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When Emulation Isn't Enough
oldskoolar writes "For those of you who find emulation of your favorite Nintendo games disconcerting with a keyboard interface, Joystiq may have just the project you've been looking for. For those of you with more time than most people have ambition; why not couple this hack with an older mod."
I've always liked using PlayStation Controllers for my emulators. Radioshack has a really cheap (sub $15) converter that goes from PlayStation > USB
You're all bastards!
Looks like you can get a NES dirt cheap on ebay.
FoundNews.com - get paid to blog.,
thinly veiled ad for RetroZone NES Kit
Combine the older mod with the joystick and you'll have the coolest thing since 1986. That is assuming that you've been in a coma since then. I was 14 once, it was enough...
Am I the only one who prefers a keyboard to console-style controllers/gamepads? I've used computers far more than consoles, and I find keyboard controls to be far more precise and accessible. For one, you have far more buttons and aren't locked into whatever button scheme the game system design forces you into. You can also use all your fingers instead of just thumbs (and index fingers for shoulder buttons). The only advantage consoles really have are analog sticks, but even those can be less precise than the good ol' numpad (or wasd) depending on the game.
Cloud and Tree - not just an immature webcomic, but a VISION.
Personally I bought a dualshock controller (I don't even own a playstation) and an adapter for use with older games. The controller is perfect for super nintendo because it has basically the same layout, and it works in a pinch for any other game as well. I use it with battlefield 1942 and racing games. The adapter was only 4 bucks, and as I may eventually buy a PS/2 to play dvd's and video games, the controller was a good buy as well (but it was expensive).
I submitted this story last night, and it didn't get posted.
Does anyone have a list of the components used in the RetroZone NES Kit ?
Can be bought here, among other places. Slightly expensive, but I suppose it might be worth it to some people that don't want to do the work themselves.
I don't work for the linked site, nor have I bought any of their products yet, though, so I can't speak to the quality.
The layout is just like a supernintendo controller, and only cost me 10$ That adapter change over looks like work to me. www.geocities.com/James_Sager_PA
God spoke to me.
I wish I still had the book, there was source code with it (maybe it's around here somewhere)...
This type of thing has already been done with the Nintendo Powerglove. In fact to the point where serial interfaces are available for purchase.
Another link:
Wireless Glove Project
Get your Unix fortune now!
An Xbox controller is basically the ideal controller for playing emulated games. When using it on SNES games it feels just like playing the real thing. Xbox controllers are simple USB devices so you just need to buy or build a cheap adapter and install a driver. It also works great for PC driving games that support analog controls such as Midnight Club II.
Its so easy to build an adapter to go from nes pad to the LPT port which goes unused on most systems. The interface requires no electronics just wireing up some connectors with the correct pinout. You can tap the PSU for a 3.5 volt line. If you go to your local Funco Land you can get a set of extention cables to provide male connectors for the controllers. This lets you use all your favorite nes controllers Megapad, nesmax, etc... without damaging them in anyway. I love being able to use those pads on my PC they are tough as nails the right size and just good all around. I certainly don't want to give up my the ability to use them with my NES though.
Someone posted this in another story a while back. It's a guide to convert a SNES controller to work on a PC. Although it'd be easier to just buy a converter for it (although not near as geeky). Is there a company that sells a converter for it?
I'd really like a Gamecube -> USB converter myself (or Dreamcast). Both of those controllers are the most comfortable I've ever held!
What's the firmware for the PIC? What are the resistor and capacitor values?
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
I made an adapter for my SNES controller that hooks up to the parallel port. The parallel port method seems much easier, any idiot with a soldering iron could make it. I can't find the diagram for the one I made, but this is similar. I don't understand why you would make a NES controller adapter, the SNES controller is almost exactly the same with the added benefit of being able to play SNES games.
I bought one of these for my girlfriend for her birthday. She had a nintendo with the blinking problem. I tried fixing it with alcohol and information I found on the web, but it never turned back on after that.
I EWCATS&Category=47
I've seen quite a few of them around campus and some of them make me laugh because they're well done.
My only regret is that we didn't get 2. NES is nastalga for us late teen-20ish year olds. I'm not a heavy gamer so I never much got past the SNES. People like remembering their childhood.
"Retro" is in take a look at some of the nintendo shirts that have come out recently: (about 1/2 way down the page) http://www.teesnthings.com/index.asp?PageAction=V
On the subject of the controller. I tried getting my girlfriend to just use the keyboard, but she hated it. Mainly because it didn't *feel* like what she was used to. Getting the controller solved this. Not to mention after some heavy searching I've found her NES games that I can't even find on Ebay.
Works great for most systems (Genesis can get a bit funky with it's 6 face buttons). Don't go buy the shitty universal controllers, buy a good DualShock2 and any decent USB adaptor. It works in ALL emulators that support DirectInput, and even many that don't. And, it even works good with games like the original Quake.
It seems like a generic analogue to USB interface, which is exactly what I've been looking for. Anyone have any idea what the actual controlling chip is (neither site gives specs, just shows a blury picture)?
Emulation isn't the same.
I'd rather spend my efforts maintaining my REAL vintage gaming stuff.
Ripping apart one of my dogbone NES controllers to hack on a USB dongle is sacrelige.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Haven't we had our fill of Phil Torrone for one day?
Trolls lurk everywhere. Mod them down.
I just finished doing the same thing to my SNES controller..
;)
The benifit of the SNES is that you don't need to mangle anything, no wires get cut, and you can get away without soldering too.. In otherwords, it would take me about 5 minutes to connect the pad I used back to the real SNES, if I so desired.
Having said that, I am going to go the soldering route - then I should be able to get the casing for the controller back on (it's currently dangling on the cord), and if my wife gets pissed off because I'm kicking her ass in Battle Dodgeball 2 and throws the controller at me again, it won't come out of the connector
The powerglove link has been throttled by geocities. Here's a Google Cache, but there are no pics. bummer...
... but I remember back when Nesticle was first released, and I was an aspiring programmer, still in high school, hanging out in #emu on EFnet... someone had taken apart an NES controller, wired it up to the game port and it just worked. No resistors. No chips.
Going through my really tore up CD-r that is approaching EONS old, I see that in some cases you would need to sauder a single resistor between two points, but you only did this if it didnt work for you for some odd reason. There was only one person in the channel that needed to do this.
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
Like so many here, I've long since converted to using my PSX-Dual Shock controller with the Radio Shack USB converter, but that's hardly the point.
We've started seeing various self-contained video game systems, such as the Atari 2600-in-a-joystick (and also Intellivision, Sega Genesis, and some arcade games) hit the legal market, but when are we going to see a NES-in-a-NESpad (and not a NES-in-a-three-handed-N64 controller)? Or, even better, SNES-in-a-SNESpad? That's the sort of hack I was hoping this was. Alas.
Happiness is relative, Based upon the way we live.
I've got one of those $20 Atari joysticks that are bundled with a dozen original Atari games, and audio/video out cables. Where's the hacks to get Linux installed?
--
make install -not war
Sim City for the SNES, while playable, would've been better had it allowed use of the SNES mouse.
The mouse came out after SimCity Classic, and one feature didn't merit a Special Edition. Did SimCity 2000 for Super NES support the mouse?
Okay, sure it's cheaper than buying an old NES off of eBay.... especially when youconsider all the freely downloadable games for emulators... But honestly... someone who'd give a damn about whether he's using an authentic controler or not would not hesitate to spend a few bucks more (let's say another 50) and get the stuff in real plastic. Perhaps I'm stupid but I would rather have the nice old NES standing beside my TV set than playing the stuff on my computer.
i am pretty happy with two of these for multi-player enemy slaying...
tremon usb controller $0.99
these work with turbo for the following emulators:
atari/ 11-Aug-2004 08:50
gameboy_advance/ 29-Nov-2003 11:04
n64/ 11-Aug-2004 08:51
nes/ 07-May-2004 21:22
sega/ 29-Apr-2004 10:32
snes/ 05-Sep-2004 19:53
i couldn't get it to work with mame in linux and
have had a bad time with mame in general...
Stand clear of the doors. The doors are now closing.
I taught my son how to do that. He does it every time he wants to play the Genesis or N64. It gives him something to do before he plays the video game.
;)
Ah yeah, well if he is good enough until his birthday I might buy him an XBox with those emulator disks for Genesis, SNES, NES, SMS, N64, PSX, and MAME. After I hack the XBox to a 120Gig hard drive and Xenium chip.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
The best PC joystick I've tried so far, for general gaming, is Belkin's Notromo n45. It already has a USB interface. There's a 4-directional digital stick, just like Nintendo's, plus two analog sticks, three control buttons in the middle (for start/pause/whatever), four fire buttons on the left, and four more L/R buttons on top. It fits in your hand really well too.
so what about getting the light gun to work?
Bad User. No biscuit!
There are simpler ways.. like this parallel port interface (page is SNES, but the same design works for NES controllers too)
I've personally built several of these interfaces, and they work just fine, with one caveat: depending on your parallel port you might want to put a transistor in there, like in this design. I haven't had any problems with the latter design with any parallel port type, although you might need to change resistor. (or just skip it altogether)
(Yes, there are drivers for Linux, Win95/98/Me and 2000/XP)
Why not use the Adaptoid instead? I use it along with an old N64-controller for NES, SNES and N64 emulators, as well as for other games, such as Splinter Cell. Very configurable with a C-like scripting language. Only drawback is that I don't think it works in *BSD/Linux...
I ordered a set of these from retrozone earlier this summer. Made rainy days at the lake alot of fun.
Over the summer I took two N64 controllers and two PS2 controllers and used the parts to make two N64 controllers that hook up to a PS2. Now, I don't have a PS2 but I do have four PSX-to-USB adaptors from RatShack ($11.50 each). This way I can play emulated N64 games with real N64 controllers. Also good for GameBoy, SNES and NES emulation. I'm planning on writing a how-to webpage. (Note: There'll be no "kit." I don't use any custom parts other than what you get in the N64 and PS2 controllers.)
Is there a way to turn off diagonal directions on a gravis gamepad?
It would greatly help for those games with only un/down/left/right controls.
The firmware is what you are paying for.
Heh. The thread aimed squarely at me :)
:) But over half the Playstations I come across are already toast. Give it another 10 years and very few will even work, yet the 2600s/NESs/Genesii will keep chugging away.
Console/games - surprisingly, the console itself is rarely the problem, and there's not a lot you can do to fix it if it is. Usually, it's the cartridges themselves. A LOT of corrosion can build up on these things in 15-20 years. Easy fix: soak a Q-tip in isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol, and scrub the hell out of the cartridge contacts. Do it on BOTH sides of the cart, of course. There's just enough room in an NES cart to be able to do this without opening it. Opening the console and trying to fix the cart connector on the mainboard is not only tricky, but usually pointless. I've salvaged over 100 NES consoles in the past 5 years, and not one has had a single problem there. There is still someone out there who sells replacement cartridge connectors, but I can't say as that's a soldering job I'd want to volunteer for. Anyway, follow the steps above, repeat as necessary (some carts are VERY dirty - it's common to make the Q-tip black). I've managed to get pretty much every cart I have (1000+) work on every console I've ever tried using this method. Blowing, shaking, moving side-to-side, putting weight on it - all of these only temporarily help the cartridges make contact. Clean 'em up good, and you'll never have to play these games again!
Batteries - every NES cart that I've seen uses a CR2032 cell battery. These things can be found for free everywhere, most notably on modern PC motherboards (BIOS settings backup). Find a dead motherboard that's not too old and its battery will have years of life left. In an NES game, they lasted anywhere from 5-20 years, depending on use and storage. I still have a Zelda cart with save games on it from at least 10 years ago, whereas some carts died within a few years of purchase. At this point, nearly all of the battery-backed games are dead. Now, replacing these things is a real bitch. Nintendo (mostly) used these idiotic security screws on their cartridges, which means most people can't open them easily. If you're lucky (some Zeldas were made this way) it's just a Phillips (star) head. Otherwise, you'll need a special bit to open them (or an awful lot of persistence). Once open of course, you can replace with whatever easy to use screw you like.
The batteries themselves were set into a socket on the game PCB, and a metal clip folded over top. The problem is, this clip was spot-welded (or something similar) to the battery, making it very tricky to remove without damaging the clip. With patience however, and some gentle hands, you can. A replacement battery just slips in. Here comes the tricky part - that metal clip doesn't hold too tightly to the battery now. Soldering the clip to the battery is a very dangerous operation - the heat from your iron can kill the battery. I've seen replacement battery harnesses for sale in the past, you'd just have to solder these into the PCB of the game and your battery clips in nicely.
And yeah, I'd have to agree 110% with your comment about CD-based systems. I have pretty much every pre-CD system still in perfect working condition here. It takes a LOT to kill a cartridge-based machine, usually fire or water or both
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
$16 is a lot of money for a few parts, considering you can buy an entire USB gamepad with 4 buttons for a few dollars these days.
A far cheaper option, if less elegant, is this:
Run a trace from every switch on the NES pad onto the corresponding switch on the USB gamepad. If you're clever enough, you can house the guts of the USB pad (it's basically a very thin PCB) in a small enclosure, and leave that part close to your tower (or whatever), while still having a nice long cord for your NES pad.
Again, less elegant, but a hell of a lot cheaper.
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
Yesterday there was a bit about Atari releasing some new products (here), and the clever 'department' tag was when-emulators-aren't-enough. Coincidence, or conspiracy?
one wake-up night n ill have it going! thanx!
Temet Nosce
SNES development cart I have a bunch of SNES games I made myself a few years ago I'd love to play on my console. I love retro gaming, but I hate doing it on my PC
See: /usr/src/linux/Documentation/input/joystick-parpor t.txt
It's very easy to hook a number of controllers up to the parallel port. I've hooked up five SNES controllers in this manner.
Is it possible to modify this hack to make NES controllers work with the XBOX? The XBOX controller ports are USB, but regular USB game pads do not work when plugged into the XBOX (via a USB to XBOX adapter).
As far as eumlation goes, I just make an ISO with imbNES and play it on my modded PSX. This way, I have every NES rom I could ever hope for on one CD. All ready to be played on my trusty Playstation.
home of the original cupholder
He even links to an article for the nespc which used dpp which is a much cheaper alternative (than paying $16 for $3 worth of IC hardware) and also supports numerous controller formats such as NES,SNES,Genesis,Atari,PSX and so on....all through parallel port...l .com/dpadpro/construct.html schematics for various interfaces for DPP
http://www.aldostools.com/dpad.html link to different software used for DPP
http://www.arcadecontrols.com/Mirrors/www.ziplabe
PPJoy is cheaper, can be made with spare parts, and works real nice. Supports all kinds of weird joysticks/gamepads.
I made the directpad pro hookup for 2 psx pads on the lpt port a few years back and have been happy with em. Unfortunately, only 1 works in linux which I was disappointed with.
But recently I found this link of someone who has patched the kernel for 2 controllers. As an added bonus it solved my slow down issues that I have been getting with my psx pad since 2.4.20. Slightly OT, but the slow downs always bugged me and looking at gamecon.c nothing changed between those kernels so it's something else but I could never figure out what even playing with PSX_DELAY value to no end.
Here's the link. http://rufus.hackish.org/wiki/gamecon/
I've done my searching around in Win2K without any luck. Your mileage in other operating systems may vary.
There is a difference between "insightful" and "inciteful" other than spelling.
I've been looking at the Tapwave Zodiac for some time, but the current development environment is fairly hostile to hobby developers which is where most emulation dev work occurs... Before I get flamed by the Tapwave faithful let me explain: 1) although it is possible to use an open source tool chain, it is pretty difficult to get everything working together (Tapwave targeted Code Warrior because at the time that was what Palm was targeting), 2) they want their machine to be a gameing console so they incorporated digital rights management that limits what you can distribute (you have to get your app signed before you can distribute it) and 3) until recently they refused to sign apps that were GPL for fear they would have to open their proprietary source. You can run straight up Palm OS programs on the Zod, but they can't use the stick, accelerated graphics, etc.
On top of that many users have reported dissatisfaction with the analog stick. Aside from possible calibration problems, it would seem the consensus seems to be that it is great for 3D games, but not so great for emulated games that originally ran on digital pads.
Any way, I've been searching for an alternative... seems to me there should be a gamepad of some sort that works well with the Pocket PC. Now that Dell has gotten into the game there are some good prices on pretty fast PPCs...
Just curious if anyone knows of anything or is working on anything...
Having knocked the Zod I feel compelled to mention the Little John Z which by all accounts is an excellent emulator for the Zod.
They must have been either lying, or talking about another controller entirely (SNES, maybe? Never had one of those).
The NES controller is actually quite simple, but more complicated than your assumption.
The four directions, start, reset, A and B buttons make up eight bits. If you push a button, it grounds an input on an 8-bit parallel-to-serial shift register (CMOS part 4016 IIRC.. 4xxx series, anyhow). These input are read as high when floating.
The four lines coming from the NES are serial in, clock out, ground and power (+5VDC IIRC). The shift register scans its inputs and fires a serial stream at the Nintendo, synchronized with CLK.
See? Simple -- but nowhere NEAR plug-and-play with a PC analog game port!
I know this because I took one apart once, so I could examine the design and make an adapter for my Wico Boss C64 joystick to work with the NES after killing one too many thumbs playing Super Mario Bros. It worked great; Start and Reset were mounted on the controller box; Button A (jump) was on top of the joystick; Button B (run) was actually a musical keyboard sustain pedal which plugged into the controller.
Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
So... how do I take my existing NES cartridges and rip the ROM from them for legal emulation goodness? No matter how you slice it, downloading the ROMs from the internet is against the law (in the US at least), whether you own the cartridges or not. I'd like to rip my cartridges before they die completely.
MORTAR COMBAT!
GAmeports are getting fairly rare these days. Generally they were a part of the soundcard, but cards like the Audigy 2 have so many plugs there's just not room for them. Combine that with the fact that USB allows for more controllers, and for better support for controller features and the gameport is pretty much a dead technology. Hence, USB conversion is a useful proposition.
Damn. It seems like a day doesn't go by without Slashdot linking to some engadget article. Yesterday the Engadget Senior Editor admitted that he's been submitting Articles on Slashdot without a disclaimer saying 'hey, I'm from Engadget. Here's my story over at my site.' Interestingly, he never posts with his slashdot account, but keeps getting his self-hyping article submissions accepted.
Now here's this article posted on Slashdot referencing a child-site of Endadget called joystiq. Engadget and Joystiq are part of the "Weblogs, Inc. Network"
I tried to check the submitter's slashdot account. Doesn't exist. Why would Timothy use this nickname (oldskoolar) to attribute the submission when it doesn't exist? Now slashdot is not only running promo articles for engadget sites, it's pretending that they're submitted by users who don't exist.
I'd bet that the folks at WIN are paying slashdot to run these promos to drive traffic to their pseudo-blog sites.
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
Sure, it'd be great to hook up the old Nintendo controller to the PC to play emulated games but how about the NEC Turbographix or PC Engine?
I used to enjoy the games on that system in the mid eighties and especially the multi player game play that was possible with the multi player adapter and four controllers.
I would like to have this same capability on the emulated games on the PC. Has anyone seen something like this?
I strongly prefer the N64 controller and hence Adaptoid. If you have Windows, their driver adapts RumblePak to DirectX Force Feedback, and can read/write memory card data. Otherwise, it's a generic USB HID and so you can use it as a keyboard or mouse. Also, N64's controller is physically backward compatible with SNES and NES. I never finished adapting it to Q3A, but I did all my emulation with it on MacOS 9 and 10.
My solution: An iBook with a composite video out adapter to plug it into my tv. Add one of those usb-ps controller adapters and you've got pretty close to my old Sega Master System. Only about 30 times more expensive.
If you're using this equipment to play emulator games, chances are that you downloaded them off the internet and they're illegal. Shame on you! Why not get some good homebrew games or, better yet, make your own games?
I'm surprised nobody mentioned the homebrew SNESKey adaptor yet. This allows you to hook a wide variety of game controllers (including NES, SNES and some Atari/Genesis controllers) to your computer's parallel port (remember when computers had those?). There was even a DOS program you could run your old-school DOS emulators under, which messed with some interrupt vectors so that it would trap control pad activity on the LPT port and translate it directly to keyboard presses (so it would work with pretty much any emulator without modifications).
Best part about this, was the ONLY parts it required were a common rectifier diode (or 2-3) to siphon the controller's power directly off the port.
Caveat Emptor is not a business model.
Many console joysticks have been hacked to work on PCs, including NES. Look:
:)
check it yo
Not to mention that Retrozone (whom they got the USB kit from in the article) already sells USB console joysticks (I bought the NES Fourscore from them, it rocks
I was always a big fan of SNES games but never played them on the PC as I like using a hand controller and I like playing it on the TV whilst sitting on the lounge like I did as a kid - rather than sitting in front of the computer.
When I bought a Xbox and modded it, that was all solved. There are tons of great emulators on the xbox, and much to my wifes disgust I've been rediscovering the legend of zelda (she hates the corny music).
Has anyone heard of an emulator for the Dreamcast?
Anybody know where i can get a megadrive (genesis) or snes -> usb converter? I have a big ole' country 2xSFII layout joystick that I can no longer use, but it'd rock for ssf2t / alpha3 on mame.
Send lawyers, guns, and money!
nesterdc anyone? or any other emulator, except mame which seems to suck on DC.
Everything is here.
it just takes some getting used to. Ok, a lot of getting used to. But once you do, you'll find that you can rock the pad a little up or down for an instant diagnal motion. Not so big a deal unless you're playing a newer fighting game, then it's great.
:). And give Ape Escape a go sometime, It's more fun than a barrel full of monkeys (yes, I said it).
An the Dualshock is the greatest control pad ever if only for one reason: I can finally play Virtua On the way it was meant to be played
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
That's a pretty nifty idea, even though I'm more likely to completely futz it up rather than get it to work right. I'll stick with my gamepad!