Sorry have been away so could only just reply. Yes the d-pad and rob are over twenty years old but it can be argued that the nes is the birth of modern gaming. After the grate console crash of the 70’s no respectable toy store in America would stock video games they were seen as a dead fad. So Nintendo in it wisdom invented rob as an education tool. With this they had their Trojan horse to get there products into toy stores. The rest is history as they say and in my opinion without rob the nes would not have taken of and who knows we may have never had the video game renaissance of the 80’s and with it modern gaming.