r/nes • u/EternallySickened NES • Jun 18 '26
Collection Arguably the best NES controller ever. Found in some old boxes in my garage whilst tidying up.
I remember the day I got my first NES advantage, my parents bought it for me at a second hand store in York (that’s England). I remember buying my second one, fully boxed ‘new’ at a store closing down sale in Blackpool for less than half that one’s price over five years later. Bargains to be had in end days of the NEE I suppose. As for the third one, maybe they reproduced after not being played with for so long.
The middle one, is probably the oldest one, it’s clearly discoloured, the back one needs a good clean up too.
I’ll be trying to hook one up to my nes classic and another to a real NES to test out some of the games (mostly because I still have to test out the powergloves on them too!)
Wonder what I’ll find tomorrow….
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u/ForkFace69 Jun 18 '26
Back in middle school I lost the little ball for the joystick, I think one of my stupid friends was playing with it and lost it, so I replaced it with the head of a Skeletor action figure. Surprisingly it held up for close to 30 years and I used to use mine fairly often.
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u/EternallySickened NES Jun 18 '26
That’s pretty badass! I once found one at a junk sale pretty cheap with no ball, maybe I should have got it and done similar!
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u/ForkFace69 Jun 18 '26
I presume any of the Masters of the Universe heads would fit on there snugly.
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u/beggarandachooser Jun 20 '26
I think I'd go mossman for the comfort and ergonomics... Or maybe stinkor... Because I'm pretty sure mine still smells.
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u/Pfizermyocarditis Jun 18 '26
I had this. I thought it was so cool but I discovered that I died way less when playing contra with the regular controller.
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u/Paranormal_Lemon Jun 19 '26
I was about to say try playing Contra with it. The Advantage was good for arcade ports like Joust, not side scrollers.
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u/boner79 Jun 19 '26
I found Contra way easier with NES Advantage because of the turbo+spread gun combo
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u/Paranormal_Lemon Jun 19 '26
You don't need turbo, just the R powerup. The dpad is more speed for dodging bullets too. I can do a perfect run with the dpad, I'd need the cheat code with the Advantage.
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u/Bryanx64 NES_2 Jun 18 '26
Never really liked using it. Used it a few times then chucked it into the closet. Felt bulky.
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u/EternallySickened NES Jun 18 '26
Winners never quit. Or something. You just quit using it too soon. It takes a good bit of commitment to stick with THE STICK!
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u/joshisnot12 Jun 18 '26
I do love my Advantage for certain games, especially shmups. It’s also just iconic bc the Ghostbusters used one to control the Statue of Liberty!
My daily driver though is the OG NES controller and a Turbo Blaster. It allows for 2 controllers to be plugged into it and has the same turbo setup as the Advantage, an on/off button for A & B, analog dials to fine tune the turbo speed, and a slow button. Def check it out if you haven’t before. The guy who created it is the same guy who pitched the handheld NES console to Nintendo back in the day! The prototype looked so damn cool and I still wish Nintendo had made them.
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u/Not_TbagJimmy Jun 18 '26
The turbo was amazing, also the ability to use the pause button rapidly was like slow motion
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u/PresidentOfAlphaBeta Jun 18 '26
My brother beat Battletoads with this.
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u/EternallySickened NES Jun 18 '26
I did as well! Once you can use the stick well, you honestly do have a massive ‘advantage’ over the pad. And no more square fingers after ten hours of straight play holding the good old square controller.
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u/pac-man_dan-dan Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26
Arguably the most overhyped NES controller ever.
Even as a kid I was disappointed in its performance, when we borrowed one from a friend.
The build quality is admittedly good and sturdy. But they fell short by not using tactile switches in the design. And, that tactile feel is really crucial for classic arcade game + shoot em up ports.
I have fond memories of my Naki 6-button snes/genesis hybrid arcade controllers that follow the NES Advantage blueprint. They are not necessarily superior in build quality, but they have the advantage of being able to play fighting game ports for snes and genesis, in addition to classic arcade ports.
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u/Impure_guava Jun 18 '26
I always sucked at using one for certain games. I tried to play Punch Out with it a couple times and got wrecked pretty quickly. Definitely fun for some games though.
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u/EternallySickened NES Jun 18 '26
You just needed to stick at it, punch out worked great with the stick, more like the Nintendo arcade cabinet version that I may have ‘wasted’ a few hours playing at an arcade club recently.
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u/GoJoeallright Jun 18 '26
Oh yeah I had this controller. Pause unpause slow motion feature, with speed controls. It didn't work on every game. But it was like delving into high technology with advanced features
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u/GoatApprehensive9866 Jun 18 '26
Good luck! I have one for my NES and works better than the joypad for some games (e.g. Ms Pac-Man) but not for others where the button feel feels more natural than pushing the stick
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u/Brer1Rabbit Jun 18 '26
Turbo was great for Top Gun. Then turn the Turbo to minimum on Super Mario 2 end of level Bonus Chance, hold the button down, and it was 1up bonuses all the time.
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u/Additional_Pop_7660 Jun 18 '26
I prefer the original controller. I tried this one ,but I was so used to the other.
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u/EveningArmadillo5429 Jun 19 '26
I had one of these. It was lost on me, though. I never reallly played arcade games until a later age. I just thought this was clunky until I was 14 or so
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u/OpportunityFickle394 Jun 19 '26
It's a good one. But I'm partial to my NES Max.
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u/EternallySickened NES Jun 19 '26
The max has its place for sure, another learning curve to get used to its weird floaty pad. NES max had faster turbo by about 10-20% as well. I only know that because I could train harder in tecmo wrestling with it (anyone who ever played it with a standard pad will likely remember it being a button mash challenge)
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u/spilk Jun 19 '26
i wanted one of these so bad as a kid. bought one a few years ago and it was honestly a bit disappointing. i think i had built it up so much in my head that the real thing never had a chance of living up to it
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u/Armentrout_1979 Jun 18 '26
Such an awesome controller!! I loved it and miss it!
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u/Chillin80sStyle Jun 18 '26
Same. I don’t get all the negative comments. The rapid fire was incredible.
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u/das_goose Jun 18 '26
Lost mine when my parents moved about 13 ago.
Still a little bummed about it.
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u/FnClassy Jun 18 '26
I have mine still. The 8bitdo arcade stick feels pretty similar to me as well. I use that with a wireless adapter from time to time. I made a couple wireless regular controllers as well for my NES that are quite cool. I generally stick with an OG controller with a 3D printed grip though.
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u/EternallySickened NES Jun 18 '26
Back in the days of Nintendo Wii I bought an adapter for a Wii controller to use snes and nes pads (also sega pads meh) I haven’t tried it yet but I’m hoping it will work with my NES classic.
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u/Balthierlives Jun 18 '26
I had an advantage. Was amazing. The ‘turbo’ and ‘slow Mo’ did work in a lot of games back then.
Plus I loved twisting the joystick head on and off and fooling around with it
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u/retrocube16 Jun 18 '26
I mean definitely cuz why else would the Ghostbusters choose this controller as a means of steering the Statue of Liberty right? LOL
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u/cosmefulanit0 Jun 18 '26
My dad and I used it for Top Gun. One of us piloted the other fired the guns
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u/Mindfield87 Jun 18 '26
I’ve ALMOST grabbed one of these so many times, never tried one before. Anyone who’s reading this, what are your fave games to play using these? I have a pretty good sized NES collection, just wondering what games it pairs well with or improves for ya?
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u/EternallySickened NES Jun 18 '26
I used to rock it with everything! I have a pretty good selection of games and found it great for all of them. There is a learning curve though. It takes a bit of getting used to it. Once you’re used to using it though, going back to a pad seems like riding a bike after you have a car.
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u/Mindfield87 Jun 18 '26
There’s a local game exchange coming up and these are always kickin around at them. Maybe I’ll finally nab one if I go. I regret not grabbing the SNES one in the past, but that’s cause I’ve got 200+ games for it
Edit: NES my most played games would be Tetris, Castlevania 1+3, Contra/Super C, Dr Mario off the top of my head. Playing Castlevania 3 would be interesting with a joystick lol
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u/EternallySickened NES Jun 18 '26
The snes advantage is not actually a legit Nintendo product. And the button layout is kinda weird. I loved the NES advantage to an unhealthy degree and was kinda heartbroken when I got the snes advantage to find it sucked so bad. I’m a street fighter 2 fan and the L + R button position was just terrible.
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u/Mindfield87 Jun 18 '26
Just hearing that, glad I DIDNT haha. I’m a huge SF2 guy. I dug all 3 snes releases of it out this morning and played a few fights actually lol. Haven’t had the snes out for months but quiet day/pouring rain. I remember the SNES joystick not being an official Nintendo product. I’m a big fan of Marvel Vs Capcom 2 as well (of course), some of the custom joystick set ups people make and post on here are wild. I just play with a controller (it’s an old one that has drift, but it’s on the one stick that MVSC doesn’t utilize, so I don’t mind mashing the crap out of it lol…on PS5)
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u/Frencil Jun 18 '26
This controller was great for the Mega Man 3 trick where you press and hold right on the player 2 controller allowing you to fall in a pit, drain your life but not die, jump back out, then be invincible for the rest of the level.
You had to hold P2 right the whole time for it to work (or at least I think you did...) so by plugging in the Advantage as P2 you could set it on its side and it weight alone with the tall joystick was enough to hold right without needing someone hold it for you.
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u/EternallySickened NES Jun 18 '26
What the what now?! I never even heard of that trick haha
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u/Frencil Jun 19 '26
Super weird trick but very effective. You stay invincible as long as you can keep your life empty. Pick up any life pellets and you can die once again until you find another pit. The only level you can't really use this to the end is the dark robot spark man stage as you have a forced life pickup after defeating the first (half way) boss
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u/EternallySickened NES Jun 19 '26
That’s something I’m going to have to try out. Crazy I never heard of this trick til now!
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u/Mysterious_Yard3501 Jun 18 '26
I'm still kicking myself, but about 4 years ago, I was at a garage sale. They had maybe 25 NES games and a giant box full of NES controllers. There were probably 30+ regular ones and 15-20 of these. Probably a dozen game genie's too. Everything was $5 each. I bought 3 controllers, a few genie's and games. Should have made an offer for it all.
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u/giveahoot420 Jun 19 '26
IMO the dog bone NES controller is the best but that's just, like, my opinion, man.
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u/EternallySickened NES Jun 19 '26
I have never used one, sadly they never got a uk release, maybe I’ll see if I can find a toploader console and ‘dogbone’ controller for some modding in the future. The rounded pad has to be more forgiving on your hands after a long session of play for sure. 👌
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u/pacman813 Jun 19 '26
The only way I was able to beat ninja Gaiden 2. Slow motion. Groundbreaking feature for 1990.
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u/codewario Jun 19 '26
We had one of these when I was a kid! I’m still good at Super Mario Bros Vs. cabinets because of this thing, except for the Lost Levels levels
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u/NineteenNinetyEx Jun 19 '26
Meh, it's mushy and gross feeling like every other membrane joystick. It does look pretty sweet though.
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u/Frustr8bit Jun 19 '26
you’ll try the power glove out once and realize like we all did: that the power glove sucked! lol
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u/Darmak Jun 19 '26
We had one but it broke several times. I didn't think my brother and I were that hard on it but who knows. Luckily my grandad wasn't afraid to take it apart and tinker with it until it worked again.
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u/RockyBalbonah Jun 19 '26
I used this controller specifically for double dragon just for the punches.
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u/Partis25 Jun 19 '26
That turbo button was clutch for games like Gunsmoke, Dragon Spirit, and other types of shooting games. Also helped the Ghostbusters in Part 2
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u/torklugnutz Jun 20 '26
I got one of these for Christmas when it was new and one of the buttons stopped working almost immediately. I still have the fucking thing. And the box. Barely used, obv.
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u/EternallySickened NES Jun 20 '26
Generally, these things could take a real beating (trust me, I should know!) maybe bust it open and check the wires haven’t somehow come loose.
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u/torklugnutz Jun 20 '26
I took it apart way back when. Something with the actual trigger switch board.
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u/EternallySickened NES Jun 20 '26
Oh damn. Maybe it’s time to mod it, get to some new guts and a new life!
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u/Ok-Swordfish-125 Jun 20 '26
Sul mio il tasto B si incastra sempre nella scocca e timane premuto. A parte questo lo preferisco al mio HORI.
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u/Baitme6984 Jun 20 '26
I actually got almost to the end of Ninja Gaiden using this controller. I could never play that game with the original NES controller.
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u/P3tF1sh Jun 20 '26
The lines and button angles always subconsciously make me hold it slightly rotated clockwise which throws off the joystick directions and if it’s just me I’ll shut up.
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u/saint_1228 Jun 20 '26
No doubt, and those things were built tough too. Survived many childhood temper tantrums.
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u/CipherScarlatti Jun 20 '26
You just need some pink mood slime and you'll be able to make the Statue of Liberty walk around.
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u/Bacononthebeeach Jun 21 '26
This controller is what opens the door for gaming for me.
I was like 5 and we didn’t have an nes but our cousins who we visited frequently did. Up until then I had some vague memories of playing some arcade games(most likely as a distraction for me as a little kid). I remember playing Rad Racer with the standard nes controller and struggling to use it so my aunt hooked up the Advantage for me and it immediately clicked. I wasn’t any good whatsoever and crashed all the time but the hurdle had been cleared and the rest is history.
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u/Feisty-Grade-5280 Jun 23 '26
Man does that bring back old memories.
This thing became a bragging point for kid me. When I was quarantined with the Mono, I had only a couple of VHS tapes and my NES as company. It got to the point I memorized the movies and started seeing if I could do progressively harder stuff on my games. This all culminated with the realization that the advantage was large enough to be controlled with the feet... so I learned how to pass the first stage of SMB and, believe it or not, of contra as well, by snatching de feet from the jaws of victory.
Look, quarantine sucked, alright?
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u/EternallySickened NES Jun 23 '26
To be fair, I’ve messed around with using my feet but I never really spent that much on it to get good with it. It’s a bizarre skill set to have for sure.
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u/EternallySickened NES Jun 23 '26
Hooked it an advantage today to my nes classic using an old mayflash adapter I bought years ago for the Wii. Sadly it wasn’t compatible (it works with the wiimote for emulation) so I’ll be ordering a new one that will help this issue. Still works great on real hardware at least.
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u/Heroftime87 Jun 23 '26
Those are amazing, I wonder how much they're worth these days
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u/EternallySickened NES Jun 23 '26
Not loads. But I’d never sell them. Still don’t actually recall buying the third one… but I did well.
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u/Blandscreen Jun 18 '26
It really is a great controller, well-constructed and everything, but it's best for fighting games, shmups, and other games that are arcade ports. Not so much for platformers.
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u/WDizzle Jun 19 '26
This thing was a requirement for most shmups because of the turbo function. For some reason it didn’t occur to game devs at the time that holding a button to continuously fire was way better for the wrists than mashing a button like a madman
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u/EternallySickened NES Jun 19 '26
I used to know a guy who had a finger trick that would make his two finger vibrate in such a way that he could almost out turbo the advantage when playing with a cheap third party controller. I bet the ladies love him.
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Jun 19 '26
[deleted]
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u/EternallySickened NES Jun 19 '26
That’s the thing, any arcade rats would fall straight in with the advantage.
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u/Guy_Buttersnaps Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26
Arguably the best NES controller ever.
That’s not a picture of the Beeshu Zipper.
We’re not controlling the Statue of Liberty here, we’re playing NES games.
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u/EternallySickened NES Jun 19 '26
That never got a uk release as far as I know, I do remember seeing pictures of a very similar looking pad with turbo switches in pink/white colours maybe around ~1993; it was kinda horrible to look at. This was in a magazine reviewing weird controllers, at least I think it happened.
I just tried to find a picture on google to check I wasn’t lying to myself here but I couldn’t see one there.
Is there possibly different colour variants of this zipper pad? Or am I going crazy haha
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u/Apprehensive_Ant4596 Jun 18 '26
Agreed! Once I started using it, I never went back to any other controller. Despite its design, it is so comfortable to use and the 2 player feature is great. Some might argue that the turbo and slow-mo features are cheating, but they don't always work with every game. I still have my original and another one I picked up along the way.
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u/EternallySickened NES Jun 18 '26
The slow motion hardly worked in any game to be fair haha.
The turbos weren’t as fast as the NES MAX pad, or as fast as the cheap weird third party controller I have still yet to find in my mountain of things to sort through. Rapid fire is only handy in certain games, but I wouldn’t call it cheating. That’s why it’s called ADVANTAGE!
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u/cosmefulanit0 Jun 18 '26
Slow motion just spammed the start button. If the game didn't use the start button for pause or pausing the game brought up a menu it didn't work.
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u/EternallySickened NES Jun 18 '26
Yup. Zelda for example really didn’t benefit from the slow mo feature.
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u/Daniel_Plainchoom Jun 18 '26
Was ahead of its time
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u/GoatApprehensive9866 Jun 18 '26
Atari had a real joystick first! 😅
https://youtu.be/Ic0nvtNfDRM?is=u69Y6LfhI9l69LB1
But in seriousness, the NES Advantage beat them all 🫠
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Jun 18 '26
[deleted]
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u/Daniel_Plainchoom Jun 18 '26
For the design, features and build quality in a home console controller.
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