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 Broderbund's U-Force, a game controller that made innovative use of consumer IR technology.
See also
editNotes
edit- ^ a b Vizard, Frank (1989). "Tricked-out Videogames". Popular Mechanics. 166 (10). Hearst Magazines: 106. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
References
edit- 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. Archived from the original on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
- "Supersonic the Joystick". Digit-Eyes. Digital Miracles. Retrieved 26 April 2013.