Has anybody modded NES controller ports to teh front of a Famicom before?

Started by MasonSushi, June 14, 2010, 08:13:41 am

Previous topic - Next topic

ericj

Sorry for the late reply. I didn't realize that you had posted pics.

Here's what I'd do, but there is more than one way to go about wiring this up.

Have a look at 133MHz's schematic--you can see that the 5V+, ground, & latch are shared between all ports. These can each be wired with just one or two connections each. D3 & D4 need wired for each port that you want the zapper to work on. I'd do it for ports 2-4.

Note that this schematic shows the 15 pin port from the console's pov, the cable is a mirror image of it. Your cable should have numbers on the pins.



I may be wrong about this part, but I think if you wire up port 3 to match port 1 (minus D3 & D4) and port 2 to match port 4 (piggyback them), then it should enable it to work with 4 player games. I haven't tested this, so if you try it out, post back if it works or not.

Cut the traces where the orange lines are and wire up the ground, latch & 5V+ where noted. All other connections will need directly wired.



Let me know if this works for you.



Elrinth

Thank you for this reply... My first attempt is a failure... Or a success, difficult to say.
I'm not sure any of my original NES controllers actually work :P
So...
I did however successfully get player two to constantly run right in Blue Shadow when I inserted my Acclaim pad. (which I know is broken-ish)

I'm going to borrow some controllers of my friend tomorrow so I can properly confirm what's working and what's not :P

First things I notice are:
Which green is it? The dark green or the lightrgeen? I soldered both to the LATCH :P
Same with light blue.. I've got two, one which kinda looks like teal and another which looks like lightish blue. Here I only used the light blue, but maybe it really is the one which is turqoise.
Same with dark yellow. I don't have that colour, but I DO have normal yellow and dark brown. I soldered both yellow and brown to same spot.

ericj

The cable you have will have different colors for the wires. You'll have to test the cable to see which wire corresponds to what pin number. The best way to do that is with a multimeter set to the continuity setting, testing the wires one by one and then labeling them with the pin number. If you just went by the colors in the cable, I can guarantee you that it's not wired correctly.

Elrinth

Ahh ofcourse.. Silly me! :) Yeah thanks that is a great idea! I've already used the multimeter to check that the cut lines are indeed cut.

I'll tell you tomorrow how it works out, now it's time for Zzz...

----------

UPDATE

Success.. Player 1 and player 2 enabled... Problem is, I don't have a zapper so I can't test that :P
Had some problem at first where it didn't work cause one of the cables weren't soldered properly.

not so great soldering skills :P

I don't really get how I'm supposed to get p3 and p4 to work? What does piggyback mean?
Wouldn't input from P1 affect P3 aswell if I just drag the cables over there?

Oh and for those interested. The colours of the cables INSIDE the neo geo cable is (stupid me for not realizing that the scheme was indeed mirrored, you even wrote it :P):
1 - Brown - GND
4 - Black - D4(2)
5 - Red - D3(2)
7 - Light Yellow - Data(2)
9 - Pink - Clock(2)
12 - Light Blue - Latch
13 - Dark Blue - Data(1)
14 - Light Purple - Clock(1)
15 - Dark Purple - +5V

---

jpx72


Elrinth

I'm definatly not. I'm using standard tin-lead-ish. I think it's okay. I heard you can put superglue on it afterwards if you are afraid it'll loosen.

ericj


Elrinth

I plugged in Super Spike V'Ball (pal, nes cart). Wasn't able to choose 2v2. Ports 3 and 4 controlled 1 and 2 :)
Did I miss something?

I checked that document and it looks just like indeed p1 and p3 are the same and p2 and p4. But I just don't get it. How is that supposed to work? :)

ericj

Try a different four player game--a famicom cart and not an NES cart.

Elrinth

Ok this is going to take awhile, I need to ebay myself one first! :)

but technically as I understand it, they coded european/american nes games one way for multiplayer and japanese famicom games in another way. Right?
simply just connecting cables between would just make port 3 and port 4 same as port 1 and 2. somewhere from p3 and p4 there needs to be something which shifts the bits before adding them together with p1 and p2. or do i understand it wrong?.

so there's really no way to play 4player pal games on my famicom unless I actually modify inside the console, right?

Edit:
I've got super dodge ball (fami) incoming, so I've finally got some software to try this on. hang tight.

ericj

I'm not sure about that. Are there PAL famicom games--don't think I've ever seen one? Have a look around nesdev, there may be something, or maybe someone on here knows more about 3 & 4 player games and the DA15 pinout on the FC.

Elrinth

Got a japanese game now... Two controllers work.. P3 and P4... I have to use consoles own p1 and p2 controllers.

ericj

Cool, that's how I've since read that they are supposed to work. Makes a 4-player adapter pretty much useless, right, since you only really need 2 ports?  :P

Elrinth

Well the "official" one by HORI supposedly has 4 players which actually works.

It's this one.
But does it really go in the expansion port? Cause there's another port on the famicom which is sort of flat-ish, maybe it goes into that one instead?
Getting one seems close to impossible tho.

ericj

The HORI version probably uses an IC, maybe an ASIC. I'd be interested to see the pcb in it. Maybe manuel or senseiman can find one.

Even with the HORI version, you're still left with four DA15 ports, which isn't very useful for us in the US since the single controllers are kind of expensive. It would help figure out how 4 controllers are supported through the accessory port, through.