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question about hacking gamepads...

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hulkster:
alright, like many people i have nes, snes, genesis, etc. roms on my cab.  and ive been using my happ controls to play these games.  however, i was wondering if i wanted dedicated gamepads for these games.  like nes pad for nes games, snes pad for snes games, etc....does it require soldering and opening up the pads themselves, or can i just cut wire and then wire it up to some kind of connector?  usb or serial?  

i did some searching already and didnt really find what i was looking for (so dont jump on me about not doing research first...i may have searched for the wrong thing) and i looked in the "alternatives" section to the right and didnt really find anything cuz the links are dead.  so can anyone help me out?  basically...how much crap do i have to go through to interface my console controllers (n64, snes, nes) to my cab using  emulators, not the console itself to play the games?

Gideon:
Well, first I'll compliment your good taste; original controllers are the way to go.

Secondly, there are basically two options:  One is more of a traditional "hack" and the other operates mostly on the software level.  The former may be done a variety of ways but is most often achieved using the parallel port.  Such a hack involves the use of a circuit that can both interpret and convert the data sent by the SNES controller, so that the parallel port can access it using special drivers.  In addition to the parallel port, and interesting option would be a keyboard hack.

However, if your balls cringe at the thought of doing the drudge work of hacking--disassembling, soldering, testing, etc--USB convertors are the new fad.  You can find them in a lot of places, particularly for the N64.  Here's a link that I snatched with a quick google.

Oh, and don't worry about being accused of not doing research:  This site is virtually devoid of any useful console info.  So, good luck!  I hope you get things the way you want them to be.

hulkster:
wow thanks for the info!  i really appreciate it.  yeah, im not much on soldering and hacking and all that.  id rather go the usb route.  will i lose any accuracy with the usb way?  are their any drawbacks despite it being the more pricey way out (i assume)

crsdawg:
i'll also mention another method(well actually pretty close to  one of the ones listed above). you will need to basically rewire your controller, but it's pretty simple.

link here

this is a page i put together(still a work in progress) to demonstrate how i handled the problem. i ended up with use of atari(and most early controllers), nes, and genesis controllers. they will use whichever type of controller interface you already have for mame.

SpamMe:
I'm also adapter-inclined, and bought the cheap $10 n64 adapters (as opposed to the $30 adaptoids) from www.jandaman.com.
Just wanted to point out that the n64 contoller works extremely well for N64, SNES and NES emulation, and keeps me from having 6 different console gamepads :).

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