The Japan-exclusive Cyber Stick controller – which was released alongside the Mega Drive Mini 2 in that region – is getting a gun attachment complete with 'electric blowback'.
The attachment is being created by Far East Pinball, an independent manufacturer that makes pinball, electromechanical games, and gaming devices. The company is demonstrating it today at Game Antique 2024 in Nishikujo, Osaka.
Far East Pinball showed the accessory in action with Operation Wolf, one of the games supported by the Taito Egret Mini II micro-console.
In case you're wondering how this possibly works without a traditional light gun setup, in its original arcade format, Operation Wolf used a 'positional gun' attached to a joystick. Depending on how the player tilted the replica Uzi submachine gun, the on-screen cursor would move around.
Because the Cyber Stick has user-replaceable sticks, it's possible to remove the right-hand stick and replace it with this new attachment.
The Cyber Stick costs a whopping ¥19,800 / $150 / £125, which is more than the asking price of the Mega Drive Mini 2. It is a replica of the original 1990 stick produced by Sharp (under the name CZ-8NJ2) and Micomsoft (designated XE-1AJ), which was unique in that it offered analogue control at a time when this was a relative novelty.
As you can see from the tweet above, Far East is also showing off a prototype Switch dock which acts as a steering wheel – not a million miles away from the OutRun table-top game produced in the 1980s.