For much of the history of home video gaming, consoles have featured a variety of accessories. Whether it was a pack of devices meant to hold a Wii controller or gaming gloves, there was a market for it, and gamers shelled out their hard-earned money to buy them. For retro consoles, the Game Boy was particularly well-known for its plethora of third-party accessories, and many modern consoles continue the practice. There have been some useful accessories and tons of awful ones. Most have been wastes of money, and these five are undoubtedly some of the most ridiculous ever made, even if the intention was to produce something worthwhile.
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1) Nintendo NES R.O.B.
When Nintendo launched the Nintendo Entertainment System, the company released a variety of options. One that was particularly enticing came with R.O.B., or Robotic Operating Buddy, an actual robot designed to assist in playing games. On the surface, this was a clever idea, and the robot was an intriguing device. Dig a little deeper and you’re left with a barely functioning character that only worked with two games … if it worked at all. Ultimately, R.O.B. proved to be a disappointment for gamers but a boon for Nintendo’s marketing department, serving as a Trojan Horse that pushed eager buyers to purchase an NES.
2) Sega Activator
Before motion controls were a fully functioning concept, Sega released one of the most idealistic and ridiculous accessories for the Sega Genesis. The Sega Activator is an octagonal peripheral placed on the ground, and it projects invisible beams up to the ceiling. This created barriers that, when broken, led to in-game movements. Players could play Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition and similar fighting games by literally throwing punches and kicks. A lofty concept that the product failed to deliver upon, as it was woefully inaccurate, cost way too much, and was far more frustrating than it was fun to use.
3) Konami LaserScope
The Nintendo Entertainment System featured a wide range of accessories, and many were indeed useful. The Konami LaserScope wasn’t one of them. Nintendo’s Zapper was a proven technology that gamers loved, even if they couldn’t shoot the dog in Duck Hunt. The LaserScope is a head-mounted device that eliminates the need for the Zapper, allowing players to yell “FIRE” at the top of their lungs whenever they want to take a shot. That’s all it did, and it barely functioned. Kids would scream “Fire” repeatedly, achieving nothing other than annoying their parents to no end.
4) Atari 2600 Stick Station
If you’ve ever played on the original Atari 2600, you likely recall how stiff the joystick was. After a relatively short amount of play, it became difficult to hold. This resulted in strain and pain, so Atari opted for a simple solution: the Stick Station. To be fair, it worked as advertised, but it’s nothing more than a board with an Atari logo and a spot for the joystick. It didn’t remain on the market for long because someone at Atari had the idea of putting suction cups on the bottom of the joystick, eliminating the problem without having to cut down a bunch of trees.
5) The Power Glove
The Power Glove is one of the most well-known of the NES’ crummy controllers, and that’s largely due to how far Nintendo went with marketing. The 1989 movie, The Wizard, featured a scene that shone a light on it, and the device certainly looks cool. Unfortunately, it also lacks precise controls, was far more challenging to learn to use than it was to play a game with a proper controller, and unlike what Lucas Barton (Jackey Vinson) says in The Wizard, “I love the Power Glove — it’s so bad,” the reality of the device was that it genuinely was bad … just not in the way he meant.
Did you waste any money on these accessories back in the day? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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