You could put all the logic in the USB connector and then not have to modify the shell.
See eg the OMG cable: https://mg.lol/blog/
Building a USB SNES Controller
21–30 of 101 posts
Re: Building a USB SNES Controller
#22[dead]
I did the same but went for an ESP-8266 to connect over WiFi (using UDP).
https://github.com/bonzini/wcc contains both the Arduino sketch and the client that runs under Linux to present a virtual input device.
Re: Building a USB SNES Controller
#23I did something similar by cutting down the PCB of a standard Microsoft game controller and wiring it into an old Wico Command Control joystick (the only thing I kept when I gave away all my C64 stuff - before it became collectible).
https://wandel.ca/pic.cgi?49ceb103
Totally authentic for playing old C64 games in an emulator. But these days, I'd leave the joystick alone and just use an Arduino to do a DB9 to USB translator.
Re: Building a USB SNES Controller
#24I've tried building an arcade stick in the past by having the Arduino emulate a keyboard and doing standard Arduino lib digitalRead of the buttons and sending keypresses (for MAME) over USB. It worked, but the lag was terrible. I wonder if this fares any better. In any case, if you can handle the wait, you can get a knockoff SNES USB pad from China for a few bucks. The plastic will feel way off, but you can probably…
If you're making a home made arcade stick, check out the GP2040-CE project - https://github.com/OpenStickCommunity/GP2040-CE
It's got low latency and good compatibility for a bunch of platforms. Even some compatibility for PS4.
Re: Building a USB SNES Controller
#25RetroUSB has adapters for those not looking for a project. I bought one of their NES adapters years ago. https://www.retrousb.com/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_...
Kind of amazing that you can get a whole controller (including buttons etc.) for a fraction of the cost of an adapter. Probably a less authentic experience though: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005998083106.html
Controllers that cheap generally are made of terrible creeky plastic, mushy buttons and generally poor assembly.
You can get decent retro styled USB controllers, but they will be a bit more expensive than this one.
Re: Building a USB SNES Controller
#26Looking at the described protocol it seems the SNES controller uses a simple 16-bit parallel-in-serial-out shift register - and a quick Google confirmed that.
This means the timing is almost certainly quite loose, and there's a pretty decent chance you might even be able to poll it as the 1kHz "needed" for "serious" gaming. And it'd be pretty trivial to offload the readout to the MCU's SPI peripheral.
Re: Building a USB SNES Controller
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Kind of amazing that you can get a whole controller (including buttons etc.) for a fraction of the cost of an adapter. Probably a less authentic experience though: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005998083106.html
Controllers that cheap generally are made of terrible creeky plastic, mushy buttons and generally poor assembly. You can get decent retro styled USB controllers, but they will be a bit more expensive than this one.
Yeah I love the 8bitdo ones. But they're not inexpensive.
Re: Building a USB SNES Controller
#28Of course completely awesome to make a modification like this. However, if you yourself want a USB SNES controller, consider buying one instead. 8BitDo offers them with the SN 30 Pro - the quality is good, they work with the Nintendo Switch or PC (including Linux), they have the additional buttons needed for modern games, there is a wired and a wireless version and the newer variant has afaik a replaceable battery (u…
Maybe if you want to play super mario, the 8bitdo sn30pro works.
But it has a huge problem of false diagonals, making is absolutely worthless to play tetris, or any fighting game that requires precise control. If you need precise controls, avoid this model.
Re: Building a USB SNES Controller
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
I did try different 8BitDo controllers, and one issue with them is the "multi-mode": in order to make them work with Android/iOS/Windows/whatever, you need to press some key before connecting them, to change the way the OS recognizes the input. Which is a deal-breaker for small children, and prevents keeping things simple (e.g. "remember to disconnect and reconnect the USB before turning the power on", e.g. when usin…
Completely agree. I even had that situation myself - I misremembered how the mode switch/bluetooth pairing mode worked and was not able to connect my controller to a switch, thinking it was broken, until I realized what had happened. A small toggle switch really would be much easier. Still think it's worth it, also to not destroy an original one. On the other hand, better to modify it like this than to throw it away…
The new version does actually use a switch instead of the magic button combination. Agreed on the previous version being annoying. Had many kid debugging sessions when they accidentally switched the mode and “broke” it.
Re: Building a USB SNES Controller
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Controllers that cheap generally are made of terrible creeky plastic, mushy buttons and generally poor assembly. You can get decent retro styled USB controllers, but they will be a bit more expensive than this one.
Yeah I love the 8bitdo ones. But they're not inexpensive.
People are always surprised that the controllers are the largest line item when building a retropie. You really want quality though, they make a big difference in that the dpads and the thumb sticks are both good.