
Thanks a million, it definitely seemed overwhelming at first but you made it real easy. If i had one thing to add, id say before you remove the backplate keep it upside down in your lap. Keeps the buttons in order, cleaned them 1 at a time and replacement was a breeze. I found in mine(problem was a non responsive joystick) that there was excess plastic around the right button. Trimmed it, cleaned it now no one can beat me at marble madness. 👍
After removing the back plate and sanding away the rust, I masked the silver Nintendo logo with tape and gave the plate a few thin spray coats of matte black paint, letting it dry between coats. It looks like new and there was no need to remove all of the old paint first. Except for the paint drying time, it couldn't have taken more than 15 minutes, start to finish.
Yeah, I'm gonna take it back apart again and do some work on it. I was working in a limited window and by the time I'd set everything up for filming, etc., I was running a little short. Glad to know that worked for you - thanks for sharing.
@7:00 I imagine that metal bracket is there to connect the metal base to ground
The fact that you LANDED ON THE AIR CRAFT CARRIER IN TOP GUN shows how good the NES Advantage joystick works. It's awesome.👍🤙🕹
Still waiting on that Star Voyager video...
Gunsmoke was the only new game I had for one whole summer so to keep myself challenged, I tried to beat the game with my feet using the advantage. Beat it quite a few times that way. Which reminds me, I really should clean my advantage soon...
Actually, I had Star Voyager back in the day... it was one of my favorite NES games! You really SHOULD give it more attention! I've always loved space sims - TIE Fighter, Wing Commander, Freelancer; my most played game at the moment is Elite: Dangerous, but I got started with Star Raiders on the Atari 2600. It's incredible how well Star Voyager scratched that itch back then - GREAT game!
Star Voyager was released originally in Japan as Cosmo Genesis. There is a Japanese only Namco game for the Famicom that resembles this game called Star Luster. Both games obviously have a resemblance to Atari's Star Raiders.
Oh forgot, Star Luster is mostly in English so if you can get a copy and have a Famicom adapter you can play it on a NES.
When I was a kid I was very used to Arcade and Atari 2600 joysticks. The directional pad was something I had to adjust to. However with the Advantage I not only received the Turbo upgrades but I got the responsive and durable joystick to boot. It really helped me transition to the directional pad.
Bro this was the best accessory I ever got for my Nintendo. This made all Nintendo games better. We even had a TV set off the ground and I had a little podium I set my controller on to feel like I was playing in the arcade. I miss arcades. That was the most fun ever. A 5 dollar bill gave you 2 handfuls of joy for an hour. Back before 1 play on a game was a dollar.
I got one of these for Xmas '87 and found it indispensible for games like Life Force, Track & Field II and Gunsmoke. The lights were actually useful because some games didn't function well at full speed, like Contra, where the shots would group and then pause if it was too fast. Overall, a useful controller, unlike the NES Max, which was total crap.
The slow motion feature on the NES Advantage allowed me to discover a glitch on SMB3.
Had one, then bought another for friend to play on. Loved the NES Advantage...
Loved the NES advantage because the regular NES controller is just so painful and small. But you are right, its better for arcade games 🕹
I saw one of these online years back made into a guitar distortion pedal. It looked pretty sweet on a pedal board. As a kid I must of tried to land the plane on Top Gun a million times and never accomplished it once. I had to wait another thirty years and see it on TH-cam.
My most beloved pad for the NES I loved it then still love it now. )))
Wowwww. I used to have one of these beasts way back when in the long, long ago. You could play games with it or alternatively crack open up the skulls of your enemies 😅 Great video sir, really brings me back to the good ol days.
Thank you - glad you enjoyed this one. Yes, could also double as a melee weapon in a pinch lol.
Track & Field was impossible without this.....
I really wish I had taken Shop/Vocational classes in high school instead of Art and Spanish..... thank you God for the internet, TH-cam and also for folks like you who create and share things like this!
Thanks for checking out the show!
Aaron, I thought you should know I just did a google image search for NES Advantage and your face popped up with a link to this video. Super ⭐!
Just bought one today and need to get it cleaned up. Thanks for the post!
I loved Top Gun as a kid.
My favorite use of the slow motion feature is in "Godzilla, King of Monsters" where the start button triggers the special attack. Because of this, the slow motion button acts as an auto fire for special attack. This is really useful for Mothra, who can continuously spam special attacks against bosses, especially at higher levels. It's pretty good for Godzilla during boss fights also, he'll automatically fire atomic breath when he's charged enough.
That's frickin' brilliant.
Nice. For restoring yellowed plastic, you'll really want a higher strength peroxide. I usually use 90+%, you can find it at salon stores sold as a hair bleaching agent.
yeah and some uv lights to go with it
Great video Aaron! I enjoyed it immensely. I never had one as a kid so I only ever knew about it from friends. Just curious how long did it take you to make this video? Please more videos like this one, you are a wizard at these. Thanks again man!
Probably about 20-25 hours over the course of 3-4 days. I wanna try to do one video like this a month.
I have been waiting for this video since 1989!!!
Wow, memories. I had the advantage. The turbo button really helped lol
The NES Advantage was my brother's favorite controller. I rarely used it. Although as I told you on Twitter, the one game where we felt the NES Advantage was essential was Konami's Track and Field II; especially for the Hammer Throw and it didn't seem to hurt for Diving either. I am not sure how game designers expected you to do well with the Hammer Throw without an NES advantage. Cool video and while you weren't completely satisfied by the retro treatment, it still was a pretty big improvement over what it originally looked like. I'd be too afraid that I'd wreck the controller by taking it apart. I still have the NES Advantage we had as a kid, with a bunch of dopey Nintendo Power stickers on it. If I wanted to use the turbo feature for shooters like Gradius, I normally would just hook up my NES Satellite.
Does anyone else fall asleep listening to this??
That boring?
Got two of them when I got a box from the thrift store ( my lady works at one so I get first dibs ) also in the same box was a Sega Genesis ,NES and a pile of games. Six button Genesis controllers too. Great controller.
In Gun Smoke is a blast!
Enjoyed this waaaay more than I should have. Still have mine somewhere. It was a bit of a holy grail at the time. Was convinced turbo would be the game-changer I wanted so badly. Much like you stated here, I could never do much on platformers but flying games and others were a bit better. Not much, but enough.
I had one of these growing up, but I didn’t use it much on games, except for Track and Field and 1943. Not that it was bad or anything, but you have far more control of certain gameplay with your thumbs on standard controllers.
I just got an old school nes and now I know what I'm getting before, during or after I get a bunch of arcade games
I personally loved playing the Dragon Warrior series with the NES Advantage. Very nice controller.
Track and field II, Bucky o hare final boss, and final fantasy 1 shops (buying 99 cure potions) was my best use of the nes advantage
The NES Advantage appears to have been designed in-house by Nintendo. While it is similar to products from ASCIIWARE, it is of a very high build quality.
There were other arcade-style joysticks. Camerica brought over the Freedom Stick and the TurboTronic, the latter has the same button layout as the ASCII Turbo Jr Stick for the Famicom. Beeshu marketed the Jammer and Ultimate Superstick, but the only thing ultimate about it was the terrible build quality. The Quickshot Arcade was another arcade-style stick. The Ultimate Superstick and the Freedom Stick are wireless infrared sticks.
The NES Advantage uses a light gray color for its plastic like the NES front loader. It comes with crevices cut into the plastic to give it some style. These crevices are hard to clean if they get really filthy and I always thought they were a bit over the top. The red lettering on the top can also get worn down by sunlight and abuse.
The bottom of the NES Advantage has a metal base and four rubber feet. This gives it some heft. To open the advantage, you need to remove the bottom feet (which are attached to the base by an adhesive) and the turbo knobs, because they screw into the top plastic with hex nuts on the potentiometers.
The NES Advantage has three spring latched switches for the Turbo B, Turbo A and Slow buttons. It has a sliding switch for the 1/2 Player button. The four directionals and four regular buttons use rubber domes to make contact, just like a regular NES controller except these are larger. Most arcade sticks of the day came in two varieties, leaf switches and micro switches. Leaf switches are quiet but may be less precise, while micro switches are noisy but clicky. Each button or directional has a separate pad, making replacement somewhat easier. The stick has a knob that can be unscrewed and has a metal coil inside it to recenter it like a spring.
The Turbo control knobs allow for a very finely tuned turbo selection for each button independently. This is very important because some games work better with a lower Turbo setting and other games work better with a higher Turbo setting. An adjustable Turbo setting may simulate pressing the button one time per second, fifteen times per second or thirty times per second. Some games do not respond to the Turbo at all, as in one shot at a time games like Galaga.
The LEDs above the buttons flash with the button presses. As you turn the dial up on the Turbo knows, you will see the LED light up faster and faster until it turns a solid red. At that point your eyes can no longer track the discrete turning on and off of the LED. Because there are switches on the Turbo to turn it on and off, you never need to bother with it if you don't want to.
For many sidescrolling games, the A button is used to jump. Turbo is not usually helpful in this instance. The NES Advantage is often used where only the B button has any Turbo on it. Nor is it useful in shooter games to activate a secondary weapon with a limited supply of ammo or select a weapons option.
The Slow button is essentially a Turbo Start button. This means that you will often hear the annoying sound assigned to a press of the Start button. Also, not every game allows you to pause, making this useless when it is pressed. Other games will bring up a menu or subscreen, which is very distracting. Pressing the Start button can cause you to lose other button presses, making this feature really something of a novelty.
The cable for the NES Advantage has two connectors on the end. The end connectors are separated for the last four inches of the cable length and one of the connectors has a white stripe. This allows you and a friend to use your own NES Advantages. The connector with the white stripe always goes into Controller Port 1 and the connector without the white stripe always goes into Controller Port 2. You also need to make sure that the Player 1/2 switch is set appropriately.
You can use four NES Advantages with a NES Four Score or NES Satellite. The NES Advantage plugged into Controller Port 3 should have its switch set to Player 1 and the NES Advantage plugged into Controller Port 4 should have its switch set to Player 2.
If you are playing a two-player alternating game, you can share the NES Advantage between you and your friend. In this case, you must flip the switch when you pass the NES Advantage back and forth. This is useful even when you are playing alone for practice because you can play two games at once.
Overall, the NES Advantage is very durable and very responsive. One complaint about the internals is that the buttons can get stuck. I have read that this usually happens when the carbon pads underneath the A and B buttons get worn out or are not properly underneath the button. You should test the buttons before you buy one if possible.
When Nintendo releases a first-party product for the NES with a Turbo and Slow features, is it really cheating to use them? You may recall that Nintendo released the NES Satellite, which also had Turbo support, in the NES Sports Set. Sega also put out a Genesis controller with Turbo and NEC's Turbo Grafx-16 came with a Turbo-supporting controller. Under these circumstances, it is really hard to say that Turbo is cheating. After all, Turbo is only simulating the rapid pressing of a button.
If one takes the argument further, then what about the Game Genie? Nintendo never licensed the device, which came out for the NES, SNES and Game Boy. However, Sega did license the Genesis and Game Gear versions.
What games use the NES Advantage?
Many of Nintendo's early releases were based off arcade games. Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Donkey Kong 3, Popeye and Mario Bros. are direct ports. Balloon Fight is a clone of Joust and Mach Rider is a clone of Hang-On. Galaga, Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Xevious, Defender, Joust, Millipede, the NES port of Kung-Fu Master called Kung-Fu, 10-Yard Fight, Tag Team Wrestling, Karate Champ, 1942, 1943: The Battle of Midway, Commando, Ghosts 'n Goblins, Trojan, Section-Z, Track & Field, Ikari Warriors, Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road, Ikari Warriors III: The Rescue, Alpha Mission, Athena, Ring King, BreakThru, Kid Niki: Radical Ninja, Elevator Action, The Legend of Kage, Spy Hunter, Sky Kid, Tiger-Heli, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, Punch-Out!! (or Punch-Out!! featuring Mr. Dream), Renegade, Gun.Smoke, Legendary Wings, Double Dragon, Double Dragon II: The Revenge, City Connection, Gauntlet, Gauntlet II, Lee Trevino's Fighting Golf, Seicross, MagMax, Bump 'n' Jump, Cobra Command, Rampage, Xenophobe, Bubble Bobble, Rainbow Islands: The Story of Bubble Bobble 2, Paperboy, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Q*Bert, Gyruss, Kung-Fu Heroes, Marble Madness, John Elway's Quarterback, Ninja Gaiden, Mappy-Land, Sky Shark, Operation Wolf, Tengen Tetris, P.O.W.: Prisoners of War, Guerilla War, Super Sprint, Thundercade, Dig Dug II: Trouble in Paradise, 720, Twin Eagle, Rolling Thuner, Road Runner, Vindicators, After Burner, Alien Syndrome, Shinobi, Toobin', Fantasy Zone, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Tengen version), RoboCop, Klax, Pac-Mania, Skull & Crossbones, Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Super Off Road, Magic Johnson's Fast Break, Twin Cobra, Heavy Barrel, Astyanax, Mechanized Attack, Bad Dudes, Silkworm, Cabal, Super Spike V'Ball, Dragon Spirit, NARC, Rally Bike, Thunder & Lightning, Puzznic, Arch Rivals, the NES port of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Arcade Game (to avoid confusion with the 1st NES game based on the franchise), Qix, Kiwi Kraze (port of The New Zealand Story), Touchdown Fever, Smash TV, Trog!, Snow Bros., Toki, Cyberball, Rampart, Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat, Joe & Mac, the list can go on and on. The NES Advantage offers a somewhat more authentic arcade style experience when playing these games.
The NES Advantage has its place elsewhere. The classic Konami games, like Gradius, Rush'n Attack, Stinger, Top Gun, Double Dribble, Life Force, Blades of Steel, Contra and Super C can all take advantage of the NES Advantage's Turbo. Star Force, Mighty Bomb Jack, Rygar, Solomon's Key, Star Soldier, Compile's top-down shooters, Zanac, The Guardian Legend, and Gun-Nac are also good games for the Advantage. The Legend of Zelda, Blaster Master, Fester's Quest becomes much more playable with the Turbo function of the Advantage. The few fighting games for the NES like TMNT Tournament Fighters could benefit from the smooth motion of the stick.
I own the NES Advantage.
I loved this thing. No more "Nintendo Thumbs"
What magic are you using to play TMNT with the Gradius cart sticking halfway out of the NES?
Nice catch. I need to replace the 72-pin connector in my NES console. But in the meantime, sometimes jamming a second cart in over the main cart helps establish a connection ... it kinda presses down on the cart you're actually trying to play thereby compensating for a loose 72-pin.
Thanks for showing how to clean/repair the advantage now i can do it to my secondary one the other one is CIB and in nice shape.
I saw a guy who turned one of those into a guitar effects pedal. You could move around the joy stick and it would make crazy sounds and the buttons did different things. Look it up online. If your a guitar player you know you want one on your board.
Man, you woulda been ballin outta control to have two of these! I sure didn’t know anybody who did.
We definitely got ours early on though. Going from the joystick on the 2600 to the d-pad on NES felt really unnatural. After getting the advantage I don’t remember there being any game where I’d switch back to the original controller.
Problem was playing at friend’s houses with the d-pad again I’d usually suck
For some reason I never had any problems with the original SNES controller, or any console after
It's a well made controller probably my favorite accessory that i own.
Suggest trying After Burner, too. Works great. I'm not good enough to double tap to do a spin move, but it works really well beside that.
Lifeforce man. Top gun was my third game, never figured out how to land the plane back then. Now I can get way farther than level 2.
23:49 - or the Konami code to give you a limited amount of full power up ships.
I think somebody pulled one over on you. They told you that it was in a Christina Aguilera video so that you would have to research and watch all of them to find the footage. LOL
Lol
Back in the day, This controller was the only way I could be the game called Abbadox, The ending section was ungodly fast, Hell the game itself was tough but the slow motion setting on the advantage gave me well..
an advantage!
I liked the NES Max controller too. I actually had the max first because the advantage was pretty expensive. Back in the 80s' peripherals was expensive.
Interesting that you had music playing while you showed Top Gun. In the US release, as you know that music plays during the refueling part. In the Famicom version it actually plays during the mission. Other changes from the Japanese to US include the map. Japanese actually uses a map of the Arabian peninsula, the US it is a fictional middle eastern coastline.
Still have the NES Advantage. But I don't use it bc I feel it's too loud. I'm glad you mentioned how noisy it is. I was also (like you said) too used to the simple d-pad, so I never used it. But I'm letting my kids play a bit now. Ironically they'd rather play my retro-pie (raspberry pi 3+ in a NES case of course) because the Neo-Geo and MAME games allow infinite lives by adding more coins. Maybe they will prefer more challenge when they get a little older...but for now my 5 year old loves all of the Metal Slugs.
This is what NES controllers should have been. I was used to sticks anyway growing up with arcades, Atari, and home computers. Gamepads are terrible for carpal tunnel. I only play NES games on an arcade stick. I remember when gamepads came out I was very uncomfortable with them. I got used to them but still think sticks are far easier to play with.
I was able to get one of these new in box in the 90's when Toys r Us was clearing all 8-Bit game stuff. I'm still pissed off at myself for not picking up more of them since there were so cheap and there was no limit.
So I have a very yellow colored NES and SNES. Would the hydrogen peroxide method work on them? I would love to get them looking decent again.
Unfortunately I never did own one of these beasts. A good controller but, I was always happy with the standard controller. Hey, I got Top Gun too for Christmas with my NES. Ha, Dr. Mario's music reared it's head in the vid, I see Aaron. Lol 🤘
lol I wondered if somebody would notice :D ... that's awesome that you got Top Gun too. Yeah, they told me I had to save the small present until last and open the big present first. I couldn't understand why, but then I open up the big one and it's the NES. Then the little one was Top Gun.
yeah my mom knew I was weird, so she let me, cause I always opened the small presents first and saved the big ones til last.
That's how I always did it too! The biggest present had to be the best one... except in my case it was usually a winter coat with a generic sports logo on it lol.
Lol, yeah every kid dreaded getting clothes for Christmas.
Great video sir. I own 2. Some ppl seem to not know that you can plug and use 2 of them into the nes at the same time. Got em some years ago for like $10 a piece. Looking for 2 Sega 6button sticks these days now
Great video! Can we expect a video tonight? (Friday Night?) I know last post you said life was crazy, hope all is well. Keep up the great work!!
Well I uh... this... this was the video lol.....
@@FridayNightArcade Oh... well... this is awkward. lol. Either way I had one of these monsters as a kid and I loved seeing this video! Great work!
playing Captain skyhawk(fave game) using the turbo feature will fully upgrade your weapon instantly. it really does give you the advantage.. :D
Nintendo did apparently subcontract these to a couple of different companies at times, including I think Hori, and if you take a number of these things apart you may notice that they are actually built a little different inside.
As cool as the NES Advantage is, the whole thing was always let down by the rubberdomed joystick, which I never thought was any good.
I built my own arcade stick controller for my NES.
Standard NES controller never! NES Advantage forever!!
while the top plate was soaking outside, you could have put masking tape over the backplate sticker and spray painted the back plate with matte black rustoleum spraypaint. It would have taken 15 min.
Always used it with Track and Field. I still have the NES Advantage, but need to find where mom hid my NES.
RC Pro Am was one of the best NES games. A stand alone video on that and that Star Voyager game would be cool.
What about the NES Max controller ( I think that is the name)? Cool little ergonomic design, turbo options with a d pad?
I prefered that over thr advantage as it had no down side to the stock controller .
Turbo itself can be a cheat in certain games. In Capcom's Gunsmoke, for example.. The machine gun power up for the twin six shooters seemed like a power up... In my house.. Where I only had stock controllers, but in a friend's house with turbo.. It was nothing, as turbo was a cheat power up identical to it.
Whenever possible, always ask your lady to clean your ball... 😉
I noticed in this video when u were playing ninja turtles, u had a game sticking out of the NES, can u explain?
Thanks
The pins in my NES are stretched a bit. So I stick in Ninja Turtles and press it down, but then pop in another cart on top of it to give a little extra downward push to Turtles or whatever cart you"re trying to play. It helps make sure you're getting a good solid connection on the pins. Really, I need to replace the 72-pin connector in the console but who has time for that.
I play anything I can with my fight stick even retro games/my Castlevania collection/anything that doesn't require dualshock type controls so I would love to have one of these with a proper lever and buttons.
I’m the exact same way. Fightsticks for 2d platformers is where its at.
i had one that had sticking issues.i liked the quick shot that also was on the atari 2600
Great video as always !
Oh, I loved, loved, lovd Star Voyager!
This review rocked!
I placed an old wireless keyboard pcb inside the unit and made some connections. Now it can work with any emulator.
I had a NES Advantage and the only game i really liked playing it on was Cobra Triangle!
The NES Advantage is the same size as the NES control deck.
I have one... And SNES advantage as well. I beat CV III with that damn thing.
CV 3?
I hate to say, but back in the day, this controller was the only way I was able to beat both Back to the Future and Fester's Quest, via using the slow-motion button!
There's no shame in it :D
Do they make these for the nes system that has all the games made in ?
Not sure you check old video comments, but Retro Bright is kinda weak sauce. There is this guy on TH-cam OddTinkering who has the best process. Believe it involves soaking in Hydrogen Peroxide within a plastic tub with led lights taped to the inside of the tub. He has tutorials and it delivers outstanding results. Cool stuff man!
Just got my hands on a NES advantage. Joystick is squeaky. I wiped around it with water and a little dish detergent with a q-tip but it has not helped. Did the NES advantage joysticks come pre-lubricated on the joystick, because I'm starting to think I accidentally wiped the lube off if any. Or is the joystick just squaeky die to age?🤷
To my knowledge there wasn't any sort of lubricant applied, but maybe it's the spring that's around the base of the joystick that's squeaky? And if so, perhaps a little dab of WD-40 would do the trick.
Slow motion was hilarious on this thing. But this controller was great. Unlike the cons of the power glove or any type of wireless controller back then which were horrible.
Is it just me or does this guy remind me of LGR
This was a great game controller but my favorite was the Maxx. It is always over looked.
I was just about to say yhe same exact thing. LOL!
Aluminum Foil is MUCH more non-destructive for removing rust.
Slow motion is for training or to explore hard games when you can't get to higher levels mechanically. it's a pretty cool feature. The only cheating would be to yourself if you actually thought that you beat a game on slow mode.
The joystick part is very noisey... How do you fix that?
10 year old me broke one in a fit of rage. I was very sad afterwards.
From which game was the tuned when you was putting it back together?
Ninja Gaiden II: Dark Sword of Chaos on NES
How do you insulate a school in the 70's?
Asbestos you can!
Zing!
I replaced both chips and the one capacitor but mine still doesnt work
I love you videos I'm 46 and I still go at it with a Nintendo and those Sony PS1 PS2 I actually just got Metal Gear Solid for my PS1 I started playing that today I'm going to go home tonight and play Metal Gear Solid all night after work
Am I the only one that actually prefers NES MAX? Once you get used to the control pad, it's SO much better ergonomically than the original boxy controller. I used that almost exclusively until I got a dog bone controller, and even then, for shooters that required rapid fire, I'd switch back.
Another fella on here said he used it as well. I never had one and always thought the D-looked weird, but I may have to track one down. Ergonomically, it looks great though. It's weird because I'm a big fan of the PS1-2-3-4 controller style and consider that "the standard" as far as ergonomics go. But when I pick up an NES game and that stupid rectangle controller... the muscle memory kicks in and it just works for me lol. I don't mind those divots it makes in my hands.
I just use the "ring" part of the D-pad and it works great. Once you get a dogbone controller, though, man, you'll never go back to the rectangular one.
I love the Max controller, specially on Ice Hockey. I was able to get a couple new in box of this controller when Nintendo was clearing up their warehouses years ago.
Quality certainly is good on it, much better than most similar ones then. Not that I doubt you but, where would you need Turbo dialed down? Electronic static attracts hair and dust from the outside to inward, no need for dog kisses inside. ;)
Most of my criticism of the controller is in the dual-port usage, if you're going to do that might as well add more face buttons(Use both player's button count together.) which would have been handy for some arcade ports that struggle with two face buttons and tended to be single player only anyway. Also it could have made "NES Advantage" supported games mean more as a feature to push sales of it. Something for the 2.0 version lol.
Just depends on the game... sometimes being able to dial the turbo back helps with shooters depending on how quickly the game registers input or fires off shots. It's subtle but it can make a difference. You're right - it would have been cool to add more buttons. They could have made this into a really fancy "cockpit" controller for space sims like Star Voyager or Elite (PAL only) where it utilizes buttons from both inputs to do cool stuff in your spaceship. Then just have the game accept inputs from Port 1 and Port 2 respectively.
@@FridayNightArcade Ah okay, need more shooters on NES to try that out more. ;) With the dual plugs I had the impression it used both at first but then you learn it's using one at a time IE. 1 to 2 Switch, keep forgetting that heh. Neat you can share one Advantage but I'd probably just stick a gamepad on Port 2 instead.
Yeah that cockpit idea sounds cool. Funny we had a lot of insensible NES peripherals like the Roll 'n Rocker but no fancy flightsticks, or steering wheels, or a new Paddle design maybe. :\
Hrmm... couldn't you set two controllers to 1 and plug in plug 1 on each controller...?
Ty , didn't know how to two player up.
Damn, I was hoping there wouldn’t be any lag