Calx and I had recieved our first NES Advantage way back in 1991, as a Christmas present. We had looked at the joystick in a store and it had turbo fuctions that we thought would help us fly in Little Nemo: The Dream Master. We had had trouble with the game in later stages and the joystick looked like it could be useful. I remember that for Christmas we had recieved Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mega Man 3, and the NES Advantage. A few days earlier we had recieved Mega Man 2 from our Uncle Barry and Aunt Fay...that's a different story that I won't get into right now.

When Calx and I had first got our NES Advantage, we were not very coordinated. Having small hands and using a big heavy controller are two things that don't really mix, and they probably never will. Albeit that we were young, after we did get older, the NES Advantage stayed in the box until our "videogame crash."

No silly, I'm not talking about the great videogame crash of the early eighties, I'm talking about our own little videogame crash. Around 1999, Calx and I had some problems with our NES controllers. All of our original controllers were not working to great, they started to break. The NES Advantage resurfaced and we got very good using the controller. Infact, the NES Advantage is very good for things such as the Walldoor glitch in Metroid. Since I'm done talking about my NES Advantage experience, I'll mention a few things of interest about the joystick itself.

The NES Advantage was released in 1989, I *think* the design was patented in 1990, though it may have been 1989 I'm not sure (and I'm too lazy to check). Special features include several turbo buttons, which work quite well, a slow motion feature (pause, unpause, repeat), and a nice arcade joystick, great for games such as Pac Man and Donkey Kong. For some reason Nintendo recommends using the NES Advantage with Kung Fu and Super Mario Bros, or atleast that is the impression I get from the box. The joystick does work quite well, one of the best on the NES.

I had wanted to provide some pictures of the inside of the NES Advantage, though after removing the two visable screws, the metal bottom would not budge. Working as a detective, I carefully removed the four rubber feet from the bottom of the NES Advantage, the removal revealed four more screws. Ah ha! I was now able to remove the black metal board to reveal the inner workings of my NES Advantage (I have three btw).

There really is not much to look at considering the fact that I am not a techie person, I cannot indentify this and that too much. I tried removing the circuit board for some frontal pictures though it would not budge. What then caught my interest was the small brown board screwed in the corner. What is underneath this? I had to know.

After removing the board, I see a large spring as well as the bottom half of the NES Advantage's joystick! I had no idea that the joystick was behind the brown board, I had no clue.

Personally, I really like the NES Advantage. Although the slo motion feature is not too great, the NES Advantage is probably the best NES joystick I've ever seen/used. I would rate this a 9.5 out of 10. Very common, very nice if you're a teenager/grown up. Small kids may have a bit of trouble with it, I learned this from experience.