Video Game Accessories
Last Updated 16 Aug 1998

Since I just got a Playstation, many of the PSX accessories are updated. I can't say the same about Saturn or N64...

This is a list of special accessories and the games that support them. Basically, that's it. It should be self-explanatory. This file is not endorsed or overseen by any of the mentioned companies. It's maintained solely by myself, and could even (gasp!) have errors in it. Feel free to distribute any part of the text, as long as you give me credit.

This list does not include four player adapters, which have their own listing.

I'd REALLY like to know about any Japan/Europe-only games that support special accessories. Of course, I ask your help in expanding the list in any way. Any accessory or game I don't list? Tell me!

2600

Supercharger

An add-on to the 2600 that plays games stored on audio tape. This accessory plugs into the cartridge slot and has an audio cable that plugs into a cassette player's headphone port to read and load the game on the tape. Supercharger games generally look and sound better than the average 2600 game.

Paddles

The classic 2600 paddles! Allows up to four players.

Driving Controller

Like the paddles except they can be rotated infinitely in either direction. Only for use with Indy 500.


Keypad

A kepyad with twelve keys, 0-9, *, and #.
- Video Touch Pad
A big version of the keypad sold with Star Raiders.
- Kid's Controller
A bigger version of the keypad, for the special line of Kid's Games.

Light Gun

Same as the 7800/XE light gun.

Trak-Ball

The 2600 trak-ball can switch between joystick emulation and true analog trak-ball mode. Unfortunately, no 2600 games that I know of take advantage of trak-ball mode, even though many were listed as compatible in 2600 catalogs. I believe a few Atari 8-bit computer games can use this controller in trak-ball mode, though.


Booster Grip controller

A special controller used by the game Omega Race.


Keyboard

Though announced, this never came out.


Voice Commander

I don't know what this did, and it never came out.


MindLink controller

An unreleased peripheral, a headband that reads small changes in skin (conductivity or tenseness?). A prototype was shown in an issue of Ultimate Gamer magazine, which plays a special version of Breakout called "Bionic Breakthru", and supposedly another Skiing game. This device probably worked on a thermistor, which senses temperature changes. (Thanks to Daniel Mazurowski for the extra information)

Odyssey²

Thanks to Stacy Dunkle for telling me about these games (and the Intellivoice and Justifier ones, too! =).

The Voice

Talks through an included speaker when used with voice compatible games.

Intellivision

Intellivoice

Talks when used with voice compatible games.

PlayCable

A service to get games over cable lines. [Interesting sidenote]

Computer module

Music synthesizer

5200

Trak-Ball

Though the 5200 controller is already analog, a special trak-ball controller was made that works with certain games. Though many games were announced in catalogs as being trak-ball compatible, quite a few of those games are not. Cool big ol controller!

Masterplay Interface

Allows the 5200 to use 2600 controllers, on most games.

7800

Light Gun

Same as the 2600/XE light gun.

Colecovision

Super Action Controller

A joystick with four fire buttons, keypad and trakball.

Roller Controller

Trak-ball controller.

VCS Expansion Module (#1)

Plays 2600 games.

Driving Expansion Module (#2)

A steering wheel and gas pedal.

Adam Computer Expansion Module (#3)

Super Game Module

Intellivision adapter


Sega Master System

Thanks to the members of the SMS mailing list for helping with some of this info... Especially Clint Dyer, who bragged about his Mark III (Japanese equivalent of the SMS) to the list. =)

Light Phaser


Sports Pad (Power Ball)

A Trak-ball controller.

3-D Glasses ("SegaScope")

Goggles for stereo vision. These don't use red and blue, but instead use differing shutter speeds or some such. (Anyone know?)

Jerry Lawrence - also, the sega shutter glasses - i have more info about how they work. Your tv displays 30 frames per second (NTSC), but 60 fields per second. one frame is 2 fields. ie, one field gets all the pixels in rows 1,3,5, etc, and the next field gets all the pixels in rows 2,4,6,etc. it interlaces it, and if you had a high contrast image on there, (higher contrast than NTSC supports), it would flicker like mad. (like an amiga doing 640 lines of vertical resolution). anyway... the sega shutter glasses darken and open 30 times per second, timed along with the field displays on the TV. Ie, the left shutter is closed while the right one is open, and vice-versa. When the left one is open, field 1 is displaying on the tv, and while the right one is open, the other field is displaying on the tv. so, in essence, your tv can be showing 2 entirely different images on your tv. (at least this is how it worked on the amiga, i'm assuming it's the same principle for the sega)


Paddle

Released in Europe and Japan, but not the US. Thanks to Ippei Muramatsu for telling me about these...

Driving Controller (Japan)

Motorcycle Controller (Japan)

SR-1000 computer module (Japan)

Printer modlue (Japan)

Tablet (Japan)

Cassette recorder (Japan)

Nintendo Entertainment System

Many of these are culled from Nintendo's old giant list of games.

Zapper light gun

The official Nintendo version, comes in gray or ugly florescent orange.
- Camerica Videoblaster
A cool six-shooter style gun complete with working hammer.
- Konami laserscope
A visor targeted light gun with voice-controlled shooting?

Robotic Operating Buddy

R.O.B. the robot, a clunky robot that is operated via onscreen flashes. All it actually does is press U/D/L/R/A/B for you.

Family Fun Fitness

The original Bandai floor pad. You can step on U/D/L/R/A/B to control any game, but there were some games made with this accessory specifically in mind.
- Power Pad
The Nintendo-made version.

Baton Teleplay

A modem for two-player combat over the phone lines. This only works with a few specially made games. These games were also made for the Genesis, and playing cross-platform games is supposed to be possible.

U-Force

Looks kind of like a laptop computer, it senses where inside the three dimensional grid your hands are, and uses that information to control the game.

Power Glove

According to a few posts I've read, this consists not only of the glove, but also a sensor box that sits on top of the TV, plus another cord that connects the two to the NES.

Miracle Piano

A Full-size MIDI compatible keyboard. It also includes a battery-backed up cartridge that teaches musical techniques using some sort of AI. The cartridge stores your musical progress for later use.
Thanks to Victor Rehorst for the info.


Vaus Controller

A special dial controller included with the Taito game Arkanoid, which can also use a regular joypad.


disk drive

Japan only - some games, such as Super Mario Bros. 2 were sold on easily copyable disks.


3-D

The following games work with red-blue 3-D glasses.

Nintendo Gameboy

Pocket Camera / Printer

These accessories hook up to the Gameboy to make stickers, stickers, stick them everywhere. It's fun!

Turbografx-16

CD, Super-CD

The TG-16 has a CD-ROM add on, and you can change system cards to version 3 for Super-CD games. There's also an Arcade-CD card in Japan (PC Engine), I believe.

Genesis

Menacer light gun

Kinda looks like a Nerf gun or a flashlight with a super grip handle. Comes with attachable binoculars and shoulder "stock", for a total of FOUR (count 'em) configurations. Also features an InfraRed unit that sits on top of the TV and controls an onscreen cursor (which can be turned off). The gun is wireless, and needs batteries.

Mega Mouse


Six button controller

In various forms including mini-joypad, wireless, and joystick.

Activator

By Sega - an octagon of sensors that lay on the floor. You're supposed to stand in the middle and use punches and kicks to control your game (it works as a regular controller). I wonder why it never caught on?


Tele-Genesis

A modem that was announced in the early days of the system, but never was released in the US. This did come out in Japan, and I think Cyberball and some finance-banking(?) cartridges use it.


Justifier

A special gun for use only with the following Konami games:

link cable

Zero Tolerance had the option to link two consoles together for a two player game (each player gets their own TV). Thanks to Mark Price for telling me the title...

TeeVGolf

A sensor and a golf club by Sports Sciences for golf goofiness. Works with a special adapter for PGA Tour Golf I and II.


Batter Up

Another Sports Sciences utensil, a baseball bat this time.


Personal Trainer Bike

An entire exercise bike by Heatbeat that includes the game Outback Joey.


Miracle Piano

Yup, this came out for the Genesis too.


3-D

"Jim Power: The Lost Dimension in 3-D" by Electro Brain uses glasses with gray polarized lenses for a 3-D effect, which can be shut off in the game if (probably) desired.


Baton Teleplay

A modem for two-player combat over the phone lines. This only works with a few specially made games. These games were also made for the NES, and playing cross-platform games is supposed to be possible.

Sega VR

A full blown virtual reality helmet. Guess what, it never came out! For more info, take a look at the Aug/Sep 1993 issue of the Sega newsletter Sega Visions.

Surround Sound

I believe NBA Jam for the Sega-CD supports surround sound.


32X, Sega-CD, CDX

More add-ons to play 32X and Sega-CD games. Sega-CD games have blue stripes and 32X ones are yellow!


Sega Channel

This counts as an accessory, I guess. Use this with your participating cable system to download games.

SNES

Check out FM2000's SNES page for more detailed information about these accessories!

Super Scope 6 light gun


Super Nintendo Mouse

Included with Super Mario Paint, or sold seperately.

Super Gameboy

It not only plays Gameboy games but enhances (special sound, colors, border) some which were created with this device in mind. Gameboy Asteroids has the Super Famicom version hidden in the game, accessible via the Super Gameboy!


Surround sound

I think some SNES games have surround too, but I don't know which.


Life Fitness Bicycle(?)


Batter Up

Yes, Sports Sciences made one of these bats for the SNES too.


Miracle Piano

Yes, one for the SNES too.

Konix Multisystem

Even though this system never came out, it still had some cool accessories. Maybe if they concentrated on making games for it first... Anyway, the accessories included a hydraulic seat that (slowly) moved along with some games, a gas pedal, and a joystick that could be changed into different things like a steering wheel.

3DO

mouse


light gun

Jaguar

six button controller

The extra buttons are mapped to keypad buttons instead of "new" buttons like the Sega one.


rotary controller

One was never made, but Tempest 2000 supports it through a special code.


Jag VR

Announced and cancelled. Snazzy looking box, though. The games started for this system are Missile Command 3D (looks like it still has hooks for the VR helmet in the released version) and Gravon, from JRC/Suma.


Voice Modem

Announced and cancelled, though Ultra Vortek supports it through a special code.


Surround Sound

NBA Jam: TE and the JagCD game Iron Soldier II play in surround sound.


Jag CD

Plays CD games and also has an awesome Video Light Machine CD player built in.


Miracle Piano

No, actually they didn't make one for the Jaguar. Sorry.

Playstation

Howie's High-Tech Games is a good source of information (and for renting!) imported games.

Combat Cable

Two player link - two TVs, two Playstations.

GunCon

Namco's light gun that comes packaged with Time Crisis and Point Blank. It not only plugs into the controller port, but also into the A/V port for greater accuracy. This also means that NTSC (US Television) and PAL (European television) GunCons are not compatible with other country's games, or other light gun games.
The Real Arcade 3-in-1 (and other guns)
This Joytech(Europe) / Innovation Extreme(US) gun features programmable auto-reload, auto fire, recoil/kick back, includes a foot pedal, and is compatible with Saturn and PlayStation GunCon/normal lightgun games. Sounds like the ultimate light gun.
GunCon Foot Pedal
Innovation's foot pedal does NOT work with the GunCon gun. It actually converts a regular PSX light gun into a GunCon. Pretty dumb since it's really only used for Time Crisis which comes with a GunCon. The foot pedal can be set to operate either of the buttons of a regular gun or GunCon (but ONLY when connected with an old-style PSX gun). Side note - I gutted mine and with a little drilling and soldering inserted the board of a cheap PSX controller (also made by Innovation!) to make the pedal to work as the "circle" button. Now I can plug the pedal into controller port number two to use with Time Crisis and GunCon!

Enforcer

Konami's less accurate light gun.
The Real Arcade (and other guns)
See above for details.

Analog Joystick

An expensive two-stick controller. The Analog Joypad supports all Analog Joystick games as well.

Analog Joypad

Plays specially designed games, or switches to "Analog Joystick" mode to play those games. Analog knobs can be turned off to use the joypad for regular games. Additionally, the rotary knobs can be "pressed" as buttons, but very few games support this (I'll list the ones that do as soon as I find out). Finally, the Japanese version of this controller (SCPH-1150) had a rumble device. This is different from the DUAL shock analog pad (SCPH-1200, below) which was later released and has rounded rubbery knobs instead of hard indented plastic ones. Any game made for analog or dual shock analog controllers will support analog control on either controller, but the force feedback only works on specific games. For more information check out PSM Online.

Single Shock Analog Pad

These games (from the same page as below) work with the original (old Japanese analog pad) shock mechanism and also work on the dual shock pad with weaker vibration than dual shock.

Dual Shock Analog Pad

This controller adds feedback to the Analog Joypad. It's similar to the N64 "Rumble Pak". So far the US versions of these games support the controller too.

Mad Cats Dual Shock Pad (and others)

Mad Cats has their own dual shock pad which requires batteries. This pad also gives the option to have the analog sticks work as regular joypad, or neGcon.
I got just about all of this list from Intense PSX.

neGcon

This Namco designed controller twists to give analog control. In addition, two red play buttons are analog. Though they appear to be analog, the top "shoulder" buttons are digital. The neGcon also has two digital play buttons, a start button, and a regular control pad. Oh, and for the curious - it's pronounced "neh-gee-kawn"
- Mad Catz Driving Weel
emulates the neGcon as an actual steering wheel.
- Wrist Rumbler
Add-on for the Mad Catz wheel, I don't know too much about it but I'm guessing it works with games that support dual shock. I believe Mad Catz is giving these away free to wheel owners. They can be contacted at tech@madcatz.com or 1-800-659-2287. (1) twist function not used, but game recognizes controller (2) supports neGcon, but expects normal pad in options menus

mouse


Personal Digital Assistant

A portable mini-game unit which can attach to the Playstation and upload information to the machine. Used a lot with Tamagotchi like games.

Dolby Surround

If you have the setup, games sound really nice in surround sound.

Saturn

Stunner

The Saturn light gun.
The Real Arcade
This Joytech light gun also works with Playstation games. See above under GunCon for more details.

Mission Stick

An analog joystick. AKA Virtual Stick.

Twin Stick

???

3D Controller

Sold with some copies of NiGHTS, or can be bought seperately. Analog control is possible with a swiveling joypad.

Arcade Racer

Steering wheel-type controller

Net Link

Adapter for 28.8 Internet access, some games can also be played "over the Internet" with this accessory.

Nintendo 64

Mouse



Rumble Pack

Plugs into the N64 controller and shakes it with specially coded games. Included with Starfox, or can be purchased separately. Recent games support the Rumble Pack, and the majority of future ones will as well.



Capture Cassette

This Japanese accessory takes input for use with Mario Artist. There is also a digital camera interface kit for the same use.



Voice Recognition System

This Japanese accessory works with the game Pikachu Genki De Chu.



Biorhythm Clip

This Japanese accessory reads your biorhythms and changes the difficulty of the game BioTetris (by Amtex) accordingly.

Dreamcast

This upcoming Sega system has a v34 modem built in, and can also hook up to cable modem. The controller also has a mini screen for hiding information from your friend (sports games). Visual Memory System is a handheld unit which can also attach to the Dreamcast for uploading information. We'll all have to wait to see exactly what this system can do!

adapters

The following systems have a Game Genie - NES, Genesis, SNES, Gameboy, Game Gear
Galoob also maintains a Game Genie homepage for the various types of Genies.

The following systems have a Pro Action Replay - SMS (Europe), Genesis...

The Sega Saturn has a similar Game Shark adapter.

The Aladdin was a device invented by the creators of the Game Genie that housed common yet expensive chips used by NES games. The "game" part would then be less expensive since each game would use the chips in the Aladdin instead of having its own.

RETURN.VIDGAMES