NES & SNES controller modding circuit board (iCade-like)

Discussion in 'General Game Discussion and Questions' started by janekm, Feb 14, 2012.

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How much would you be prepared to pay for a NES modding circuit board?

Poll closed Feb 19, 2012.
  1. Not interested

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  2. <15$

    1 vote(s)
    100.0%
  3. $15-20

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  4. $20+

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  1. spinal

    spinal Well-Known Member

    Mar 15, 2012
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    Just been testing 'keyboard mode', which should allow the joypad to work on any device/software that allows keyboard controls. Currently using the same keys as used by iCade mode. This should work on mac/windows as well as android based devices with a usb port.
     
  2. spinal

    spinal Well-Known Member

    Mar 15, 2012
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    #22 spinal, May 27, 2012
    Last edited: May 27, 2012
    Are there any people who actually bought one of these chips, or am I the only one? To me, this is one of the best things to happen to either the iPad or the SNES joypad.
    Being able to play a lot of iOS games with a SNES (or NES) joypad is great.
    For a start, this is about £40 cheaper than an iCade, or any other iDevice controller, you get to use one of the best joypads ever designed also.
    With the recent firmware updates, you can configure every single button on the joypad, swap them all around till you get tired, using nothing but a text editor (tested on MAC, Windies and iPad). Thats right, this is the ONLY iOS joypad that you can reconfigure without external software or any need to re-flash the device. You can even set it to work like a regular keyboard, allowing you to use it to play a whole host of PC/Mac games also (tested with a handful of emulators).
     
  3. spinal

    spinal Well-Known Member

    Mar 15, 2012
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    Just added Xperia play button mapping, although I have no way to actually test it, it should be OK.

    This should now work on the following -
    iCade games (IOS)
    Android games that allow keyboard controls
    Android games that allow Xperia Play controls
    Windows/Mac/Linux games that allow keyboard controls
     
  4. spinal

    spinal Well-Known Member

    Mar 15, 2012
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    Just added a 4th (mystery) mode, also managed to get the onscreen keyboard toggle working. Software-wize, this is now just as good, if not better that all those bluetooth gamepads you've seen.
     
  5. spinal

    spinal Well-Known Member

    Mar 15, 2012
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    So has this project dried up then? Am I the only person to have an iCade SNES joypad?


    ... Who knows?!...
     
  6. theswiftuk

    theswiftuk New Member

    Oct 18, 2012
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    I've already got a coupe of Tomee SNES USB pads, is it possible to mod the pads so they become USB keyboards not USB game pads without the need for a board ?
     
  7. spinal

    spinal Well-Known Member

    Mar 15, 2012
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    Nope, the firmware of these sorts of gamepads can not be rewritten. Your ONLY hope is to do a conversion similar to this one.
     
  8. theswiftuk

    theswiftuk New Member

    Oct 18, 2012
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    #28 theswiftuk, Oct 30, 2012
    Last edited: Oct 30, 2012
    Thanks. I've bought a coupe of teensy's so im gonna have a go a converting the pads
     
  9. Thorwan

    Thorwan Well-Known Member

    Aug 4, 2010
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    Hmm, so what would I need to built a device that works like this:

    USB Gamepad -> Small thing with USB in and USB out -> iPad

    The "thing" should do some kind of USB joypad to USB keyboard conversion without the need of permanent soldering and be icade compatible (button press/release). Also, it should be programmable to support different Game Controllers. I would really love something like that for my arcade sticks (but without permanently sacrificing them to only work like this). Any suggestions?
     
  10. janekm

    janekm Member

    Apr 1, 2009
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    That's correct. A (likely) suitable device would be an Arduino Due, which has an Atmega16U2 (looks to be a cut down version of the Atmega32U2 so a port of the firmware might be possible, you might need to remove some of the nice features added by spinal though to make it fit) and an Arm processor with a USB port which can support host mode (so you could plug your existing game controllers into that).

    There'd be a fair amount of programming work needed to make all that work though, on both processors involved.

    Also, the Atmega16U2 on the Due is usually used for programming the Arm chip, so if you reprogram that you'd likely need an external programmer / debugger.

    I did briefly consider creating a device like you are looking for a while ago, but gave up in the end as it just turns into too complicated a device for my taste, needing two microcontrollers (or a rather expensive one with two USB controllers).
     
  11. spinal

    spinal Well-Known Member

    Mar 15, 2012
    49
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