HELP BUILDING NES ARCADE STICK

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everydayJOE
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HELP BUILDING NES ARCADE STICK

Post by everydayJOE »

Hi there,

I am a new user to racketboy and need some advice, information, links or any knowledge at all about arcade sticks.
I am building a custom NES arcade cabinet, and would like to build an arcade stick to build into the cabinet. I have some very very basic knowledge about soldering. But thats about all.... PLEASE HELP! :?:
Hatta
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Re: HELP BUILDING NES ARCADE STICK

Post by Hatta »

Why not just use the NES Advantage? It's an awesome controller.
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skate323k137
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Re: HELP BUILDING NES ARCADE STICK

Post by skate323k137 »

http://arcadecontrols.com/arcade.htm

theres a pretty good guide and a forum there although i'm unsure how active.

for the most part you're going to have to take apart a couple of controllers and solder to the button contacts. its a bit tedious but if NES controllers are like most, there will be a common ground you can solder to, and then after you 'loop' that through all of your buttons/switches, you've just got one wire to run from each contact to the other post on each microswitch. you can see a saturn stick i did this with at http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... =25&t=5305, but in that one i didn't have to solder to the PCB itself as there were wires i could use. I did solder to an offbrand PS2 controller before just for the hell of it and it worked fine. good luck!
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RadarScope1
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Re: HELP BUILDING NES ARCADE STICK

Post by RadarScope1 »

Hatta wrote:Why not just use the NES Advantage? It's an awesome controller.
Good but not great. The Advantage stick doesn't "click" like a real arcade-quality stick and instead feels mushy. The buttons are good but also not arcade quality. I enjoy playing Donkey Kong with the Advantage but there are points where it just doesn't work, like as you're getting to the top of a ladder and need to quickly move left or right. It's sometimes just not responsive enough for fast-pace play.

Worthwhile project considering all the arcade ports on the NES, as well as many other arcade-inspired games in its library.
everydayJOE
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Re: HELP BUILDING NES ARCADE STICK

Post by everydayJOE »

RadarScope1 wrote:
Hatta wrote:Why not just use the NES Advantage? It's an awesome controller.
Good but not great. The Advantage stick doesn't "click" like a real arcade-quality stick and instead feels mushy. The buttons are good but also not arcade quality. I enjoy playing Donkey Kong with the Advantage but there are points where it just doesn't work, like as you're getting to the top of a ladder and need to quickly move left or right. It's sometimes just not responsive enough for fast-pace play.

Worthwhile project considering all the arcade ports on the NES, as well as many other arcade-inspired games in its library.
True very true. I have an advantage, but considering the stickiness and unresponse of the buttions and stick it is not a good for my project. And besides, I want to build one that actually looks like it's built into the cabinet. Not just a cheap controller glued to the front.
everydayJOE
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Re: HELP BUILDING NES ARCADE STICK

Post by everydayJOE »

skate323k137 wrote:http://arcadecontrols.com/arcade.htm

theres a pretty good guide and a forum there although i'm unsure how active.

for the most part you're going to have to take apart a couple of controllers and solder to the button contacts. its a bit tedious but if NES controllers are like most, there will be a common ground you can solder to, and then after you 'loop' that through all of your buttons/switches, you've just got one wire to run from each contact to the other post on each microswitch. you can see a saturn stick i did this with at http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... =25&t=5305, but in that one i didn't have to solder to the PCB itself as there were wires i could use. I did solder to an offbrand PS2 controller before just for the hell of it and it worked fine. good luck!
Thanks a lot! This website has every drop of information I need. Wish me luck!
eSPy
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Re: HELP BUILDING NES ARCADE STICK

Post by eSPy »

Atari 2600 Jr., NES, Gameboy, Genesis 1 and 2, Saturn, Virtual Boy, Gameboy Advance (with Supercard SD), Playstation (With Goldfinger), Nintendo 64, Playstation 2(modded), Nintendo DS (Fat) with Edge
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elvis
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Re: HELP BUILDING NES ARCADE STICK

Post by elvis »

Using old all-digital controllers is a trivial task to make arcade sticks. You can be the most ham-fisted solderer on the planet and still get a working stick.

Just follow the traces, and solder each side to your arcade button's microswitches. If you have a multi-tester (even a cheap $15 unit), go one step further and find the common ground to do less soldering.

Easy stuff. I've done everything from Master System to XBox 360 and in between over the years. It's the only way to play arcade-style games on home consoles.
eSPy
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Re: HELP BUILDING NES ARCADE STICK

Post by eSPy »

not sure if you need this or not but i found it interesting. its the pinout diagram with info for both the NES and SNES controller

http://pinouts.ru/Game/snescontroller_pinout.shtml

this site is really useful for different projects. helped me to make a USB charger for an older cellphone
Atari 2600 Jr., NES, Gameboy, Genesis 1 and 2, Saturn, Virtual Boy, Gameboy Advance (with Supercard SD), Playstation (With Goldfinger), Nintendo 64, Playstation 2(modded), Nintendo DS (Fat) with Edge
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