Engineering:Turbotronic
Turbotronic is a joystick marketed by Camerica in the late 1980s. The joystick has two connectors: One with seven pins for the Nintendo Entertainment System, and one with nine pins for several Atari and Commodore home computers and game consoles, as well as the Master System.[1] The Turbotronic closely resembles the NES Advantage, a joystick released by Nintendo of America in 1987. In 1988, Camerica released Freedom Stick, a wireless, consumer IR version of Turbotronic exclusively for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).[1] Nintendo brought legal action against Camerica because of the products' similarity to the NES Advantage.
Camerica later redesigned Freedom Stick with an unorthodox triangular base intended for both right- and left-handed players, and called the product Supersonic the Joystick. The bottom of the joystick's base is fitted with suction cups to stabilize it on a tabletop.
Freedom Stick and Supersonic the Joystick were among the first game controllers to communicate via infrared beam. They were contemporaneous with Brøderbund's U-Force, a game controller that made innovative use of consumer IR technology.
See also
- List of Nintendo Entertainment System accessories
- Power Glove
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Vizard, Frank (1989). "Tricked-out Videogames". Popular Mechanics (Hearst Magazines) 166 (10): 106. https://books.google.com/books?id=g-MDAAAAMBAJ&pg=RA1-PA106. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
References
- Schwartz, Steven A. (1989). Compute!'s Guide to Nintendo Games. Radnor: Compute! Books. pp. 224–25; 229. ISBN 9780874552218. OCLC 20094558.
- "Freedom Stick Information". Sega8bit.com. http://www.smstributes.co.uk/gethwinfo.asp?hardwareid=54. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
- "Supersonic the Joystick". Digit-Eyes. Digital Miracles. http://www.digit-eyes.com/upcCode/069667000341.html?l=en. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
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