Troubleshoot custom Saturn pad

[sonic47]

Hello,

I have an old MS Sidewinder gameport pad I've been trying to put to use, and have been working on using it as a shell for a custom Sega Saturn controller. That is, building a Saturn circuit according to the diagram at:  http://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?topic=3686.0. The Sidewinder PCB has soldering pads which lead to each button; I soldered wires to those, and those wires are connected up externally to the Saturn circuit where the buttons should be.

For the interface to the computer, I used the parallel port NTPad adapter diagram at:  http://www.ntpad.com.ar/index.php?page=interfaceseng.php&lang=eng. That seems to be the standard diagram for the interface; haven't seen any others.

I'm using XP SP3, and I've tried using NTPad and it's alternated being having only two and about 8 buttons all lit up when you do the config through the gamepad settings. I've also tried PSXPad, but it won't recognize the controller.

Has anyone ever succeeded in making a completed custom Saturn controller, along with using it through the parallel port? I've seen here that a few have built the schematic but I haven't been able to find anyone who has successfully got a homebrew to run through the parallel port. Also, any thoughts on what I could be doing wrong on the setup? I've checked the wiring and everything is correct, although I suppose the pins 'may' have been inadvertently flipped when I made the adapter...i.e. wiring 1 to 9 when I should have done 9 to 1...

Slightly off topic but possibly relevant...has anyone ever succeeded in wiring up a joystick to a keyboard? I was thinking if I could somehow get a button press on the controller to act as a keypress, then I could just have joystick support by setting any emu to "keyboard" and mapping to the right buttons.

Thank you have a good day.

[l_oliveira]

If you're interested in having a little bit of extra work in exchange for awesome connectivity and no wonky drivers/hackware you can assemble this:

http://www.raphnet.net/electronique/saturn_usb/index_en.php

I built one and it's the BEST thing made by man since sliced bread.

This one too:

http://www.raphnet.net/electronique/atari_usb/index_en.php

for Atari, Master System, Mega Drive (3 and 6 button pads) and SNES/NES pads. (Same firmware does all types)