Looking to get more out of your Jakks TV Games controllers?

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For about three years now, Jakks Pacific has been making a virtual mint with its TV Games line -- plug-and-play controllers that house original and licensed gaming product. The company has released several SKUs in the TV Games brand, including retro joysticks from Atari, Activision, Namco, Midway, and Electronic Arts. The company is in New York City this weekend for the International Toy Fair where it's not only introducing new additions to the TV Games line, but the company is also revealing a new element to the plug-and-play devices: upgrade expansion packs called Gamekeys that offer new content for the existing controllers.

Starting this July, Jakks Pacific will include a Gamekey expansion slot in every one of the company's TV Games controllers. The company is even going to revamp existing controllers with this cartridge slot. This extra port on the controller will not increase the price of these budget controllers. Gamekeys will be priced at $9.99, and be specific to the controller they're made for. Gamekeys made for the company's Spongebob controller, for instance, won't work with the Namco Ms. Pac-Man stick.

The Gamekey packs will be similar in media size to what's already built into TV Games controller. Game developers can use Gamekeys to offer cheap game updates or even brand new gaming experiences without the need for another controller.

"Our upcoming Nicktoons controller, for instance. Several months later we'd introduce several new games centered around the same characters in the controller," said Nelo Lucich, Jakks Pacific's Vice President of interactive. "Or, maybe with our Batman controller, we'd create additional levels on top of the existing ones through the Gamekey."

"There's a point where we see that there will be too many TV Games joysticks in a household, and it becomes space prohibitive," Lucich noted. "So, when we phase out certain SKUs, we plan to reintroduce the content as Gamekeys to future SKUs." With the popular Ms. Pac-Man controller as an example, the company will offer Gamekey packs with games from the previous Namco collection for the Gamekey-enhanced plug-and-play version.

International Toy Fair is from February 20 - 24th in New York City. We'll have more from the Expo regarding Jakks TV Games this weekend.

This sounds like a cool idea if they make them worth the $10. Would you consider one of these once you see what's being updated for each controller?
 
THe thing to do would be to start a program like the old Atari APX contest. This allowed amateurs to submit their creations and the winners were marketed. The guy whose company published the original Boulderdash got started as a winner in the educational category.

Since there is an off the shelf emulator for the hardware in those sticks readily available all they'd have to do is offer a set of speciifications for how code should be formatted and submitted.
 
this is like putting a sign on the controller's box reading "please hack me!"

i cant wait to see what people can do with those EA controllers
 
[quote name='punqsux']this is like putting a sign on the controller's box reading "please hack me!"

i cant wait to see what people can do with those EA controllers[/quote]

Approximately what you could do with a Sega Genesis.
 
many of the plug and play games, you can wire a cart slot to and play the games of that system, like the atari one, and the genesis one... allows you to get alot more use out of it..
 
[quote name='epobirs'][quote name='punqsux']this is like putting a sign on the controller's box reading "please hack me!"

i cant wait to see what people can do with those EA controllers[/quote]

Approximately what you could do with a Sega Genesis.[/quote]

EXACTLY! :D
 
that is cool, I already do own the Ms Pacman one so getting a add on pack for 10 bucks would be cool. As long of course the games were good.
 
[quote name='Nelo Lucich']There's a point where we see that there will be too many TV Games joysticks in a household, and it becomes space prohibitive.[/quote]
This is a controller we're talking about here. Does anyone really not have room for one more controller in their house? Maybe in Japan, but not here.

And here's a great idea they could use for their TV games. Develop one controller unit and sell games on Gamekeys that all run on that controller. It's like a console, but it's built into the controller. What a concept!
 
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