07/15/2017 ecmyers

I’ve branched out a little from my weekly NES live streams and posted my first product review for the Hyperkin Cadet controller for the Nintendo Entertainment System and NES Classic Edition. (They also have USB versions, which I failed to mention in the video.)

I mainly did this because although I’d heard great things about the controller from many reviewers (and only one exception), I didn’t see anyone actually test one out for the things that usually are terrible in third-party NES controllers, particularly the D-pad, which often triggers diagonals accidentally. So I decided I needed to try it for myself. I’ve also been interested in what it looks like inside, since most knockoffs are pretty cheap, but I was pleasantly surprised. This controller looks very well made, with an actual chip like the original NES controller, rather than your typical “globtop”:

No black glob here! Just a real chip and a pretty clean looking PCB.

No black glob here! Just a real chip and a pretty clean looking PCB.

Here's the back. Not much to see here.

Here’s the back. Not much to see here.

The rubber membranes seem very similar to replacement parts for NES controllers.

The rubber membranes seem very similar to replacement parts for NES controllers.

Unfortunately, there's a screw hidden under that Hyperkin label.

Unfortunately, there’s a screw hidden under that Hyperkin label.

I doubt I’ll do too many of these, but I’m very interested in, and picky about, controllers and I thought these details might be helpful to anyone else who is curious or on the fence about these controllers. I’m already planning to review the just released RetroUSB wireless controller as well, which is about six times more expensive than this one.

ecmyers

I'm a YA author who spends too much time on the internet.

Comments (3)

  1. ecmyers

    Update: I’ve recently learned about some variations on these controllers with very different PCBs (with the glob top!) and parts which have an impact on the controllers’ functionality. I’ll post pictures and a description of the problem shortly.

  2. pennilessgoldfish

    First, thank you for the in-depth teardown and review. I wish more reviews were like this. Also, love your YouTube avatar.

    I got the USB version, also different board, also crap Dpad (unreliable diagonals, plus down doesn’t register sometimes!). The sticker looked like it had been both cut and applied by someone very drunk. I’ve taken pictures of a teardown and sticker removal (using WD40) in the gallery below:

    https://postimg.org/gallery/2ofgrlq4c

    As you can see it uses different contacts. So that’s three, THREE, different contact designs (we know of so far) for one controller. I’ve included a Nintendo/Sega/8bitdo contacts comparison pic in the gallery.

    That’s £15 down the drain that could have been put towards something like this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/arcade-84

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