Power Pad

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Power Pad (known in Japan as Family Trainer, and in Europe and briefly in the United States as Family Fun Fitness) is a floor mat game controller released in the United States for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is a gray mat with twelve pressure-sensors embedded between two layers of flexible plastic.

The Power Pad was released in 1989 as the Family Fun Fitness pack for the Japanese Famicom. It was originally developed by Bandai, but Nintendo soon bought the rights to it, and released it in 1988 as the Power Pad, along with the game World Class Track Meet.

The accessory is laid out in front of the video display for various games, generally plugged into the second controller port, with players stepping on the large buttons to control gameplay. There are two illustrated sides to the pad: Side A, which is rarely used, has eight buttons, while side B has twelve buttons numbered from 1-12.

Games using the Power Pad often test players on their timing and coordination, memory, "running" speed, or allow them to play music with their steps. Games such as Dance Dance Revolution can trace the lineage of their control mechanisms back to the Power Pad (see dance pad).

[edit] Compatible games

Few games were created for use with the Power Pad due to its lack of success, but the following is a partial list of games that were developed for it.