Page 1 of 1

Connector/adapter - SNES controller to NES?

Posted: Sat Jul 10, 2010 12:41 am
by Anapan
I just found out Tototek makes a PS1/2 controller adapter for SNES while looking for a good SNES arcade controller:
http://www.tototek.com/store/index.php? ... ucts_id=53
Of course I bought it right away.
Now I'm wondering if it's possible to connect a Super Nintendo controller to my Nintendo and through that use my PSX Hori arcade controller to play NES Shmups?

Anyone ever heard of such a thing or know if I could just get a SNES and NES pinout to make this adapter myself?

Re: Connector/adapter - SNES controller to NES?

Posted: Sat Jul 10, 2010 3:40 am
by benderx
I found snes Arcade stick, but this was a very strange to me because I had never seen this monster before. It looks like someone rip apart Street fighter 2 arcade cabinet replaced components with a super nintendo plug controller. No I didn't buy it reasons are: probably broken, some did snes mod, heavy , and 10 bucks for it.

Re: Connector/adapter - SNES controller to NES?

Posted: Sat Jul 10, 2010 10:15 pm
by TabJSR
I Don't think that there is such a thing. It might be easy to develop, though.

Re: Connector/adapter - SNES controller to NES?

Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2010 2:46 am
by zxqdms
I'm pretty sure the SNES controller and NES controller work in a very similar way. I believe the NES uses a single parallel to serial shift register, and the SNES uses two connected in series. The adapter is as easy as replacing an SNES controller plug with an NES one. I think B will be mapped to A, and Y to B. This snes pinout website might help.

Re: Connector/adapter - SNES controller to NES?

Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2010 6:27 pm
by zxqdms
I can verify that the pinouts on that site that I linked to previously are correct. I spliced together an NES and SNES extension cord to create an adapter. I don't think the wire colors on the website are useful. It's best to verify which wire maps to which pin on the port yourself.

The adapter worked with official SNES controllers, but gave weird behavior with the crappy clone SNES controllers that are so common on eBay. I guess the parallel to serial chips used in the official controllers differ from what the clones use. The clone controller does work correctly in an actual SNES, I tried that to make sure it wasn't the controller. Apparently, it is close enough for the SNES to read the controller, but not the NES.

So, making a simple adapter like this may or may not work with your PS to SNES adapter, depending on how close it operates to the official SNES controllers.

Re: Connector/adapter - SNES controller to NES?

Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 5:28 am
by Anapan
Brilliant! I'll be making one up as soon as my new hardware arrives. Thanks for your valuable information and time spent verifying it. I'll document my progress as I make this adapter, and post the work-log here.

Re: Connector/adapter - SNES controller to NES?

Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2010 2:45 pm
by burn_654
A small note, if that route doesn't work:

http://www.tototek.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=23&products_id=56

This adapter allows psx controllers on famicom clones. While not going to NES specifically, it should be the right kind of signal you would need. For instance, I've hacked an NES pad so it could be used on a famiclone, just requires some pin rearrangement (pretty simple, not all nine pins of pirate joypads are used anyway, typically.) The same thought shows that it shouldn't be hard at all to make a converter or hack on an American NES plug to this Famiclone adapter.

I'd just keep it in mind if what mentioned earlier does happen (if the signal is not *correct* enough for the nes to take.) Considering that this does make an nes signal primarily, just the plug is wrong.