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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 $15) converter that goes from PlayStation > USB
You're all bastards!
Am I the only one who prefers a keyboard to console-style controllers/gamepads? I've used computers far more than consoles, and I find keyboard controls to be far more precise and accessible. For one, you have far more buttons and aren't locked into whatever button scheme the game system design forces you into. You can also use all your fingers instead of just thumbs (and index fingers for shoulder buttons). The only advantage consoles really have are analog sticks, but even those can be less precise than the good ol' numpad (or wasd) depending on the game.
Cloud and Tree - not just an immature webcomic, but a VISION.
Personally I bought a dualshock controller (I don't even own a playstation) and an adapter for use with older games. The controller is perfect for super nintendo because it has basically the same layout, and it works in a pinch for any other game as well. I use it with battlefield 1942 and racing games. The adapter was only 4 bucks, and as I may eventually buy a PS/2 to play dvd's and video games, the controller was a good buy as well (but it was expensive).
I submitted this story last night, and it didn't get posted.
But will it work without having to blow in the cartridge, click it up and down three times while pushing it all the way in (or barely in, scraping the front) and holding/cycling the power/reset buttons?
~Berj
hehe, probably not. I forgot about all of that fun. It was like its own game that came free with the system! You just don't get that kind of entertainment with modern gaming systems.
FoundNews.com - get paid to blog.,
The layout is just like a supernintendo controller, and only cost me 10$ 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!
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!
It's just a few electronic parts. The real key to the kit is the PIC chip. The chip intercepts the commands from the controller and converts them into USB message packets. So if you're thinking of building your own for cheaper, you might as well forget it. The PIC chip is an absolute requirement for a USB interface.
:-/
Now if you wanted to splice it a gameport connector, you might do a bit better. You'd still need to write your own driver, however.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
I'm sure I'm not the only one on Slashdot who buys up every vintage console he sees at garage sales and thrift stores... And I can tell you that finding a working NES is not all that easy, even on eBay (where they sell for $25-$50 and have no guarantees.) They just weren't built to last 15-20 years, especially with the abuse most kids inlficted on them. Atari 2600, though-- those things will last forever. Probably because they're so damn simple. Of course finding a paddle controller that doesn't have the jitters, that's another matter...
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.
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!!!!
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
... 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
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
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.
Yah, you just need to know how to fix them. The problem is caused by the contacts corroding on the connector, coupled with the fact that there's nothing that "fixes" the insertion to a specific point, and the fact that the contacts themselves (being contact springs) wear over time and become less "springy" as they permanently deform.
:)
Just take the thing apart, use a lot of rubbing alcohol with a q-tip, and if you can, pry up the contacts to restore their original shape. Then it'll work just as good as new. If you can't fix the connector, you can also put alcohol on the cartridge connector, insert it, remove it, lather, rinse, repeat about 10 times or so. Then try to find an orientation that makes it work, and mark that orientation with a Sharpie on the inside of the NES. Takes five seconds. But fixing the original connector is best.
NES's are much more likely to survive long-term than the newer disc-based systems - no moving parts. I'd like to see emulation focus on Saturns, PlayStations, etc. rather than the NES. Those systems will die much faster.
(I'd also like to see someone take apart one of the battery-backed cartridges and write up instructions on how to replace the battery. Those'll die eventually too...)
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)
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.)
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.
PPJoy is cheaper, can be made with spare parts, and works real nice. Supports all kinds of weird joysticks/gamepads.
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!
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.
i guess you have to buy one of these
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?