I recently picked one of these up off DreamTR that was brand new. I of course had to open it up and give it a go. At first glance I thought wow this is freaking cool. As I opened it up and saw the kid in a wheelchair, and starting putting it together I started to feel "funny." I got i all hooked up and and thought I will give it a go.

The system operates by using a chin holder on a metal pipe that attaches to the controller. Your head acts as the directional pad and you control it by mobing your head left, right, forward and backwards. Very awkward at first. Then you have a tube in your mouth that acts as the A and B buttons, and start / select. A is a short blow, B is a constant blow. A hard suck will pause and a gentle suck on the tube will use select. The unit straps to your chest and then plugs into the NES.

I played SMB for about 30 mins with the unit and the longer I played the worse I felt. I nearly listed the unit on ebay as soon as I got done playing in fact. I guess I just never thought about the handicaped playing video games before. I think it is great that Nintendo made such a device, but even from a collecting stand point I kinda feel bad. I almost feel as if I am mocking them just by owning it. After playing it though, I have a new appreciation for how much Nintendo respects the minority of people an makes stuff for everyone. Needless to say I got knocked down a perch off my Nintendo collecting high horse so to speak. I am glad I own a piece of history, but it is something that will never be played with ever again. Just thought I would share. Dain never open yours, I think you would regret doing so.
~~NGD

I know what you mean, man. I heard from Assembler some months ago that Nintendo was still selling NES Hands Free sets, so I thought I'd ask them to see if this was true. Apparently they no longer did, but their response was written towards a handicapped person (obviously assuming I was handicapped). It also made me feel bad in a similar way as you put it in your last paragraph.

By the way, Nintendo wasn't the only one making NES controllers for handicapped players. Companies like the Pathways Development Group also made interfaces to allow discabled people to play games on their own or with the help of "teammates:"

http://www.happychild.org.uk/f...needs/index.htm
http://www.pathwaysdg.com/tx_desc.htm

I own an unopened one of these as well. After reading that, there is no way I'll be opening it up to try it. I feel a little guilty collecting something that's unique b/c I take the day to day things in life for granted sometimes.

man that is insane?? i had no idea they made something like that, and this is the first time i saw this post. That is very awesome how Nintendo would look out for people that are handicapped, especially enought to go through the trouble and make a whole controller so someone could still play nintendo if they normally wouldnt be capable to with a controller. Thats why the Big N is always number one in my book! Even back then and to this day. By the way any of you guys have a picture of what the device looks like?? ive never seen one?

Just Google "NES Hands Free"

You'll see.

I just added several pics to the game in our datebase, here is a link. I will try to get the manual scanned later today or in the coming days at least.
~~NGD

http://www.nintendoage.com/ind...essory&Accessory_ID=60

wow that thing looks pretty intense. thanks for the pics NGD, yea i would feel kinda depressed after playing with it too, just looking at it makes me feel funny. I always thought it was probably that one controller thing with the big grey ball on top of it. What is that thing??