The NEW Build Your Own Arcade Controls
Main => Consoles => Topic started by: Fig on March 03, 2005, 01:41:52 pm
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Hi! Just wanted to show you guys my NES project
Ive been working on the pass few weeks. Here are some pics of the system
Full system shot
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/Fig/My%20NES%20Project/nes7.jpg)
Cover off shot
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/Fig/My%20NES%20Project/nes2.jpg)
Another cover off shot
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/Fig/My%20NES%20Project/nes3.jpg)
Hacked NES Controllers
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/Fig/My%20NES%20Project/nes5.jpg)
Nester 6.0 screenshot
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/Fig/My%20NES%20Project/nes8.jpg)
Working VMU outside of NES
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/Fig/My%20NES%20Project/nes11.jpg)
And a night shot
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/Fig/My%20NES%20Project/nes12.jpg)
Thanks for Looking
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sexsay.
I'm going to soon start putting a mini itx PC inside of a SNES. Gonna be a tight fit and it cant have an internal CD drive....after i finish up a couple projects, ill get started.
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So it's a DC running an NES emu?
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Yeah Its a dreamcast running Nester ver. 6.0
Nester runs really good on the DC but it was missing the OG feel and look of the nes So I crammed a DC and 2 DC controllers in a NES Case.
Thanks for looking :D
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Nice job. Why the 9 pin Atari / Genesis style plugs?
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wow!...supercool....me likes. ;D
MameMaster!
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I have just gotten into the dreamcast and have the same emu up and running.
wanna share how you did it?
also like above. why the Atari plugs?
I happen to have a spare nes.
I need to play with my dramcast here in a few
I have been busy making Emu's and not playing with them. I thought all the buttons were needed in the menu. ( not sure I will go check)
I like what you did, way cool.
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so you have to flip open the case to put a CD in, or is it not necessary to ever swap CDs?
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so you have to flip open the case to put a CD in, or is it not necessary to ever swap CDs?
You can fit every US rom and the emulator on one disk. NES roms are friggin tiny!
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Thanks for all the kind words guys
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Damn dude thats very impressive! Looks like a normal NES. I thought you were proud of the Blue LED on the front so I figured, wow, lame. This is awesome! Gets rid of all those damn black screens and fuzzy pictures from dusty cartridges. I used to HATE that!
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I want to lern how you did the nintendo game pads,
the rest seems EZ enough. ( I think)
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WOW! Excellent job. I want full details on that! Now to find me a dreamcast.
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WOW! Excellent job. I want full details on that! Now to find me a dreamcast.
Ez enough to find. $20-$40 on ebay. I bought mine right here off a member $30.00
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I find them at yard sales all the time, usually pay $5-10.
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I want to lern how you did the nintendo game pads,
the rest seems EZ enough. ( I think)
Check this thread out.
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The real question is, though: how does it perform? Do the games play as well as they do on the real hardware?
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I haven't tried the NES emu for DreamCast yet but have heard that it is one of the few emulators for DC that are actually supposed to run perfect.
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Does any one know if the DC NES emulator has lightgun support?
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Does any one know if the DC NES emulator has lightgun support?
yes version 7 is said to be able to I have it but not played with it yet
as far as version 6 (said to be the best) I have yet to find a game not to work well.
but I have only played about 12 games so far.
also the Sega master system works very well
I will have to check on the Master systems game pads I think they were 2 buttons also. not sure never really played it. I got into Sega with the genesis. Loved those Sega genesis commercial
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SMS games used 2 buttons.
love Phatasy star 1, zillion and y's
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I'd be surprised if the NES pads don't work just fine with the SMS emu...
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I just bought these with hope to convert to usb
My thought are
nintendo
SMS
T/16 (turbo buttons) a must have for bonk
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i built my own nes pc
you CAN in fact fit a cd drive in there. Get a laptop adapter and use a laptop cd-rom drive and a laptop hard drive.
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And then what, put a fan in there too? That's too much stuff in too tiny an unvented case.
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you CAN in fact fit a cd drive in there. Get a laptop adapter and use a laptop cd-rom drive and a laptop hard drive.
Maybe I missed something but what does a laptop cd drive have to do with a DreamCast?
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WOW Thanks
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Man, don't waste Atari hardware. Use Genesis cords.
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i built my own nes pc
you CAN in fact fit a cd drive in there. Get a laptop adapter and use a laptop cd-rom drive and a laptop hard drive.
he is talking about a real pc in a Nintendo case. I have seen it, sweet, but the dreamcast is a lot cheep er and the game play is just as good.
all my PCs are going into Mame . maybe some day I will build a pc consolestation but i tossed that project out for the time being. I like this with the dreamcast.
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I havent came across a game that didn't work 100%
Try Clu-Clu Land. ;)
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I thought I left a link on the nes gamepads I bought? Hmmm. oh well here it is
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=8172160328&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT
I kan not use them on the dream cast ( I do not think , the turbo buttons)
I will use them with usb ;D
SMS
NES
T/16
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Dude, how about knocking up a tutorial, this could become really popular! And I just happen to have a spare DC! ;D
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Sorry that I havent replyed sooner. Been working alot of hours @ work
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Very interesting. I have seen the NES PCs, but not of NES Dreamcasts. My brother recently got his PS1 running NES quite well, I'm sure you could fit a PS1 into an NES just as easily as a Dreamcast.
The only thing that I think could be improved on is the disk tray. Surely there must be a way to modify the case to be able to easily swap the disks. Then you could put some controller ports on the back and have it play normal Dreamcast games as well.
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Yeah, but then it's not an NES, it's a hybrid thingie. I'd rather see a purely dedicated NES with alternate hardware than some hybrid console multipurpose ugly thing.
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Yeah, but then it's not an NES, it's a hybrid thingie. I'd rather see a purely dedicated NES with alternate hardware than some hybrid console multipurpose ugly thing.
I agree 100%. This is one of the coolest projects I've seen in a long time, and defintely hands down the coolest console based project. I'm seriously considering making one myself.
-S
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What's the point of the VMU, anyway?
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What's the point of the VMU, anyway?
You can save your NES games to the VMU. It's the Dreamcast memory card.
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I have an extra dreamcast and an extra NES... i lack the skillz though.
Is there a way to make the cd drive a tray opener? that would be bad ass because you could just open the NES Cartridge Door and put a new cd in whenever you want!
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Hmm.....I've got a DC I don't use(lack of games.) and some NES parts, including an empty case or two.....
on the other hand, I also have my PS1.
On the other other hand, I could actually get it running sometime this millenium on the DC.
on the other other OTHER hand, my xbox already does NES games quite well.... speaking of which, I must update that mighty giant.
can you use CDRWs with the DC?
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What's the point of the VMU, anyway?
thanks I was scared to ask. ;)
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no
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well there goes that idea...
ah well, no big deal. now to figure out just what I should rig up....
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can you use CDRWs with the DC?
YES! you have to mod and change the drive... go over to a dc mod forum...
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Deffinetly one of the coolest mods I've seen I've got to try this out for myself.
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can you use CDRWs with the DC?
YES! you have to mod and change the drive... go over to a dc mod forum...
Wait a minute, you have to change the drive as well?! My brother was going to chip his DC, do you have to change the drive if you are going to be using normal CD-Rs?
As for keeping it pure, I can certainly respect that. But I
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no, no chip needed for CDRs. that sucker's one of the most homebrew friendly consoles ever.
speaking of which, I wonder if anyone's ported the work of ABA games to the DC.....
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can you use CDRWs with the DC?
YES! you have to mod and change the drive... go over to a dc mod forum...
I have to look more into this. I have been hanging around them for 2 weeks.
( i know thtas not long but I just got into it.)
all I have seen in no you cant. Not saying your wrong... Its just a question i have seen a few time on the boards I have been. I am still lurking...need to learn more before i pipe in on the boards
sorry about the wrong answer.
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...go over to a dc mod forum...
Anyone have a URL for a good Dreamcast Mod forum? Is it possible to add a tray loading CD drive to a Dreamcast?
-S
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If you could make a tray loading disc edition... that would be so cool!
Especially for the nes.
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Well that's what I had in mind. Just wondering if in fact there is a tray loading CD ROM that can be hacked to a DC. Anyone know?
-S
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The DC is running an embedded Windows, which means it's probably running some PC standard ATAPI style interface. So, the likely answer is it can be done. Why, I have no idea.
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The DC is running an embedded Windows, which means it's probably running some PC standard ATAPI style interface. So, the likely answer is it can be done. Why, I have no idea.
Why is so the CD tray can eject out the NES cart door making it easier to swap the disks. Another why is just because it would have that intangible cool that only comes with doing something really silly like that. :)
-S
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get it to see a hard drive and then were talking :)
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Why is so the CD tray can eject out the NES cart door making it easier to swap the disks. Another why is just because it would have that intangible cool that only comes with doing something really silly like that. :)
Eh, I don't think that's cool. Cool is integrating one system into another so that you can't tell by looking at it, as is almost achieved with this NES. Cool is subtle, not extra moving parts that don't work well.
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It wouldn't look any different with the door closed than the one the orignal poster made.
-S
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Well...I bought a dreamcast today. Unit, 2 controllers, 10 games, and memory pack for $35. I need to know how you setup that nester 6 and roms. I have all the roms on my mame pc, but cant find nester6, or even how to set it up. Could you hook me up with nester and a quick cd burning guide. Please ;D
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Why is so the CD tray can eject out the NES cart door making it easier to swap the disks. Another why is just because it would have that intangible cool that only comes with doing something really silly like that. :)
Eh, I don't think that's cool. Cool is integrating one system into another so that you can't tell by looking at it, as is almost achieved with this NES. Cool is subtle, not extra moving parts that don't work well.
I'd agree the only thing I don't like is how the vmu sticks out on the front of the machine.
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Well after much searching I found the link that got me going on this project.
http://www.freewebtown.com/mrchips/
I took his ideas and added a few of my own
Shape D,
"I'd agree the only thing I don't like is how the vmu sticks out on the front of the machine."
I thought it would be cool to be able to change the vmu w/o taking the top off but now I wish I would of put it in the back or side
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Thanks for the link! Up and running now.
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I'd agree the only thing I don't like is how the vmu sticks out on the front of the machine.
I would definitely have put it in the back for that reason.
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I'd agree the only thing I don't like is how the vmu sticks out on the front of the machine.
I would definitely have put it in the back for that reason.
if it was me, I would've found a way to fit some hinges inside the case along with some kind of little lock to hold it shut that could be accessed from the cartridge door, then put the VMU inside. this would also allow easy disc-swapping.
I also would've rigged it up so that I could plug in regular DC controllers(via a little box containing the modified controllers.).
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Well after much searching I found the link that got me going on this project.
http://www.freewebtown.com/mrchips/
I took his ideas and added a few of my own
Looks like you did a nicer job than he did too. Once again, well done.
-S
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Now the question is can you hack a nes light gun to work with it.
<edit> OH, and the powerglove and the nes advantage controller too. <edit>
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dreamcast light gun works on nester 7
so i have been told. I do not have the gun to find out
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Thanks alot you now made me depressed that i sold my dreamcast for 50 bucks.I should have never sold that system.Why oh why did I not sell my sega Saturn system instead.
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The Saturn is 100x cooler than the DC.
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Is there a way to do this with a ps1 instead, any help appreciated.
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Cool project...I was thinking 'why' until I see you're running Nester, now I understand :)
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Build one out of legos, like in that other thread!
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Could you show some gameplay pics :)
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The DC is running an embedded Windows, which means it's probably running some PC standard ATAPI style interface. So, the likely answer is it can be done. Why, I have no idea.
I know I'm late here, but...
The Dreamcast is NOT running an imbedded Windows.
There is a version of Windows CE that is COMPATIBLE with the Dreamcast, but it is not contained on the hardware, and any software that wishes to use WinCE must include it on the disk(such software is readily identifiable because the licenbsed by Sega splash screen also contains a "powered by Windows CE" logo).
Besides which, WinCE was designed for non-PC applications, and regularly runs on systems with no drives whatsoever.
And it's quite possible to run "real" Windows on a system with no IDE interface, and thuse no ATAPI layer.
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Ah... fair enough. I took the WinCE logo on everything to mean the system had it on there, didn't know it was actually on the discs. Of course, I would swear that at least one of my DCs has that logo on the hardware as well, but I could be wrong.
I'm aware it can be run on systems with no drives. That doesn't change the fact that the DC is a drive based platform.
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how much can i pay for you to do one for me? I want one, but..... I'm too lazy!
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Ah... fair enough. I took the WinCE logo on everything to mean the system had it on there, didn't know it was actually on the discs. Of course, I would swear that at least one of my DCs has that logo on the hardware as well, but I could be wrong.
The logo on the DC is a "compatible with" logo, as opposed to a "powered by" logo.
I'm aware it can be run on systems with no drives. That doesn't change the fact that the DC is a drive based platform.
True. But not an IDE drive as far as I know.
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Back to the original question... anyone know if a front loading tray could be interfaced?
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I don't know of any way to hook up a front loader tray to a dreamcast but if you were putting a PC or a Playstation2 in there both have front loading trays which you could use. You would probably want to rig it up so that the NES lid would open and close with the cd tray. Honestly though if I was useing a PC or a Playstation2 I'd probably just load the games off the Hard Drive.
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That's pretty slick, and looks a lot cleaner than the mini-itx hacks I've seen out there!
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I don't know of any way to hook up a front loader tray to a dreamcast but if you were putting a PC or a Playstation2 in there both have front loading trays which you could use. You would probably want to rig it up so that the NES lid would open and close with the cd tray.
Or you could go all out and get a slot-loading drive. Slide the CDs in just like cartridges.
Oooooohhhh, you could even mount the drive in the original NES spring tray for even more stupidity... I mean nostalgia!
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That would be SOOO cool if you could have a slot loading drive suck the disk in and then push the entire unit down just like it was a cartridge.
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I don't have the skills to pull off a stunt like that with a DC. However, I have 5 NES's here at home, and a mini-itx board not going to use. Maybe it's about time I got started!
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Or you could go all out and get a slot-loading drive. Slide the CDs in just like cartridges.
Oooooohhhh, you could even mount the drive in the original NES spring tray for even more stupidity... I mean nostalgia!
I wasn't aware they made Slot Loading GD Roms for DreamCast. If you meant to just hook up a PC Slot loading CD Drive then you wouldn't be able to play retail copies of DreamCast games because they come on GD-Roms.
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But if it could interface with the Dreamcast then I'm guessing you could chip the dreamcast to make it able to play backups on CD-R (or preferably DVD-R).
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The DC does play backups on CDR without mod.
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Well yeah but is every DC game you have a back up?
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Or you could go all out and get a slot-loading drive. Slide the CDs in just like cartridges.
Oooooohhhh, you could even mount the drive in the original NES spring tray for even more stupidity... I mean nostalgia!
I wasn't aware they made Slot Loading GD Roms for DreamCast. If you meant to just hook up a PC Slot loading CD Drive then you wouldn't be able to play retail copies of DreamCast games because they come on GD-Roms.
If you read the post I was replying to, he'd moved on to making a mini-ITX or PS2 machine. MiniITX is what I was thinking of, as I gather using a standard drive on any console(XBox excepted) is something of a pain in the butt.
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Well yeah but is every DC game you have a back up?
I don't have any backups. The point was that it shouldn't really matter. You can make your own backups.
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Well yeah but is every DC game you have a back up?
I have a CD burner.
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I forge my backups from raw materials with a hammer and anvil. It takes a while but my CDs NEVER scratch.
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I don't know how useful it would be anyway. If I did this I would ABSOLUTELY wire it to use regular NES controllers instead of the cramp-inducing dreamcast controllers -- for comfort, but mostly for authenticity. That would pretty much make it useless for playing Dreamcast games I guess.
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I'm guessing that to use a PS1, it would have to be modded? and if so, which mod would be needed?
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What's the point of putting a PS1 in there?
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Well there is an NES emulator for PS1 but I don't remember it working very well. It had allot of slow down and the sound was glitchy. Maybe they have made some improvements to it since I last tried it out.
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it might be nes works well.
dramcast might be better .
I use the ps1 version at the lake.
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Does Nester 6.0 Support the Light Gun? CAn I jsut add the light gun files from 7 to 6? I like the menu from 6 better than 7, is there a way to just change the menu in 7 to the one from 6?
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I'm guessing that to use a PS1, it would have to be modded? and if so, which mod would be needed?
I would use the $8.00 chip (stealth chip) I think it was like $8.00 out of canada.
been a few years since I moded a ps1. 8 wires if I remember right. was not to hard to do. 1 wire was a pain but I did it and my hands were shaking bad
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Heres the Sinny homies!!!
I have many backups of Dreamcast games, but you cannot just burn them and they will play. But you DO NOT have to buy a $5 mod chip either. I have tested many differend games with many different brands of software and there is only 1 that actually works for dreamcast games. Thant is Alcohol 120% ( not 52% ). People will tell you to use Disk Juggler but it does not work I have wasted many cd's on that stupid program, Alcohol burns DJ images no problem whatsoever. Roxio 6 and Higher is the best for burning XBOX bac-ups, I have done a few dreamcast games, but not all of them were a success. The XBOX images burned with no problem though. So Alcohol 120% is the BEST!!!! Even with the NesterDC ( NES Emulator ) I used Disk Juggler & Nero and every time no matter waht I did different it did NOT work. The first time with Alcohol 120% it came out perfect! DAmmit I wasted 20 cd-r's on Nero and DJ!!!!
Peace out Ninja Nerdz!
Flappz
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I have no idea what that guy just said.
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Heres the Sinny homies!!!
I have many backups of Dreamcast games, but you cannot just burn them and they will play. But you DO NOT have to buy a $5 mod chip either. I have tested many differend games with many different brands of software and there is only 1 that actually works for dreamcast games. Thant is Alcohol 120% ( not 52% ). People will tell you to use Disk Juggler but it does not work I have wasted many cd's on that stupid program, Alcohol burns DJ images no problem whatsoever. Roxio 6 and Higher is the best for burning XBOX bac-ups, I have done a few dreamcast games, but not all of them were a success. The XBOX images burned with no problem though. So Alcohol 120% is the BEST!!!! Even with the NesterDC ( NES Emulator ) I used Disk Juggler & Nero and every time no matter waht I did different it did NOT work. The first time with Alcohol 120% it came out perfect! DAmmit I wasted 20 cd-r's on Nero and DJ!!!!
Peace out Ninja Nerdz!
Flappz
There is a lot of bad info in this post. You can certainly use Discjuggler to burn Dreamcast backups. I've also used Nero with no problems whatsoever. Alcohol 120% is great, but you don't HAVE to use it.. you just apparently have trouble getting other programs to work.
Also, during the time I was in the Dreamcast scene, Roxio was practically the worst choice you could make to burn copies. Dreamcast is concerned with a quality image, slow burn speed, and quality media. For the most part, burning application means absolutely nothing.
As for Xbox games, again... you are much more concerned with image, burn speed and media quality. Roxio is still an inferior choice IMHO, but they have gotten better. You can use Alcohol 120%, Nero, RecordNow Max, and numerous other programs to burn Xbox backups with zero problems at all.
I would also recommend Alcohol 120% to people, but not because its the "only thing that works" You are having some troubles with your system, settings, or frankly... its a case of PEBKAC. You can most certainly use almost any burning programs to create Xbox backups, and there are quite a few good reliable choices for Dreamcast as well.
Later Ninja Nerd.
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it might be nes works well.
Wow thanks for the tip.
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ooooooooo!
I want one 8)
change that. I want 2 ;)
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If I get time I'll make you a pair. ;)
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The only problem with doing it that way is that the pads can't plug in nicely to the front of the Nintendo. That might be a decent tradeoff if you could manage to get a slot-loading CDROM drive in there so you could play your Playstation games on it too, but if changing discs is excessively difficult there's not much reason to have the capability of playing Playstation games IMO.
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At which point you may as well just keep your PS1 intact. All you have there is a PS1 with a different case.
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Well it isn't like you didn't have to modify the controller ports area on the NES case to fit the Atari Cables in there any way. So what is the big difference if you put some Playstation Ports on it instead of Atari ones. The advantage would be that you could use any playstatoin controller and even plug in a lightgun. Although the playstation nes emulator doesn't currently support lightguns it might eventually.
Who cares about playing Playstation games on it? I mean I thought the whole point was to have something that looked like an NES and could play every NES game. It would be dedicated to playing NES games. I don't see anything special about playing Playstation/DreamCast games on a NES.
All you have there is a PS1 with a different case.
I don't see how that is any different than putting a dreamcast in a NES case. All you would have is a Dreamcast with a different case. I thought that was the point.
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No, it's not the point. The point was that he had a dedicated NES emulator running in an NES. With the NES case closed, he would not be swapping in DC games, particulary using a hacked NES controller.
The point was to have a reliable NES with all games on one medium. There is nothing in that design that suggests playing DC games.
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Oh ok sorry, I thought your comment was directed at me.
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it might be nes works well.
Wow thanks for the tip.
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???
What do you mean fit everything inside a controller? He just rewired a regular NES controller to be able to plug into a Playstation as far as I can tell. That's cool, and all, for playing an NES emulator on a PS1, but if you're going to gut a PS1 and put it inside a nintendo case to make it look all authentic I'd rather have the rewiring done between the controller ports and the PS1 guts inside the box so a regular NES controller can plug into a regular NES controller port on the front of the system. See, that way it looks and acts just like the original (minus blowing on the contacts and pressing reset a couple dozen times to make a game work). Unless you retain the ability to play PS1 games (which you really don't unless you get a slot or tray loading drive) I don't see any reason to have PS1 ends on the controller.
Don't get me wrong, those controllers are really cool, but they're cool for allowing you to play the games as they were meant to be played when using a PS1 in a regular PS1 case. But they don't seem appropriate for a project like this. They only take away from the authenticity without providing any positive tradeoff.
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Yeah, if I do this, and I may, I'll be rewiring the controller port and using the original female NES port. That way I don't have to mod NES controllers. The only visible difference would be a new colored power LED.
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Shmokes:
Ok shmokes I don't know what your talking about when you say use the origonal NES ports.
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Well I know it's possible to wire it to a parallel port on a Mini-ITX board cos this guy did it on his project. (http://www.mini-itx.com/projects/nespc/) I see what you mean about this project being done with Atari cables, which I hadn't noticed. But even this seems like a better solution for the very fact that I hadn't noticed. They are about the same size as the original controller ports so it seems that they can be mounted up without taking much away from the overall effect.
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Bah, the NES doesn't even use all 7 pins.
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Yes but he used a PC and not a Playstation nor DreamCast.
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Yep, I noticed the Atari ports right away... but it IS a Dreamcast. Are you looking at the right pictures?
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Yes I was looking at the right pictures. I don't know of any DreamCast with a Parellel port. (hint: there was a link to the pictures in shmokes post) ;)
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Ah, different one. All you guys with run-on paragraphs and wonky punctuation make things hard to follow sometimes. :laugh:
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This dosen't really fit in here but thought it was cool.
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That is neat. The playstaion pad is a good pad to hack
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Yeah, if I do this, and I may, I'll be rewiring the controller port and using the original female NES port.
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I haven't looked at the pinouts and such yet as this is about #10 in my project queue. I would imagine, given that there are more signals on the DC controller than on the NES controller port, that I would have to simply terminate the lines that aren't used for the NES emulator.
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Do they out put the same encoding for the controller signals? I thought they would be different.
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I would have to think so. All a controller button is is an open circuit that closes when you press the button. There is no encoding per se, there is signal or there is not.
Signal - button pressed
No Signal - button not pressed
The voltage, presumably, comes from the console, either passes the closed circuit and returns to the console (button pressed), or does not come to the controller because the circuit is open (button not pressed).
If these assumptions are mistaken, feel free to correct me.
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Well yeah for each button there is an open and closed signal. But then the controller chip encodes those signals into a series of timed electrical pulses. The console then descrambles the encoded signal when it recieves them.
If you had an open and closed signal for each button on the NES controller the NES ports would have to have 9 pins. But instead they only have 7 and only 5 of those 7 pins are used to transfer the signal. So basically the signal in encrypted.
Inorder to use the origonal NES ports without modifying the NES controllers at all you would have to have some way of decrypting the signal they send and then re-encrypting it to a dreamcast signal.
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Hrm... good to know. I wonder if it would be physically possible to take the relevant parts of the DC controller, alter the PCB/etc, and fit it into an NES controller.
Of course, that would defeat the whole purpose, I guess, of wanting to use nonaltered NES controllers.
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I don't know of any Dreamcast controllers that would be small enough to fit into the NES controller the way the PSX ones I used do. That doesn't mean they don't exist though.
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Well, the DC PCBs would need alteration, of course. You could clearly do away with much of it. You wouldn't need the triggers, or the analog stick, for instance.
Of course, now we've gone so far from the original goal, we may as well keep the DC controller ports. The whole point was to try and be as original as possible without having to use custom controllers.
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Yeah, the only way to get it so you don't have to mod the NES controllers at all is to put a PC inside the NES instead of a DreamCast.
The only advantage to useing a DreamCast instead of a PC is that it is cheaper.
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Yeah, the only way to get it so you don't have to mod the NES controllers at all is to put a PC inside the NES instead of a DreamCast.
The only advantage to useing a DreamCast instead of a PC is that it is cheaper.
Well that and the fact that it's a lot easier to configure.
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so you have to flip open the case to put a CD in, or is it not necessary to ever swap CDs?
You can fit every US rom and the emulator on one disk. NES roms are friggin tiny!
Ok. First off... this thing is amazing. I *will* be building one.
Second. The quote above says that everyhitng will fit on one cd. So if I wanted to build one of these and just run the NES then I could build it just as you have?
Everybody seems to be talking abou tmaking a tray loading cdrom drive and this and the other... not necessary if I just want to run NES, right?
Again... amazing.
And the memory card... is that just for saving? it's not required, right? What about hiding it in the cart door?
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Everybody seems to be talking abou tmaking a tray loading cdrom drive and this and the other... not necessary if I just want to run NES, right?
You've got it right.
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And the memory card... is that just for saving? it's not required, right? What about hiding it in the cart door?
Memory card is for saving, and yes, there's no reason why you couldn't put it inside the case. That's what I intend to do.
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I want to try and make one so they are acessable through the hatch on the nes. I havent spent any time working on it though.
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I would think you're better off making it so that you can swap them out easily. With 1000+ NES games (counting Famicom) on there, you're going to have a lot of saves.
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I would think you're better off making it so that you can swap them out easily. With 1000+ NES games (counting Famicom) on there, you're going to have a lot of saves.
Maybe I'll stick it out the back.
Or what about this?...
Do you need the memory card in there the whole time? or just to load, and save the game?
Cause you could just open the door on the front, slide in the memory card and then remove it when you don't need it. That would preserve the look most of the time.
(forgive my potential ignorance, I know nothing about dreamcast)
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Typically plugging anything into a system while its running does not always work out well.
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You can hot swap VMUs, can't you?
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...and if I'm just using it for saving NES games, do I need the memory card with the display or can I get a generic, non-display version?
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Does the DC have a nondisplay memory unit?
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Does the DC have a nondisplay memory unit?
Take a look here (http://www.lik-sang.com/list.php?nav=left_sub&category=31). I see display ones and non-display ones.
Or maybe I'm just an idiot.
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I guess they do... damn expensive, though, for an older system.
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Yeah, you can get the ones without the display. They work fine for NES saves. That's what I use. There's a local game shop that has a box of third party DC memory gizmos for something like $2 a pop.
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I have a buttload of random DC peripherals I picked up when Gamestop cleared them out... don't know if I have generic memory units, though.
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Although the memory display is kind of a neat idea, I've found it to be pretty useless in actual use. I never look at it during the game, because I'm looking at the main display.
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Is anybody actually building one?
I'm having trouble with one thing. I am trying to wire up the reset switch as outlined in the tutorial (http://www.freewebtown.com/mrchips/) but I'm not really clear how to wire it to the controller. Unfortunately the photos in the tutorial are not clear.
I am using the standard controller.
Anybody got any pics or tips for me?
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The Reset switch works just like a regular push button. You wire one tab to the ground and the other tab to the L and R buttons. You have to cut away on the circuit board that the Reset button is attached to so that it no longer triggers the imputs on that board and is only wired directly to the Dreamcast controller.
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The Reset switch works just like a regular push button. You wire one tab to the ground and the other tab to the L and R buttons. You have to cut away on the circuit board that the Reset button is attached to so that it no longer triggers the imputs on that board and is only wired directly to the Dreamcast controller.
I'm not really sure I completely understand what you are talking about...
but my main concern is when I get to the dreamcast controller... the switch is not like a typical button switch, so I am having trouble finding out where the contacts are. That's why I need some pics.
Fig hasn't been online in a while... where is that guy??
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i'm about to start making one of these. i just purchased a dreamcast today to use, ive gotten nesterDC burned and working and im about to begin pulling apart my old broken nes and begin fitting in the DC. I'm going try and put my VMU inside of the case for sure. I'm also going to try and make it so that i can swap out the VMU if needed via lifting up the cartrige cover.
The only thing i think ill be dissipointed about is not being able to use the original nes controller ports. I dont really like the idea of useing atari ports, but if there is no other way {within reason} then it will have to do. i've been think about doing this mod for a while now and i'm stoked that im finnaly starting on it. i also have tons of friends who want me to do this for them {if it works out}.
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Just going to jump in here and say what Ive enoticed about the number of wires discussion.
While the NES controller infact only uses 7 wires (that is, has 7 but uses less) is because it is sending signals from the encoder chip located inside the controller which the NES reads to determine what button was pressed. The reason that 9 wires are needed is that the chip is REMOVED. And it is NOT comunicating with an NES anymore, rather it has become a controller hack.. Thus one wire for each button on the NES +ground to the corresponding button oin the hacked DC controller located inside the case. The reason why the NES>Parrallel and NES>USB projects work the way they do is because they simply convert the signal sent by the IC on the NES controller to something readable by your parrallel port (assuming you have correct software/drivers).
So I think people keep crossing these two very different projects together. The 9 pins are needed for the DC (in NES case)hack because its just like a CP->IPAC. 1 Button = 1 wire+common ground. So Up, Down, Left, Right, Start, Select, A, B +Ground = 9 connections.
I do agree that its a crime to destroy an Atari controller but thats just me :)
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I do agree that its a crime to destroy an Atari controller but thats just me :)
That's why the silicon gods gave us Genesis extension cables.
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That's why the silicon gods gave us Genesis extension cables.
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Thou shalt worship no gods before me
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That's why the silicon gods gave us Genesis extension cables.
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Thou shalt worship no gods before me
We aren't. We're worshiping them after you.
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Ok there is a way that you can use the physical NES ports so that it still looks like an NES.
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Clever solution, Spiffyshoes. :)
And when I said "silicon gods" I was of course referring to Shmokes. Who else could it have been?
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There might be annother posibility, that doesn't involve modding NES controlers at all.
The NES encoder chip is mearly am 8-bit paralell-to-serial shift register, so it should be possible to wire an NES port to an 8-bit serial-to-paralell shift register (assuming such a thing exists, I don't know for certain) and wire the paralell output of that chip directly onto an internal DC controller board.
This may have noticable lag depending on the chip used, I'm not sure.
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There might be annother posibility, that doesn't involve modding NES controlers at all.
The NES encoder chip is mearly am 8-bit paralell-to-serial shift register, so it should be possible to wire an NES port to an 8-bit serial-to-paralell shift register (assuming such a thing exists, I don't know for certain) and wire the paralell output of that chip directly onto an internal DC controller board.
This may have noticable lag depending on the chip used, I'm not sure.
Oddly, I was just coming here to link something I stumbled upon that designed a similar device.
http://devcast.dcemulation.com/mods/unicont/nes.php
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so, what is the update on the chips so that we can use the regular cords and controllers? i'm looking at this for more of a computer attachement, rather than a dc, but i'm still interested in the encoder/decoder idea.
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I don't remember anyone saying they were working on it.
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If you want the chips that JB linked to you need to buy the pic and flash it with the program they had on the website yourself.
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This is the nuts! Ive been looking for something like this for a while, there was another I saw a year or so ago (i forgot to bookmark) a guy had converted a nes using laptop bits, but this looks like much less hassle, a project for the future methinks :)