- #Snes emulators that recognize usb controllers install
- #Snes emulators that recognize usb controllers code
If you want the most nostalgic, square, corners-jutting-into-your-palms NES controller, this is the best one we’ve used. Unfortunately, the NES gamepad is so simple that the market seems to be flooded with cheap, low-quality replicas, most of which have poor production and serious control issues. The original Nintendo Entertainment System (or Famicom, if you’re a stickler for the Japanese version) doesn’t have the most ergonomic controller design, but the little rectangle has a lasting appeal all its own. I’m still waiting on my über-tiny flash drive to arrive in the mail.Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) Controllers
#Snes emulators that recognize usb controllers code
Thorough write up with step-by-step pictures, part list, and code in the next post. Also, it’s (mostly) compatible with Arduino’s language and libraries, so my previous experience and Arduino’s large codebase come in super handy. It’s a very small AVR board with hardware support for USB keyboard, mouse, and many other profiles. This time around, I’ll be using a Teensy 2.0. Unfortunately, RetroZone doesn’t have stock most of the time, so if you want to go that route you may have to wait an unspecified length of time. I was under a time crunch and it was so much simpler than a keyboard’s encoder, so I went with it. The only problem was that it presented as a gamepad only, which most would actually prefer, but for reasons mentioned above I would have preferred keyboard. It was a huge savings in controller space and time of install.
It was perfect in that it was tiny and spoke directly to the controller’s chip, instead of to each button (solder 5 wires instead of 13). The second time around (again, at a friend’s request), I took a big short shortcut and used a Retro Kit from RetroZone. Remember to pick key combinations that won’t ghost each other! The whole process was daunting, but it worked perfectly. I bypassed the SNES controller’s brain and went directly to each side of the buttons, wiring them to the keyboard encoder. It took a couple tries before I found a keyboard whose encoder was small enough to fit, and pinning out the key matrix was a pain. Similar to this, but without replacing all the other parts. The first time around, I used a keyboard encoder from an actual keyboard. The only thing that has really changed between my different builds is the method I went from the controller itself to USB. There’s some room inside the controller, but not a ton of it, so small is good. Basically, you take a USB hub, a USB flash drive, and something to change the controller to USB, and shove it all in a controller. Most recently Devlin Thyne’s tutorial at LadyAda’s site covered this. I am not the first person to do this type of project. As a keyboard, as long as the second player uses a different set of keys as the first, no configurations will ever have to be changed. Or if I wanted to make a second controller for multiplayer (without flash drive ), it would matter which order I plugged them in. But if there’s another connected, it could be gamepad2, etc. As a gamepad, if the target computer has no other game controllers, my controller will be gamepad1.
I can configure the emulator once and be done with it. As a keyboard, the letter ‘x’ will always be the letter ‘x’. I chose to go with a USB keyboard as opposed to a USB joystick/gamepad for configuration simplicity.
#Snes emulators that recognize usb controllers install
Also, since most modern operating systems support USB keyboards and USB Mass Storage Devices directly, you won’t need to install any drivers to use this. I can put Windows/Linux/Mac versions of the emulators on there if I like. The emulator and ROMs will be stored on the flash drive. To explain a bit further, this controller will present as a USB keyboard and a flash drive. What I’m building is a Super Nintendo controller that you can plug into any computer and play games. I like this third method the most for both its elegance and the fact that I actually wrote some of the code running inside it. I didn’t really document it before, so I’ll try and do it this time. I’m revisiting this for a third time at the request of a friend, and I’ll be doing it differently yet again. I’ve actually done this project twice before, using different methods each time.