Largest NES controller makes into Guinness World Records

The world’s biggest NES game controller is uncovered in the U.K. A team of university students under the British electrical engineering student Ben Allen has realized this award-winning NES controller. Unsurprisingly, the game controller grabbed the Guinness World Records 2012 Gamer’s Edition. The gigantic 366cm x 159cm x 51cm, 18 stone NES controller was put on display at Liverpool St. Station, London.

world's largest NES gamepad

The game controller is fully functional and it requires two people to play a game using it. Else, as the DailyMail joked, the gamer should be 51m (167ft) tall, the same height of the London landmark Nelson’s Column, to play a game using the largest Nintendo Entertainment System joypad.

Allen and co-creators Michel Verhulst and Stephen van’t Hof from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands finished the work as part of a university project. The excited NES gaming fans were elated to create the world record with the size of the gamepad. See, the giant NES game controller is thirty times larger than the standard joypad.

It weighs an estimated 265 pounds and its designers wanted six months to finish the entire project. After lots of planning for several months, they took four weeks to build the NES joypad. The estimated cost to construct the gaming pad is £4,000. Indeed, its huge size makes it impossible for a single person to control a game on the pad.

NES Controller

Most of NES titles such as Tetris and Super Mario Galaxy 2 work superbly well on the gaming pad, which was set up along with a massive display in Liverpool to promote the Guinness World Records 2012 Gamer’s Edition, which went for sales on January 19, 2012.

Chief architect of the NES gamepad, Ben Allen is really excited to speak about his work. Talking to the ShinyShiny, Allen said the NES idea was suggested by someone for their university project. Being passionate gamers, they ran with it and ended up in realization of the world’s largest gamepad for video games. Paul says,

From the conception to the completion of the controller took about six months, and after spending a lot of time planning, the actual build took about four weeks. There were lots of late nights, and lots of not sleeping! In fact, I even fell asleep on the controller for about half an hour one night!

Via: ShinyShiny