A hardware hacker turned that horrid toy controller into a working one

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He kept the godawful sound effects, even.

An image of a toy Fisher-Price controller modified to be a functional controller. It is displayed in front of a gaming laptop running Elden Ring. The controller is bright primary colors.
(Image credit: Rudeism)

A meme for years, the Fisher Price toy controller has mocked us with its terrible smile, dead glassy eyes, wretched songs, and its frankly heretical DCAB button layout. Now, controller hacker Dylan "Rudeism" Beck has cracked one open, wired it up, and made it into a functional controller. To wit, he has in fact kept the innards already there: It continues its grating chants and jarring music as you use it.

Here is a video, posted to Twitter, of Rudeism using it to play a bit of Elden Ring.

All my jokes aside, Rudeism's work is the kind of stuff we love to see. Custom controllers aren't just fun, they're a hobby for many, and a vital part of accessibility for those who need extremely divergent control schemes. Perhaps the cleverest bit of Rudeism's mod, to me, is that switch: The toy only has one joystick, unlike a modern controller, so flipping the little yellow switch on the bottom right tweaks the stick from "right" to "left" and the face buttons to alternate inputs like menu and start.

Rudeism's other crimes against controllers include modifications like beating Hades with a pomegranate or farming simulator with a tractor. Here's Rudeism's linktree, so you can find him wherever it is that you use the internet.

Jonathan Bolding
Contributor

Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.