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[xenepp]

I'm just thinking with all these fantastic emulators available are we really limited to using the horrid Xbox pad? There are a number of superb SNES/N64/Megadrive/Sega/etc to USB converters out there and since the Xbox pad ports are USB themselves, would it be hard to write a HID driver to use in emulators? I know a couple like UAEx supports USB keyboards and that is a HID compliant device.

Playing Zsnexbox would be amazing using my old SNES pads! Heck, even a bog standard PC pad would be more suited to SNES emulation!

I know you can hack an old xbox pad but it's so messy and pretty limiting when you can build a circuit that fits inside the actual controller and just plug it in.

Am I dreaming or am I not knowing they are already supported?

This post has been edited by xenepp: Apr 24 2009, 10:31 PM

[nate1579]

that would be awesome but if they could of done it i think they would have by now i could be wrong so don't. hold me to it

[xenepp]

Yeah that's what I was thinking. I know there is some level of control over the pad ports but to what extent I don't know. I assume it'd be another overhead so might not be possible.

Failing this though since there is an adaptor out there that mimics an Xbox pad (uPCB) I suppose it'd be a case of someone pulling the code from that and implementing it in a retropad>USB project that already exists. Not that I have the brains for that, unless it'd be as simple as swapping device descriptors which I doubt. I don't know much about USB protocols.

[DarthMingus]

The VGA controller mod is actually very clean if you take your time. Here is a link to it:

http://forums.xbox-s...howtopic=510168

Using this tutorial as a guide, I've been able to mod the following controllers. Please note that I ended up not using a VGA cord though, since they only have about 12 wires nowadays. I used a DB-15 and a DB-25 cord to create two controller "bridges."

Using DB-15

Atari 2600 Joystick
Atari 7800 Joystick
NES Pad
NES Advantage (no turbo)
SMS Pad
SMS Joystick
SNES Pad
SNES Advantage
Genesis 3 button
Genesis 6 button (no turbo)
TG-16 Pad

Using DB-25

Atari 5200
Nintendo 64
Colecovision

The later controllers using the DB-25 cables were definitely more difficult to do.

For the 5200 controller, I ended up installing an Xbox thumbstick to the controller, in place of the ancient pot system it had. As soon as I have a chance I'm going to post a tutorial on how I did that one here and at AtariAge. Truth be told, its a bit of a hack job, but it works well and looks authentic. The stick self-centers as well, so its actually probably an improvement on the "real" 5200 controller. I also had to use diodes in order to create an extra button, that's actually recognized as a button press combo by the emulator.

I'm including picts below of the N64 controller I modded. Since I did this recently, I have them handy. You'll see that the analog thumbstick has been replaced. Since the official N64 controller used a weird tracking system and not pots, there was no hope of the Xbox interpreting that and I don't have the know-how to program  a microcontroller.

My first attempt was to use a third-party controller, which did use pots. Unfortunately, the Xbox using 100k pots and it seemed like those N64 controllers operated at 50k. It worked, but tracking was really slow.

I was reading this forum post at Racketboy and it gave me an idea. I would take an official N64 controller, remove the digital thumbstick and replace it with an Xbox thumbstick. In order to keep it looking "Nintendo" I used a Gamecube thumbstick top. I did have to file down the thumbstick "stick" to make it fit properly. Also, I had to do a LOT of dremeling to get this to work. All in all, the mod took me a solid afternoon and it works great!

Unfortunately, there is a good bit of slowdown on the Xbox's N64 emulator, especially in Majora's Mask. Don't get me wrong, the emulator is fantastic, the Xbox just doesn't have the horsepower for some of these games. This motivated me to finally make an Xbox to USB adapter, a soldering job that took me all of 10 minutes. I downloaded the custom drivers from RedCloud and now I can use the N64 and all of the other controllers with PC emulators, if the Xbox ever fails.





Anyway, I hope this shows that this method is not "messy or limiting." Many thanks to all the people that wrote these tutorials! If anyone wants, I can post picts of the other controllers as well, just let me know.

[Mega Man (?)]

Post more pics!!!!

[robot3]

though I am replying to a super old thread, what might work is getting a "whatever controller" to pc usb adapter (since those seem to be common) and then getting a regular xbox controller expansion cable. There are guides on how to do this but essentially you cut the xbox cable and the usb controller cable and merge the two (I think only 1 wire on the xbox end was not attached to the USB wires and that being a grey one). I did that (using a guide I think that was on here) so I could hook in a usb 5 port hub for keyboard and mouse many years ago.

technically then you can go into any emulator on the xbox and re-assign the buttons to whatever controller you are using.

so it would look like this

super nes controller plugged into a usb port device and then that wire instead of going to a usb was then connected to cut xbox controller wire and then plugged into the xbox controller port

[Xmodder deluX]

That would be a cool idea to use the adapters instead of mutilating the old skool controllers.  You might be able to use an xbox to usb adapter like this one along with the old skool controller to usb adapter.  I'm just wondering if the controllers would be recognized or not because they might need drivers.

[robot3]

QUOTE(Xmodder deluX @ Jan 12 2011, 11:55 PM)

That would be a cool idea to use the adapters instead of mutilating the old skool controllers.  You might be able to use an xbox to usb adapter like this one along with the old skool controller to usb adapter.  I'm just wondering if the controllers would be recognized or not because they might need drivers.

most of the adapters had the needed drivers built into them. I am almost positive I own a sega saturn/dreamcast to usb for pc adapter. I wll fish that out and plug it into the usb5 port i have for my xbox, just out of curiousity to see if I can use it or if it even gets picked up at all

[Xmodder deluX]

Well, I just tried my old Logitech playstation-type controller for my pc and it was not recognized at all.  Other controllers may work though.

[Xboxer64]

Technically possible, but the xbox isn't going to detect pc gamepads. Imagine trying to use the gamepad on your computer without drivers for it. Same situation. The emulators on the xbox would have to be coded to work with that specific gamepad.

[robot3]

QUOTE(Xboxer64 @ Jan 13 2011, 05:22 AM)

Technically possible, but the xbox isn't going to detect pc gamepads. Imagine trying to use the gamepad on your computer without drivers for it. Same situation. The emulators on the xbox would have to be coded to work with that specific gamepad.

yeah I was going to report that plugging in my ps2 to pc adapter in the usb hub for my xbox did not work at all. Well it was at least worth a try. Hmm however those ps2 to xbox contoller port adapters do work (search ebay for ps2 to xbox or playstation2xbox). Wonder if it would be possible to change (mod) the actual port but leave everything else? In that sense though with less buttons you could technically get another controller to work since the adapter seems to be loading drivers of some sort onto the xbox

[robot3]

just found this Snes to PC usb adapter

technically you can should be able to splice this usb cable with an xbox controller cable and in theory it should then work (or what might work better is create a USB female adapter at the end of an xbox controller cable so the male adapter could hook right in from these controller types. That is assuming it may work like the ps2 to xbox adapter does

UPDATE you don't have to splice anything an xbox contoller to usb female adapter wire already exist on ebay

link here for SNES to PC
http://www.divineo.com/cgi-bin/div-us/zz-pc-snes


FULL UPDATE: ok I ordered the female usb to xbox controller wire (this is made for keyboard and mouse but should work just the same) and though I did not get it from the link above, I did snag that exact snes to pc usb adapter from ebay. Now I choose this adapter and not the 2000 others listed because it says it needs no drivers to install, just plug and play. Once this all comes in I will let you know if it actually worked or not, be cool if it does.

This post has been edited by robot3: Jan 14 2011, 10:11 AM

[dballs442]

Hey DarthMingus will you make a video of how you made those N64 controllers? and how well they work?