8bitdo's products tend to be very popular with people who still want to experience all of the best things about good old funtime retrogaming but would rather not experience some of the more annoying things -- such as, for example, having a spaghetti junction of wires running about all over the place. Their bluetooth-based controllers in particular are very popular for those who play games on their PC, or phone, or Raspberry Pi, or on modern emulation-based systems like the RetroN 5 -- and this week they're showing off a bunch of new products at Gamescom!
First off, there's the NES30 Arcade Stick -- a wireless controller with eight buttons, turbo support, a big chunky joystick and turbo button features to boot. It looks quite nice with a colour scheme based off the classic NES design, as well as the option to switch between D-Pad and thumbstick control. Also on the controller menu, there's the SFC and SNES30 Pro editions -- these babies have all the buttons you'd want for both retro and modern gaming, as well as things like vibration and SixAxis motion support, along with being connectable either through bluetooth or a USB-C connection. Both of these controllers are mainly designed for use with the Nintendo Switch, but they can be used on PC or Android-based platforms without much bother. Finally, there's a set of TwinCube Stereo Speakers with a D-Pad based retro design and they are, of course, bluetooth as well.
This little tidbit is hopefully just the first taster of a bunch of retro news that could come from Gamescom, which nowadays is pretty much Europe's answer to E3, only it's been open to the public for a lot longer -- meaning there's lots more cosplay and stuff like that. While there aren't a whole lot of big conferences at the event or anything like that, hopefully this week in Cologne will provide some good news on the retro front. For now, there are these swanky new items from 8bitdo that can be demoed at the event if you're fortunate enough to be there, and will be out for sale next month. 8bitdo's stuff is generally well liked by people, so if you think that wires should go to hell then they might just be up your alley.