want to buy: NES/PC adapter

[romid]

Looking to purchase adapter that will let me use my NES controllers on my PC.

Please let me know if you have one for sale or know where I can purchase one.  Im a student so if you're aware of a place w/ low prices-- that would me much appreciated!

Thanks,
Randy

[SteveJ34]

Not sure that I have seen and adaptor for NES.

Here's one option, not necessarily cheap but they do work.

http://www.sealiecomputing.com/retrozone/retropad.html

[romid]

That is the type of thing Im looking for except (like i hinted at) that is out of my price range.

If anyone has successfully made one before and are willing to make a set to sell me, that would work well for me also.

[fastredpacman]

Why dont you just get an old printer cable and build your own? Its really easy there are about 20 diffrent guides on how to do it. I built mine in about 10 minutes. If you do it right it could cost you about $2. Let me know if you need help.

[Stormy151]

The Retrozone controllers are AWESOME.  I bought one and liked it so much I bought another as well as a set of the SNES pads.

[Blackice]

Could you post some links to these parallel cable tutorials? I have searched and found only 1 which was kind of hard to follow. Thanks.

Why dont you just get an old printer cable and build your own? Its really easy there are about 20 diffrent guides on how to do it. I built mine in about 10 minutes. If you do it right it could cost you about $2. Let me know if you need help.

[Shifty]

Could you post some links to these parallel cable tutorials? I have searched and found only 1 which was kind of hard to follow. Thanks.

Why dont you just get an old printer cable and build your own? Its really easy there are about 20 diffrent guides on how to do it. I built mine in about 10 minutes. If you do it right it could cost you about $2. Let me know if you need help.

Here is one:
http://www.arcadecontrols.com/Mirrors/www.ziplabel.com/dpadpro/nes.html

Pretty simple, tells you how to hook up more than one controller two. I just obtained two controllers so I'm going to be doing the same thing.

If you aren't soldering-handy, this is a good project to start with! Any q's let us know. Have fun!

[romid]

Thanks for the link, I'll try it out.  Do i need some sort of driver for it though?  I didnt see any listed.


EDIT: Nevermind, I found them here: http://www.arcadecontrols.com/Mirrors/www.ziplabel.com/dpadpro/download.html

[Shifty]

There is actually a 'newer' updated driver, along with all sorts of wiring diagrams for various adapters, but the name escapes me at the moment. Doing a search for Direct pad pro of sneskey should turn it up.

[spiffyshoes]

I'm thinking of trying to convert a few to Playstation has any one else tried it before?  That way I could use it on most of my other consoles with converters including my PC and I wouldn't have to use any special drivers or anything.

[romid]

So i built the interface and have it hooked up to my computer....however, I cannot find the XP version of the driver to install.  Can anyone provide a specific link for the XP driver?

Thanks all!

UPDATE:  I installed NTPAD XP driver and now see the following when I go to control panel, game controllers, properties:

http://www.omid.org/random/nes.jpg

However, nothing changes when I push any of the buttons-- I am *wide* open to suggestions.  FYI, I am not using any diodes in the design.  Instead, I hooked up the power and ground staight to the 5V, ground inside my computer.

On a side note, after installing this, my mouse jumps to the corner, top or bottom of my screen once every 5 or 10 mins.

[spiffyshoes]

I don't know how the NTPAD XP Drivers work, sorry.  I just converted two of my NES Pads for use on my playstation.  They work greate with my Playstation to USB adapters.  Now I can play all of my emulator games with NES controllers.  I'll have to do my SNES pads next.  This is fun.

[Shifty]

So i built the interface and have it hooked up to my computer....however, I cannot find the XP version of the driver to install.  Can anyone provide a specific link for the XP driver?

Thanks all!

UPDATE:  I installed NTPAD XP driver and now see the following when I go to control panel, game controllers, properties:

http://www.omid.org/random/nes.jpg

However, nothing changes when I push any of the buttons-- I am *wide* open to suggestions.  FYI, I am not using any diodes in the design.  Instead, I hooked up the power and ground staight to the 5V, ground inside my computer.

On a side note, after installing this, my mouse jumps to the corner, top or bottom of my screen once every 5 or 10 mins.

You might want to try the diodes, they are there for a reason? They are super cheap, I guess it's just the hassle of soldering them in place eh?  

Hope it turns out, I want to build mine, but I'll wait until yours works ...  

[math0ne]

Try PPJoy

I think it supports NES pads.

http://www.geocities.com/deonvdw/Docs/PPJoyMain.htm

[Blackice]

I was wondering how everyone was soldering the wires together for their adapters? I see on some diagrams they show connecting 5 of the DB25 wires to 1 of the NES wires. How are you guys doing this?

I've never soldered before, so I'm not sure if you could just solder 1 wire to 5 wires? Also on the diagram's they show diodes in between each of the 5 DB25 wires and the 1 NES wire, can I use just one diode connected to all 5 wires, or would I need a diode on each wire.

Keep in mind I'm definitley an electronics n00b.

Thanks.

[romid]

I think the purpose of hooking up those 5 connections on the parallel port to a single connection on the control is strictly for power purposes.  Those 5 ports provide voltage/current.  The diodes are used to protect the computers parallel port and 5 of them are hooked up to a single connection on the controller to provide higher current.  As far as I can see, this is the same thing as hooking it up to a +5v in my PC that has can handle it, such as a hard drive power cable.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

Thanks for the suggestion on PPJoy-- it looks very promising and well documented!

[math0ne]

No problem.

Its a great program.   I currently use it to allow me to play all of the 2005 EA Sports games on my arcade cab with a keyboard hack.

[Shifty]

Ahh yes, PPjoy, that's the program I was thinking of. Thanks  

Blackice, you may want to do a Google search for proper soldering techniques. There aren't many rules, you just want to be sure you have a good solid connection. When connecting wires, it is best to twist the ends together so they are 'bound', then apply heat and solder. For several wires, twist them all together. Make sure you tape the ends up, or use heat shrink tubing to prevent the bare wires from cotacting other wires. Having two wires touch when they shouldn't can be very bad (just ask my car stereo, lol).

[dreamcastninja]

good! retrozone sucks glad u didn't use them... the controllers i ordered were horribly broken and the buttons didn't work properly, broken nes controls wired to usb, lol

[Chris_The_Ninja]

Don't mean to revive dead topics, but I my self have been making these controllers locally for some friends, and if you supply me with the controller (and applicable shipping fees) for a small fee I can make the conversion for you. Feel free to email me at chris741@rogers.com

[paigeoliver]

That is the type of thing Im looking for except (like i hinted at) that is out of my price range.

If anyone has successfully made one before and are willing to make a set to sell me, that would work well for me also.

If $26.99 is out of your price range then perhaps you have bigger things to worry about than hooking up nes pads to your computer.  

Really though, do we have a whole bunch of unemployed teenagers on the boards here? I see this OVER and OVER again. Person asks how to do something, person is immediately pointed towards $20 - $40 product that perfectly and elegantly solves their problem.

Person "can't afford that" so person proceeds to attempt the $9 solution that takes 5 hours to do and ends up fragile and often less functional when complete.

Same people can always afford to scratchbuild 4 player cabinets and buy brand new coin doors from Happ's though.

[dreamcastninja]

yea, that's a funny observation. I'm a poor college student with a crappy 2 day (most of the time) a week minimum wage job because my area sucks for jobs, I afforded to build a cab, granted it's not anything that'll knock your socks off, but it's functional and doesn't look like garbage, lol... anyone can afford something like that, it's just that they lock themselves out because they don't think it's worth it to sacrfice