Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: MaximRecoil on December 08, 2010, 03:45:28 pm
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Preferably a Nintendo-manufactured one, since they make the best D-pads in my opinion. When I was a kid and I heard that there was a version of Karate Champ for the NES, I thought how great it would be if they had retained the dual joystick control scheme from the arcade, and included a special dual D-pad controller for use with it.
And much later on, after discovering MAME, I again wished I had a dual D-pad controller, not only for Karate Champ, but for other dual joystick games like Robotron and Smash TV.
I just happened across a picture of a Virtual Boy controller. It has dual D-pads, and it is made by Nintendo. I don't know how I missed that for all these years.
Any ideas for getting a Virtual Boy controller to work on a PC? Does it use a unique plug, or does it share a plug with any other Nintendo systems?
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Hack it to a USB gamepad... or to an iPac...
It can be done. I've modded a SNES controller to be used on an Xbox before.
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It can be done.
http://www.goliathindustries.com/vb/download/vbpar.txt (http://www.goliathindustries.com/vb/download/vbpar.txt)
http://arcadecontrols.com/Mirrors/www.csc.tntech.edu/~jbyork/default.htm (http://arcadecontrols.com/Mirrors/www.csc.tntech.edu/~jbyork/default.htm)
Personally if you want a dual d-pad NES controller this looks promising:
(http://nfgcontrols.com/grafx/X68000-CCpad.png)
This is an X68000 controller, and according to the thread here:
http://nfgworld.com/mb/thread/386 (http://nfgworld.com/mb/thread/386)
it uses the same chip (and I think the same port) as a Genesis/megadrive controller.
Maybe, just maybe you plug it into this thing and it will work.
http://www.retrousb.com/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=69 (http://www.retrousb.com/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=69)
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Personally if you want a dual d-pad NES controller this looks promising:
http://nfgcontrols.com/grafx/X68000-CCpad.png (http://nfgcontrols.com/grafx/X68000-CCpad.png)
I like the looks and simplicity of that thing; never seen one before. However, I have a strong preference for Nintendo-built D-pads; others have never seemed quite right to me.
About the parallel port + SNESKey hookup, I'd rather do it through USB, so I can have two controllers hooked up at once, and be able to plug/unplug them easily and while the PC is on.
However, I'm not sure how to go about connecting one to something like a USB keyboard encoder, because they don't have a 1:1 switch-to-wire thing going on like with arcade controls; there are only 6 pins in the plug, but there are 8 switches just for the 2 D-pads alone, plus several others for the buttons.
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I like the looks and simplicity of that thing; never seen one before. However, I have a strong preference for Nintendo-built D-pads; others have never seemed quite right to me.
IMO the Nintendo Wavebird D-Pad is one of the worst D-Pads ever. Maybe it's just me though as I have never been a fan of D-Pads in general.
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MR I think he meant to pull the chip out of a D pad and wire it directly onto the traces itself. Then bundle the wires and route it through and out with a whole new connector.
Otherwise you'll have to get the corresponding ic to deserialize the data stream. IIRC it was a clock signal too? A simple timer might do the trick. Otherwise.... so on and so forth. You get the idea.
Pick your poison I guess.
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IMO the Nintendo Wavebird D-Pad is one of the worst D-Pads ever. Maybe it's just me though as I have never been a fan of D-Pads in general.
They're practically the same as the NES d-pads, which were by far the best d-pads ever made.
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Nah,
Whether you like the console or not,
Sega Saturn had the best D-pad ever.
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Dual D-Pad AND made by nintendo
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Virtual_Boy_controller.jpg)
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IMO the Nintendo Wavebird D-Pad is one of the worst D-Pads ever. Maybe it's just me though as I have never been a fan of D-Pads in general.
They're practically the same as the NES d-pads, which were by far the best d-pads ever made.
They sure don't look or feel practically the same.
(http://gizmodo.com/assets/resources/2008/05/b00005bosf01lzzzzzzz.jpg)
(http://www.aoaforums.com/forum/attachments/the-chop-shop/20349d1182021229-usb-nes-game-pad-1757766008819633.jpg)
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Personally if you want a dual d-pad NES controller this looks promising:
http://nfgcontrols.com/grafx/X68000-CCpad.png (http://nfgcontrols.com/grafx/X68000-CCpad.png)
I like the looks and simplicity of that thing; never seen one before. However, I have a strong preference for Nintendo-built D-pads; others have never seemed quite right to me.
About the parallel port + SNESKey hookup, I'd rather do it through USB, so I can have two controllers hooked up at once, and be able to plug/unplug them easily and while the PC is on.
However, I'm not sure how to go about connecting one to something like a USB keyboard encoder, because they don't have a 1:1 switch-to-wire thing going on like with arcade controls; there are only 6 pins in the plug, but there are 8 switches just for the 2 D-pads alone, plus several others for the buttons.
well, there is always the option to perform a pad hack on this controller, then run it to an external project box enclosure containing a USB encoder such as an I-pac. The actual pcb will not be plugged in, but the traces on it will serve as wiring for your encoder.
There is a guide to pad hacking here:
http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick/pcb_wiring.html (http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick/pcb_wiring.html)
In this case you would want to leave the matrices under the buttons alone and locate solder points on the PCB that will not interfere with the operation of the controller.
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IMO the Nintendo Wavebird D-Pad is one of the worst D-Pads ever. Maybe it's just me though as I have never been a fan of D-Pads in general.
They're practically the same as the NES d-pads, which were by far the best d-pads ever made.
They sure don't look or feel practically the same.
(http://gizmodo.com/assets/resources/2008/05/b00005bosf01lzzzzzzz.jpg)
(http://www.aoaforums.com/forum/attachments/the-chop-shop/20349d1182021229-usb-nes-game-pad-1757766008819633.jpg)
Maybe he was talking about the Wii Classic controller?