Peripheral Gimmick Games (Boktai, Mario Party 6 Mic)

[Vitnira]

Off and on I am obsessed with the Boktai GBA series. I never got it or heard of it as a kid. Here's the gimmick, via Wikipedia:
"The player takes the role of Django, a vampire hunter, who uses a weapon called the "Gun Del Sol" (Solar Gun), that fires bolts of sunlight at enemies. The game made novel use of a light sensor on the cartridge which encouraged playing parts of the game in direct sunlight. "

That's not only RAD AS F-, but the fluff meets the crunch. Use actual sun energy to defeat vampires!

Obviously it is stupidly expensive to get a Boktai cart now and not really fun to emulate. Doing research I found a website that makes blank GBA carts with solar sensors:

GBA 16MB, 64Kbit EEPROM, Solar+RTC Flash Cart – insideGadgets Shop

shop.insidegadgets.com

$71? Wow. You can see why I haven't pulled the trigger.

The good news is you can flash it repeatedly for going through Boktai 1-3, but still.

I also remember enjoying the microphone on Mario Party 6. It was a lot of goofy fun. I've lost it since then. Now I'm reading some other games actually used the Gamecube mic, like Chibi Robo and some weird Japanese pinball strategy game called Odama. Cool! Apparently on some of the releases it had a clip to mount it on the controller:

Tell me about your favorite games/peripherals in this vein. I'd rather stay away from DDR/Guitar Hero/Rock Band type peripherals since those are better known. I'll allow something weird like the Donkey Konga bongos since they're stupid.

Generally, keep it weird my dudes.

 

[Punp]

The gameboy camera was pretty strong - it had a whole bunch of different software for playing with the camera. You could photograph your face to use in the games. I think the 3DS had a similar concept with a game called "face invaders".

There was also pokemon pinball (and maybe a Kirby game?) which made use of tilt sensors so you could like, not cheat at pinball I guess?

The coolest of all the Nintendo peripherals for me is still the transfer Pak:

Not only does it have transparency and yellow internal elements, it would let you transfer your pokemon from Pokemon red/blue/yellow into Pokemon Stadium for the N64 where you could see your beloved creatures in 3D.

Didn't the Gamecube mic feature heavily in "Hey you Pikachu"? I never saw the appeal in that. Virtual emotive interactions makes me think of that Korean simulation where they revived that woman's dead daughter.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uflTK8c4w0c

 

[Sketch Relics]

Didn't the Gamecube mic feature heavily in "Hey you Pikachu"? I never saw the appeal in that. Virtual emotive interactions makes me think of that Korean simulation where they revived that woman's dead daughter.

That would be the N64 mic actually, I enjoyed it as a kid. IIRC the english version of the game had it's voice recognition calibrated to Japanese engrish so Pikachu would ignore you a lot which honestly made him feel more like a real animal doing w/e he wanted.

On topic, this is the 3rd time I think i've gotten to bring this up.

The chip gate peripheral for Megaman Battle Network, which allowed you to use chips in game like they did in the anime. It was only released in Japan and there was a different one for each game past 4 that had different chip compatabilities. Hellishly expensive as things like this tend to be nowadays.

The Rez trance Vibrator

Basically just a rumble pak thing for the PS2 game REZ, mostly used to uhh.... keep people's girlfriends occupied while they play the game. Yes, lets word it that way.

The gamecube Netwok Adapter

You've read that right, the Cube actually had internet access for a whopping...... 4 games I think?.
Phantasy Star Online ep 1+2 and 3 (which is it's own game and completely different)
Some wierd psudo MMO from Nintendo that never made it out of Japan.
And one more, I think (I don't remember) that used it for something that wasnt MMO related that also never left Japan

While im talking about this, there is also this ABSOLUTE

UNIT of a gamecube controller, specifically made for Phantasy Star Online.

Also honorary mention goes to the GBA player and GBA connector

You could actually use them in tandem to connect a gamecube to another gamecube the play Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicals multiplayer with 2 gamecube controllers.... which I did.

 

[Vitnira]

@Sketch Relics there's so much to unpack here. Why a vibrator? Why a whole ass KEYBOARD GAMECUBE CONTROLLER???

Was PSO on GameCube fun to play...?
I remember back in the day I really wanted to play it just to unlock some exclusive Chao in SA2B.

 

[Sketch Relics]

@Sketch Relics there's so much to unpack here. Why a vibrator? Why a whole ass KEYBOARD GAMECUBE CONTROLLER???

Was PSO on GameCube fun to play...?
I remember back in the day I really wanted to play it just to unlock some exclusive Chao in SA2B.

I enjoy it a lot, if you want to experience it, there are private servers set up for it. The one I play on is Ephinea, a Blue Burst server. It's a relatively active (for a 20 year old game) server that includes the game so you don't have to go hunt down a pirated/real copy.

I didn't have internet for the gamecube version though. I played couch co-op with my friends quite a bit and enjoyed it, although the game doesn't really strut it's stuff unless you're playing online on the hardest difficulty. Where it forces you to interact with the games full suit of mechanics to do well.


Hmm, what's another peripheral I can bring up while I'm here..... actually now that I think about it

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kBMscW_dVg

AVGN had a whole video dedicated to some of the more obscure NES ones

Also this

A set of peripherals for the GBC, a rechargeable battery pack, stereo speakers, a magnifying glass + light, and a stick + buttons, I had everything but the speakers.

OH and also,

A radio receiver, I actually owned this too, but lost it at some point, it really worked way better than it had any right to.

 

[Punp]

I've always wanted to play REZ. @Vitnira REZ is basically a tunnel shooter with synesthesia. It was also Japanese as fuck, so you can imagine the vibrator angle was definitely a sex thing.

 

[Andy Kaufman]

Off and on I am obsessed with the Boktai GBA series. I never got it or heard of it as a kid. Here's the gimmick, via Wikipedia:
"The player takes the role of Django, a vampire hunter, who uses a weapon called the "Gun Del Sol" (Solar Gun), that fires bolts of sunlight at enemies. The game made novel use of a light sensor on the cartridge which encouraged playing parts of the game in direct sunlight. "

That's not only RAD AS F-, but the fluff meets the crunch. Use actual sun energy to defeat vampires!

Obviously it is stupidly expensive to get a Boktai cart now and not really fun to emulate. Doing research I found a website that makes blank GBA carts with solar sensors:

GBA 16MB, 64Kbit EEPROM, Solar+RTC Flash Cart – insideGadgets Shop

shop.insidegadgets.com

$71? Wow. You can see why I haven't pulled the trigger.

The good news is you can flash it repeatedly for going through Boktai 1-3, but still.

I also remember enjoying the microphone on Mario Party 6. It was a lot of goofy fun. I've lost it since then. Now I'm reading some other games actually used the Gamecube mic, like Chibi Robo and some weird Japanese pinball strategy game called Odama. Cool! Apparently on some of the releases it had a clip to mount it on the controller:

Tell me about your favorite games/peripherals in this vein. I'd rather stay away from DDR/Guitar Hero/Rock Band type peripherals since those are better known. I'll allow something weird like the Donkey Konga bongos since they're stupid.

Generally, keep it weird my dudes.

Man I fucking LOVED Boktai! I regularly think about this game but it's just not worth emulating on PC since putting the sunlight sensor manually into the light/shadow was half the fun. I only remember that the last boss was acually hard for 9yo me.