Games - Multitap

	Games - Multitap

A multitap is a video game console peripheral that expands the number of controller ports available to the player, thus allowing additional controllers to be used in play. A multitap often takes the form of a box with three or more controller ports which is then connected to a spare port on the console itself.

Mainly sports games supported multitaps, though some RPGs and first person shooters have taken advantage of multitap support. Early examples of multitaps include the NES Four Score and NES Satellite for the Nintendo Entertainment System, and Electronic Arts' 4-Way Play for the Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis, shortly after that Sega made their own 4 player adapter, which was incompatible with EA's one. A slightly redesigned adapter, which supported the Sega and the EA formats, followed.

Nintendo, in conjunction with Hudson Soft released the first device with the name "multitap" in 1993. Designed for the Super Nintendo and packaged as the "Super Multitap", it could be purchased bundled with the well regarded game Super Bomberman
which helped establish the popularity of the peripheral.

Other games with Super Multitap support included NBA Jam, Secret of Mana and EA Sports' Madden
series of American football games.

Codemasters developed a quasi-multitap for the Mega Drive called the J-Cart; the game would have two extra joypad ports built into the cartridge itself, thus negating the need to buy extra hardware (beyond two more joypads) to play four-player games.

With the success of the Nintendo device, the term "multitap" became synonymous with similar devices. Later, multitaps were released by Sega for the Saturn, NEC for the PC Engine and Sony for its PlayStation and PlayStation 2 consoles.

In recent years the multitap has become an increasingly redundant peripheral, with most console designers preferring to simply expand the number of controller ports on the console itself. While the first console to actually feature 4 controller ports onboard was the Atari 5200, the feature would not be widely used for over a decade until the arrival of the Nintendo 64. Subsequent consoles, with the exception of Sony's PlayStation and PS2, all included four ports as standard. With the advent of standard wireless controllers in the next generation of consoles, the multi-tap seems consigned to history.

Category:Nintendo hardware Category:Computer and video game hardware Category:Game controllers

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Multitap ]

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