Honyu Explorer-I for MD?

[eyeon]

How's it going everyone, new here but a long time Sega fan, ever since the SMS was brand new. Anyway, today I came across a Japanese MD at goodwill, along with a controller and the necessary hook ups. I also spotted a strange NES advantage knock off from a third party, the Honyu Explorer-I, and grabbed it also because it looked cool and seemed well made, and well, because I don't have one.



Got it home and realized it's actually a MD controller, but they didn't bother to change the NES color scheme, or add a real third button. They just colored the bottom button in the middle row red, and named it "A". It's definitely one of the stranger controllers in my modest collection, and I'm just curious if anyone else has come across one of these? Spending some time on Google yielded exactly nothing. If it had a less awkward third button, it would be an awesome stick.

[The Jackal]

I did some background checking and that controller was not just released for the NES, it was all released for the PC Engine.

From what I can tell, there was no Sega version - so you may have a clone or just one from a limited batch.
Or I don't know shit and I'm completly wrong...

[eyeon]

Yeah, I saw the PC Engine version, at least they recolored the damn thing. I don't think it's a clone, it's pretty high quality, with a metal base and shaft, and heavy duty plastic. It also shares the same exact odd features as the normal NES model, such as the unused AA compartment and # and * buttons that don't do anything. The B and A buttons normally used for the NES have been renamed B and C. Pretty odd. Thanks for the response!

[Elliotw2]

It looks like a different branding of the stick shown on this article: http://www.sega-16.com/feature_page....pheral%20Guide

Still looks terrible

[eyeon]

Nice! That is exactly what it looks like, other than the logo. And yeah, the lack of a proper A button makes it pretty unusable. I guess it would work with Sonic, haven't gotten around to plugging it in yet. Thanks!

[KnightWarrior]

Any bigger pics of it??