Right between the grubby SNES pads, and the crusty Genesis pads (both 3 and 6 button) were some boxed NES controllers. Not two in the box as pictured, but one lone soon-to-be-beltbuckle. A nice retro keepsake from the days when controllers actually came in flat boxes. Price: $3.99, AKA two toonies.
Across on a different table, near some RF adapters, gleamed a shrinkwrapped, near-mint condition... Max. For $2? Wicked.
And of course, all sales were final.
Let me tell you about my NES days. Nintendo carefully staggered the North American launch, because flooding the market during the final year of the Great Game Depression would not have inspired consumer confidence. Mattel didn't distribute the NES into Canada until 1986, and you can probably imagine it wasn't in great supply. I believe my parents wrangled one from a different province so's I could have one close to my birthday or Christmas or whatnot.
So there I was, happily enjoying Super Mario and Metroid. But I hated the controllers. Just hated it.. square and dorky and NO TURBO! Crazy man. So 98% of my NES gaming took place with the NES Advantage. Possibly the greatest joystick ever made: dial controlled TURBO, slo-mo, hefty to withstand intense english, easy on the hands, and a knob you could twist off and.. erm.. well these were my pre-pubescent days actually. ^_^;; And I was very good with it. The other 2% was using devices I never actually owned, your Power Gloves, your Zappers, your Power Pads... but I always coveted the Max. Easy to hold, built-in TURBO, and you just couldn't play Blades of Steel without it.
One of the best precursors to true analog control...
I salute thee, Max!
-V-