The N64/PC Controler Project


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March 12, 1998: Well, I finally have a circuit diagram that I believe works. Thanks to moosehead@geocities.com, I modified my design to conform to his. It is as follows:

PC Parallel Port N64 Controller

---------------- ------------------

GND 18 ------------ 1 GND

/ACK 10 ------------ 2 Data

DATA002 ----|<------ 2 Data

DATA7 09 ------------ 3 Vcc (+5V)


-----

| o o o |

---------

1 2 3

I've been hacking away at a test program to verify that it works, but have had little success, mainly to the fact that I'm half asleep. The only thing that looks hopeful is in QBasic (yeah, I know) the line INP(%H378) returns 79 for me with the controler, 115 for another machine, and 0 for another. I believe that means nothing, but it's teh best I have. I'm going to start frest tomorrow, and hope for the best. Anyone who could help me out in any way please do! As soon as this is done, and learn how to get any useable info, I can start to program the protocol for the controler as well as the 4 controler version, which should be simple if you know anything about circuit diagrams like the one above.

March 10, 1998: Sorry for the lack of updates over the last few days. I've been a little busy. I have made some progress however. I had a good email session with Benji York of SNESKey fame, and have gotten some ideas and advice. Right now I am using the parallel port. I think I was having a relapse or something during the last update. What was I thinking. SO what does this mean? It means that this thing will take a lot of CPU time to run. I dont have any system requirements at this point. My advice would be to go by the Project Unreality specs. Don't get all upset though. I have a few things I want to try first.

The biggest news is that I have an initial prototype circuit design done and created. I am currently working on a program to test it. It is a very simple design, and hasent damaged anything (yet), so far so good. I should have an update on this tomorrow. I'm not posting any designs yet, as to the fact they may not work, but if all is good I'll make a graphic of it tomorrow. In total, the adapter cost less than $5, plus $10 for the extension, and was a pretty simple soldering job, although my poor soldering skills are evident in the worksmanship. I hope to have an update tomorrow, and possibly the program I create so everyone can start building their own. If this works well, it will be easy to go to a 4 player adapter. More on that later.

March 7, 1998: First off, i noticed the bad job of html coding i've been doing on this page. I'll have to reorganize it sometime this week. I also came up with a snappy name for this project with a friend of mine (Shout out to Big Jim). I mean, look it it. It is a trident!

It's 1 AM and I had to do a lot of moving today, so there isn't much news. I finally got an N64 controler. It's a High Performance brand SuperPad 64, and I got an extention cable to hack up by the same company. The pad was $19.96 and the cable was $9.96 at WalMart, which I consider a good buy (They had green!) Tomorrow, I'm gonna tear into this beast and make a qucik run to Radio Shack to get some parts. This brings me to my next topic. I'm going to design it for the DB-25 Serial Port instead of the parallel port. I have seen many circuit diagrams using this port, and have recieved a lot of email, which I am thankful for, about the slowness of the parallel port. Now I may go to the game port, I dont know. It's to early for me to be definate on what I'm going to do exactly. That's about all the news for now. I plan to start documenting the information I have, which as of now is all about the analog stick and drivers. Your email has been my greates resource. Expect a report later today.

March 5, 1998: Before I say anything, I am going to say wow and thank you to all the emulation news pages who posted a link to my page. In less than one day, I have recieved a great deal of email about the project and quite a bit of info.

Perhaps the most important information I recieved is that a company called Console Cables (I believe) that sells cables that allow up to two N64 controlers to be used through the game port, keyboard port, PS2 port on a notebook, and on Macs. The cable sells for $22, and their page is found at http://www.erols.com/konsol/ and the even have an Australian branch. They have also informed me that the are currently working on supporting the rumble pack. I urge you to look into their product if you want a product that works, don't trust your own soldering skills, or want to spend some money for one. As of now I will not be selling adaptors and have no plans to.

With all of the info I have accumulated, I have decided to design a set of specs for my project. As of now, I'm designign this around the parallel port, although I have been informed that it is too slow. I'm going to go back to the drawing board on that part. Aside from that, I'm going to support this under Windows 95, and possibly DOS and Linux in the future. Remember, this project is still in the preliminary to change, and a lot will change. I dont have much time, so I'll have more info tomorrow.

March 4, 1998: This page has been begun. I've scowered the net for any info on the N64 controler, and my search has turned up nothing (although I think I now know everything for every OTHER controler). I spent some time brainstorming with my roomate about how the controler works, and have narrowed it down to two good possibilities. Now remember that this controler isn't just an input device. It does input and output, making it far more complex, right off the bat. I believe that the port on the console outputs either: 1) Ground 2) +5V DC 3) Bidirectional I/O OR 1) Ground 2) Input 3) Output (getting power from 2 and 3). I am leaning towards the first option, however. So what this all mean? Well, there's most likley a protocol for the I/O to go through. That means software emulation! YAY! Well, spring break is coming up next week, and I plan to buy a sacrificial controler and get started on this project.


Questions, comments, info, donations: malenko@geocities.com

© 1998 Malenko Software Design

© 1998 Dennis Brown