Mega Drive controller on Saturn

[micro]

I found the pinout in the SMPC manual.
And yes, it really works 

Sat Pin#	a.k.a.	MD Pin#
1	VCC	5
2	D1	2
3	D0	1
4	S0	7
5	S1	9
6	5V input	6
7	D3	4
8	D2	3
9	GND	8

So the saturn will toggle s0 to read the states of all the other pins:

so	s1	+5v input	d3	d2	d1	d0
1	C	B	right	left	down	up
0	start	A	0	0	down	up

I tried some of my games, but not every single one. It seems only games by Sega are compatible with the Megadrive Controller. Apparently in 1997 or so even Sega dropped support, but in the end that was reasonable as there was no MD->SAT pad adaptor available, was it?

working:
Daytona USA
Sega Rally
Virtua Fighter
Virtua Fighter 2
Panzer Dragoon 2
Saturn system menu

not working:
Fighter's Megamix
Dead or Alive
Parodius Deluxe Pack
Sega Touring Car Championship
Shinobi
Saturn Bomberman
Sonic R
Sonic Jam (that's a shame)

[NFG]

Hot damn, I've been looking for this for a while.   The Saturn docs suggested this was possible, but I never found or had time to work out the pinout.  I'm not at all surprised to find it's limited to earlier softs either.  It was probably used by devs, if by anyone. 

Good work.  =D

[micro]

Thanks 

I'd like to add that I no longer possess a Mega Drive controller. So I directly hooked up a 74HC157 to the Saturn pins, quick and dirty.
Maybe someone could test compatibility with a 6 button controller. It could be better, or even worse. The pinout is the same.

I also could imagine that it would be possible to use some Action Replay codes to make MD controllers appear as Saturn controllers to the game software. But writing those codes is beyond my skills. So the whole thing is pretty useless, right? But it's good to know that MD controllers actually work on the Saturn, haha 

[micro]

I borrowed a 3 button MD controller from a friend and tested some more games:
(all games are jap. versions)

Burning Rangers
Daytona USA
Daytone USA C.E.
Dead or Alive
Destruction Derby
Donpachi
Dodonpachi
Dynamite Deka
Fatal Fury 3
Fantasic Pinball
Fighting Vipers
Fighter's Megamix
Galaxy Force II
Hang on GP 95
House of the Dead
King the Spirits
Last Bronx
Mortal Kombat II
Namie Amuro Digital Dance Mix
Nights
Christmas Nights
Panzer Dragoon
Panzer Dragoon 2
Parodius Deluxe Pack
Puzzle Bobble 2x
Puzzle Bobble 3
Salamander Deluxe Pack
Saturn system menu
Saturn Bomberman
Sega Rally
Sega Touring Car Championship
Shanghai Triple Threat
Shinobi X
Sky Target
Sonic Jam
Sonic R
Toshinden S
Toshinden URA
Virtua Fighter
Virtua Fighter Remix
Virtua Fighter 2
Virtua Fighter Kids
Virtua Cop
Virtua Cop 2
Virtual On
Wipeout (works fine in main menu but no function during race)

It's interesting that there are some game series that didn't support the MD pad in the fist game but added MD pad support to the sequel (Panzer Dragoon, Donpachi, Puzzle Bobble, Toshinden).

[l_oliveira]

I think that's more related to the version of the SDK used to compile/assemble these games than the title themselves.

[micro]

You're probably right.