What a lam0r (roflmaolol [^^ hax0r])

[atom]

Well, slashdot has done it again. You have to give them credit for trying, but they know nothing about the articles they let be posted. This is so sad, paying 17 bucks for a usb IC to put in an nes controller.

When Emulation Isn't Enough
Posted by timothy on Wednesday September 08, @12:02PM
from the fool-your-enemies dept.
oldskoolar writes "For those of you who find emulation of your favorite Nintendo games disconcerting with a keyboard interface, Joystiq may have just the project you've been looking for. For those of you with more time than most people have ambition; why not couple this hack with an older mod."

[Staceman]

I read over the article, and I didn't see anything about the USB chip; it says that he wired the controller interface up to his parallel port.

Pretty cool project, IMO.

[atom]

Uh, no, click the link thats right in the article i posted.

[Aidan]

What's sad about paying $19 US for a pre-programmed microcontroller and support components? Most people can't program their own, and don't have the skills to write code.

I agree that it seems rather expensive at first sight. The PIC16C74 comes in at about $8.00 for small lots. The rest of the components are pretty cheap, so they're charging around $8-10 for their code. That's not really that expensive when you look at it from that perspective!

[atom]

Because a cheap usb pad is half as much, take the IC out of that. I just thought it was silly ordering premade mod kits.

[Martin]

Because a cheap usb pad is half as much, take the IC out of that. I just thought it was silly ordering premade mod kits.

Exactly, half as much, but then... technically, It depends, I myself don;t enjoy sacrificing other pads to mod other pads... so I'd rather get chips separetly.

[Aidan]

The PIC chip they offer appears to interface via whatever protocol the NES itself uses, rather than replacing the internals of the pad.  At a guess, if you could get hold of the NES connectors, you could build a little converter box rather than break into the existing NES pad.

[NFG]

It's a pretty neat hack, but yeah, an external device would have been nicer for the end user.  I'd imagine a lack of available NES-style sockets precluded that little dream.

Coding for USB is pretty irritating, IMO.  It's very timing dependant, not as easy as hacking up, say, a PCE or Saturn pad.

[Adeptus]

Because a cheap usb pad is half as much, take the IC out of that. I just thought it was silly ordering premade mod kits.

Can you recommend any that have easy to work with chips?
Most have surface mount or worse, a black 'blob' rather than a 'proper' chip.

Another alternative. I've gotten hold of a couple of JoyWarrior chips from http://www.codemercs.com/ . Only 8-9 Euro, but you have to get them in from Germany... the distributor I contacted has a base price for international shipping of about 25 euro... :blink: (I managed to get them from elsewhere)

Still haven't got the other parts I need... 2 pin ceramic resonators & some uncommon resistor values. Have found a source, just have to order the damn things.

[atom]

Oh that is pretty neat if it works with the actual snes protocol. Yeah you could make something pretty cool out of that. *I bow down*

[Ultimate Dev'r]

Most have surface mount or worse, a black 'blob' rather than a 'proper' chip.

BTW what is that "black blob"? Is it like some kind of material that the manufacturer puts over the IC or is it the IC itself?

[NFG]

It's epoxy to protect the chip inside.  The chip itself is no different than what you find inside any normally packaged chip.  A small silicon wafer.

[Ultimate Dev'r]

Oh.....anyway to remove it? I've tried but to no avail.

[NFG]

Nope, it's permanent.  Cut up the PCB if you want to transport the chip.

[Adeptus]

It's a pretty neat hack, but yeah, an external device would have been nicer for the end user.  I'd imagine a lack of available NES-style sockets precluded that little dream.

They do offer converted 'multi-tap' boxes... plug up to 4 SNES pads in. (US$50 though...)
Or I suppose you could look for a (S)NES extension cable, to build your own external box with.
Or... build it into a PC-in-a-(S)NES-box!

I was very tempted to get some cheap wireless SNES pads & mod the receiver box with one of these chips... then decided I had enough mods-in-progress already...