In this episode (#28) of Retronauts Survivor, Jeremy Parish is booted off the island. The remaining castaways — host Scott Sharkey, Jenn Frank, Ray Barnholt, and me — discuss the craziest and best video game peripherals ever.
This ‘cast actually stems from a couple of articles I wrote for 1up in the runup to the launch of the Wii — one about the history of game controllers, and another about the stupidest game controllers ever envisioned.
In fact, I wrote what I thought was a rather well-researched and entirely true sidebar to the latter piece, which got a pretty bad layout treatment originally (you couldn’t see the pictures), so I’ll throw it after the jump for the hell of it.
Savagely Accessorized
Everybody knows that the Power Glove took top billing over Fred Savage in the 1989 film The Wizard. People tend to misremember the scene, however: The bizarre controller was only used in the film by Savage’s archnemesis, not by the child star himself. But this is not to say that Fred never used any unorthodox NES controllers onscreen. Take a look at these less-remembered moments.
The Princess Bride
Even people who love this endearing romantic comedy tend to forget that it opens with scenes featuring a bedridden Savage and his Luddite grandfather, who stops Savage from playing videogames so he can read him a love story. You probably want to punch Grandpa in the mouth, but he was doing Fred a favor here; if you freeze-frame the film and look really closely, you can see that the poor kid was trying to use a U-Force.
The Wonder Years
Most of the episodes of classic early nineties throwback sitcom The Wonder Years revolved around Kevin Arnold’s complete and utter inability to kiss Winnie Cooper. He’d get really close, then wuss out at the last minute. This was acceptable in the series’ early years, but by the time his character was 19 it had gotten a bit unbelievable. He probably would have scored earlier had he not insisted on bringing ROB with him on every date.
Welcome To Mooseport
Savage’s postpuberty big screen opportunities have been few and far between. He did land a supporting role in popular 2004 comedy Welcome to Mooseport, playing an uptight PR handler to Gene Hackman’s President Cole. Only the most dedicated NES fans noticed that his everpresent headset communicator was actually a Konami LaserScope.
Retronauts Episode 28 [1up]