Peripheral Vision: Movies and TV Shows That Repurposed Game Controllers
In movies and TV shows props are often integral to the sights, sounds and sometimes even the plot of the overall story. Set designers are faced with a choice to either create something from scratch or to repurpose something that already exists. I’ve managed to find a few examples of movies and TV shows having repurposed video game controllers for their own means to tell their story. I’m curious to know what other movies and TV shows have repurposed video game controllers. I’ve seen plenty of 90s films where kids are playing Gameboys or Gameboy Colors, but what I’m mostly curious about is them being used in a way other than they were originally intended. If you know of any let me know in the comments.
#1: Ernest Scared Stupid
Ernest Scared Stupid is a fun little Halloween movie from the early 90s; prime Nintendo territory. In one scene Ernest helps a group of children build a tree house, complete with defense system to ward off the local bullies. This defense system becomes a much bigger plot device later in the film. Part of the defense system includes a canned dog food cannon, controlled by dual Quickshot joysticks. While the idea of such a tree house and defense system excites my childhood mind, seeing the creative way the Quickshot joysticks were repurposed excites both my childhood and adulthood mind.
#2 Ernest Saves Christmas
Yet another Ernest film, so the use of Quickshot joysticks isn’t such a surprise, yet they were used to control Santa’s sleigh this time. I’m starting to wonder if the creator of the Ernest character had stock in the company behind Quickshot, or acquired a warehouse full of their joysticks and just decided to use them up as much as they possibly could. In this scene Ernest is trying to fly Santa’s sleigh, but the controls seem quite confusing. After a few moments of utter chaos, Ernest finally figures it out and he goes on to save Christmas. You can see that many other toys and items were used to create this control panel. It’s interesting to look at and see what else they used.
#3 Trailer Park Boys (Season 4 Episode 8 “Working Man“)
Trailer Park Boys has been one if my all-time favorite TV shows since I watched it on Youtube back in 2009. Admittedly it took me quite a few marathons of the first seven seasons to finally catch that Jim Lahey is using the top section of a Quickshot joystick on his explosive vest. If you’re familiar with the episode it can first be seen when Jim is in the gas station bathroom, looking into the mirror. After that it is clearly visible in the final showdown in the middle of the street at the end of the episode. This show used a lot of video game stuff properly, but to my current knowledge this is the only repurpose of video game peripherals.
#4 Ghostbusters II
Pilot controls are ready! Dr. Stantz repurposed an NES Advantage to march Lady Liberty (aka Libby) through Upper New York Bay and down the streets of New York City. If I had watched this scene as a kid I would have lost my mind. Sadly it was only much, much later that I watched either of the movies, but it still gives me the chills at how great this scene is. Seeing an NES advantage being used as their main controls only makes it that much more special. I guess one could say, their love for repurposing NES peripherals keeps on lifting me, higher and higher!
Again, I’ve seen plenty of video games used properly throughout media in the 80s and 90s, but I think it’s more fun to see how props departments repurposed them to make something completely new. I love creative thinking and solving problems by using unlikely solutions. Currently these are the only examples I can think of, so if you know of more please do let me know.