n64 controller (+extra console???)

[lemoe]

ok, right, i bought a cab (my first mistake  ) and decided i would put an N64 in, with a  2 player, 10 button 2 joystick per player control panel......and now im stuck    I'm stuck on where the wires go, theres so many!! i really need your help guys, this is my first arcade machine ive gone inside never mind built and so its a big learning curve for me. All help is apprechiated and i think diagrams would be extra helpful.

thanks

Lemoe

[gnateye]

read that faq above.......

[lemoe]

thanks, but im really looking for N64 specific stuff, maily the controller.

[ChadTower]

Erm, if you don't know what you're doing, you're going to want to step ten feet back from that monitor and stay there.  I'm not joking.

[lemoe]

yeh, I know what you mean but i want to learn. i have the basic jist, i just need to know what to solder where

[Hoagie_one]

If y ou expect anyone here to help you, youhave to help yourself.  Dont take this the wrong way, we all want you to succeed with this, but youhave to be patient and learn tehprocess.

Also, pics would be helpful, as we could then draw lines and give you specific info.

It sounds like you may be over your head though

[Fat_Trucker]

Go buy yourself a copy of Project Arcade, spend a few days browsing through the FAQ and Projects sections. Decide whether you are really up to it then start experimenting.

People here will offer help and support but jumping into the forum with txt speak asking for step by step instructions and diagrams won't meet with many offers of assistance.

If you really want to do it then there is more than enough information here and elsewhere for you to figure it out, people will offer help and advice if its properly sought.

If that sounds a little too time consuming you might want to consider playing the N64 on your TV.
 

[AlanS17]

Start looking for examples of general controller hacking. Do you know how you use a soldering iron? To be honest, I don't think much of what you'll find on this site will help very much except for controller hacking. Hacking one is just like hacking the next (in most cases). I've never seen inside an N64 controller, though.

Here's a tip, though. Try hacking an aftermarket, cheapo generic controller. Don't ruin your nice official Nintendo controllers. Lots of times, the aftermarket conotrllers are easier to hack, anyways.

We'll be needing some pictures of the guts of the controller you plan on hacking, though.

[AlanS17]

Oh, and another thing... don't get intimidated by all the wires inside the arcade machine. If you're going to be using an N64, you won't be needing most of those wires. Just take this one step at a time, and get us a picture of that controller.

[lemoe]

thanks, i deffinatly do want to do this, and im willing to do watever it takes, sorry i seem abit upfront but i have been readin up on it for a while and dont seem to be gettin any where, i will continue to read up though (and yes, i have a fair bit of experience with a solderin iron)

i just figured, i havent found anything about wiring buttons up to an N64 contoller, maybe someone else has

[AlanS17]

You could read up all day here and not get very far. Try the following link. It doesn't have the exact game system you're using but it's a start in the right direction. The same basic concepts apply. It uses examples from other game systems.

If you leave all the wiring in place (and we're assuming it's wired properly) then this really shouldn't be THAT hard. It will, however, be extremely tedious.

http://www.mameworld.net/pc2jamma/misc_arc1.html

[lemoe]

thanks, tedious i can do

[lemoe]

 close-ups

[AlanS17]

Well you can say goodbye to your analog joystick and any game that relies on it, but the rest should be a snap!

[lemoe]

yeh, i kinda realised that a while ago, but im not to bothered, alot of games dont use it.

ps, sorry about the pic quality, can only use my phone right now,  I will get better ones tomorrow.

[AlanS17]

Ok first, do you plan wiring this thing straight up to the buttons and monitors or through the JAMMA harness? (PLEASE tell me you know what a JAMMA harness is.)

Look at the six buttons on the right side. Notice how each button consists of 2 contacts? One is for the button and the other is for the button's ground. You can tell one from the other because they share a "common ground". That means the grounds for all the buttons will be connected to each other. The other contacts will all be individual. You don't need to solder leads off of every ground contact - just one. Then you can "daisy chain" the grounds from one button to the next if you wire up directly to the buttons. Otherwise, you can run that ground directly into the ground for the JAMMA harness. Have I lost you yet?

[SirPeale]

One more thing, not *exactly* related to your project.

Almost all of us here on this site are highly intelligent human beings with a good grasp of the english language.  Please actually say 'anyone' and not 'n e 1' or 'n e one' and the like.  You'll get people to take you much more seriously.

[AmericanDemon]

Heh.  Peale you stole the words right out of my mouth...or is that off of my keyboard. 

Definitely get rid of the l33+ speak and general chat room shortcuts.

The N64 PCB looks easy enough to hack.  Just for curiosity sake, what made you want to put a N64 into the cabinet?  What games specifically are you wanting to play with arcade controls?

[Dire Radiant]

There are quite a few good N64 games that translate well to an arcade cabinet. Killer Instinct, a couple of Mortal Kombats, Clay Fighter (Seeing a trend here?) Also there are a whole bunch of racing games that would play well in a driving cab. Unfortuntely most of the top-notch games like Zelda, Banjo Kazooie, Jet Force Gemini, Mario 64 and TWINE absolutely require an analog stick and preferably a comfy chair

[spiffyshoes]

Yeah if you wanted a cab dedicated for N64 games it seems to me like it would be a better idea to use a computer and the Project64 emulator.  That way you could use the GP-Wiz49 to use 49 ways as analog sticks and make allot more N64 games playable.

[AlanS17]

Spiffy has a good idea. Personally, I started losing respect for Nintendo the day they came out with that wretched game system. If it weren't for Nintendo's own titles, that whole console would have been a miserable failure. But that's a conversation for a different time...

[paigeoliver]

I third the motion to type using complete words and not aolchat or text message garbage.

The number one way to not get taken seriously on the internet is 2 typ lik U R a 13 year old. Might as well have just busted out with an A/S/L? while you were at it.

[Franco]

ASL Paige? 

[NiN^_^NiN]

Buy a 3rd party n64 controller and you can solder wire sonto the contacts so you can easily attach buttons.

Also with the nintendo pads you need to use a stanley knife and scrap the black stuff off but it's better and easier to use a 3rd party controller,

Also mosy 3rd part controllers use 2 pots for the movement so this could be adapted for a  joystick so you can play the games you want

[paigeoliver]

What I would love to see is for someone to hack the N64 arcade hardware (used in Magical Tetris, even has the N64 logo on the board itself) to take cartridges.

[Tiger-Heli]

ASL Paige? 

http://www.netlingo.com/right.cfm?term=A%2FS%2FL

Age/Sex/Location - I had to Google for it myself.

[AlanS17]

What I would love to see is for someone to hack the N64 arcade hardware (used in Magical Tetris, even has the N64 logo on the board itself) to take cartridges.

Is that Magical Tetris really that cool? I've seen kits selling on Ebay for pretty cheap, and I've got plenty of open cabs.

[Dire Radiant]

I like it. One of the best Tetris variants around if you ask me.

[lemoe]

thanks, so i need a 3rd party controller, can do.

I'll keep readin up and return with photos of the 3rd party controller.

(ps. sorry for the chat room shortcuts)

[lemoe]

ok, i have 2 3rd party controllers now (they were alot harder to find than i thought they would be) and all my buttons. Now i have sucked all my resources dry I think i know what im doing, but please can someone clarify by drawing on the pictures to stop me from doing it wrong. Thanks

Lemoe

(p.s. is it me or do i need a different microswitch?)

[hooded_paladin]

Okay, for a while I worked the rounds at a Bemani board that saw a lot of newbies and a lot of PSX controller hacking (to make DDR pads).  I got absolutely sick of requests to edit the photos to show where the solder points are because, if you're smart enough to solder to the controller and make the DDR pad / control panel to go with it then you are smart enough to figure out solder points yourself and will be the more electronically-aware for it.

Realization 1 : each button area has two sides, and when these two sides are electrically connected, the button is considered to be pressed.

From this realization you already have enough to know where to solder to because those contact pads are big, clean and copper.  But there's another thing that will help:

Realization 2 : each button area has a side that is electrically connected to a certain side of every other button area.  This is called Common (COM) or Ground because it is common to every button area, and 0 volts (ground level, so to speak).

That was a little extra information just to help with your electrical knowledge, but the gist of that realization was that you only need to solder 1 wire for the ground side of every button.

Summary - solder 1 ground wire, and 1 wire to the OTHER side of every button.  Thus is your controller hacked.

Oh, and that Yenox microswitch looks pretty compatible with the more popular Cherry microswitches, but of course I'm not very knowledgable in that.

[lemoe]

thx, thats perfect. that is what i thought but i didnt want to dive in and mess up just because 'i thought i knew'.

Hurray, that means i can start tomorrow and get into it.

Thanks to everyone

Lemoe

[Tiger-Heli]

Kinda -

See my pics and comments in this thread:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=36972.0

(You may need different points on your pad, but the idea is the same).

Also, not all pads use a single common or ground wire, in fact, often they may use two wires for four buttons and you need to wire up a matrix to make it work, but soldering to both sides of the contact pad is always safe, even if you're doing some extra work.

[jcrouse]

(and yes, i have a fair bit of experience with a solderin iron)

I hope your soldering skills are a little better than your photography skills.

 
John

[lemoe]

Ha Ha, if i take my time my soldering should be neater then that, but the photos were rushed. Anyway, the second lot  arnt that bad, its the first few which are usless (they were done on my phone )

Thanks Tiger-Heli, that made the common much clearer.

Lemoe

[Lilwolf]

btw, n64 emulator is pretty good.

Ever consider just adding a computer and using a keyboard encoder (some as cheap as 20 bucks).  Then get a frontend to control a few n64 emulators?

Then you don't have to swap cartridges. 

Sure, some of the later games don't play in any (gauntlet legends kinda stunks that it doesn't work) but TONS of others do. 

Also take note.  You will want to analog controller for many games.  I'm not sure if there is a good hack for analog controller on a n64 controller to a real analog joystick.  There ARE some options for the pc (APac, Daves AKI board, KeyWiz 49way board, Daves 49way board).  The 49way board works pretty well with most console emulators btw. 

Then you can also use mame and zinc and chankast (if you have a fast enought computer) and snes and genesis and PC ports and well.. you get the idea.

[lemoe]

yeh, but ive tried N64 emulators on my pc, and they still can be a bit buggy. With some games not working, others slow and some look very poor. Plus i had an N64, so if i do want to play an anologue game, i guess ill just use a controller, its no biggy

[lemoe]

Hurray, the operation was a success ive only done 1 button, but it works so ill get the others done tomorrow

Thanks to everyones help, ill report back later

Lemoe

[Adeptus]

Looks like at least one of your 3rd-party controllers (the top pic) uses pots for its analog...
That means you could also hack this to a digital control (for more info look up guides on PC gameport - either DIY gamepads or DIY Atari port adapters).

[lemoe]

oooooooo sweet, ill look in to it, theyre both the same so fingers crossed all will go well. Ive done all the buttons and the d pad for 1 controller at the moment, which all work (although my soldering could be alot neater, it works so ill live with it ). So, ill continue working on it and see what i can do about this analogue stick.

Lemoe