garyopa
04-29-2012, 11:39 AM
Introducing the smallest Nintendo 64 controller in the world
http://www.maxconsole.com/maxconsole/contents/RKLS0000007533/icon_xl.jpg
A curious mod to miniaturize to the max the original Nintendo 64 control pad.
We are bringing you today another retro story, this time about a curious mod of a Nintendo 64 mini controller. The modding is cute but apart from that is not so good to play and lack many buttons of the original Nintendo 64 controller. Anyway, is a cool thing and a way to rise the old-retro spirit.
The Controller works by constantly updating its inputs and an interrupt triggers the controller to read the data line for communication. The console initiates all communication so the approach works quite well although it would be impossible with even a slightly lower clock speed.
The two largest constraints with working with the 16f628a were the number of inputs and speed of the micro. The 20Mhz is internally divided by 4 to get a clock speed of 5 cycles a microsecond. Considering that the controller bit bangs a signal with a 1us resolution of sorts then there aren't any instruction cycles to waste. The N64 console sends 4 distinct commands of which 2 are implemented. The status and button request are the only commands which are needed for the vast majority of games.
When using a crystal and dedicating one input to the data line there are just enough inputs to to implement the most commonly used buttons on the N64 controller. These are Start, A, B, R, Z and the C buttons. Of course the joystick is kinda good as well.
After working out a fairly functional PIC based controller I wanted a good way to show off my fairly uninteresting breadboard project. Creating the smallest N64 controller ever seemed like a good idea to show off the controller's ability. I put together the controller over the course of a weekend for a competition on the Benheck forums. The triggers are mapped to R and Z and to save space on the controller the C buttons were replaced with a 4 directional tact switch.
As you can see the directional tact doesn't have its button face on it. I had one C button from a dead controller which I dropped behind my desk while I was building the controller and I never found it again.
The controller worked fairly well but as with nearly all projects there are improvements that I'd like to make. These include improving the how the joystick is handled, adding macros, an option to remap buttons, more joysticks (like a C stick similar to the gamecube) and implementing the rumble and memory pack.
Rather than continue with the limited hardware the next iteration of the N64 controller will use a faster micro with more inputs and enough memory to implement all of these functions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT_C8aPI8m8
OFFICIAL SITE: http://code.google.com/p/micro-64-controller/wiki/Mini64Controller
Our thanks to 'Kaois2K' for this news story!
http://www.maxconsole.com/maxconsole/contents/RKLS0000007533/icon_xl.jpg
A curious mod to miniaturize to the max the original Nintendo 64 control pad.
We are bringing you today another retro story, this time about a curious mod of a Nintendo 64 mini controller. The modding is cute but apart from that is not so good to play and lack many buttons of the original Nintendo 64 controller. Anyway, is a cool thing and a way to rise the old-retro spirit.
The Controller works by constantly updating its inputs and an interrupt triggers the controller to read the data line for communication. The console initiates all communication so the approach works quite well although it would be impossible with even a slightly lower clock speed.
The two largest constraints with working with the 16f628a were the number of inputs and speed of the micro. The 20Mhz is internally divided by 4 to get a clock speed of 5 cycles a microsecond. Considering that the controller bit bangs a signal with a 1us resolution of sorts then there aren't any instruction cycles to waste. The N64 console sends 4 distinct commands of which 2 are implemented. The status and button request are the only commands which are needed for the vast majority of games.
When using a crystal and dedicating one input to the data line there are just enough inputs to to implement the most commonly used buttons on the N64 controller. These are Start, A, B, R, Z and the C buttons. Of course the joystick is kinda good as well.
After working out a fairly functional PIC based controller I wanted a good way to show off my fairly uninteresting breadboard project. Creating the smallest N64 controller ever seemed like a good idea to show off the controller's ability. I put together the controller over the course of a weekend for a competition on the Benheck forums. The triggers are mapped to R and Z and to save space on the controller the C buttons were replaced with a 4 directional tact switch.
As you can see the directional tact doesn't have its button face on it. I had one C button from a dead controller which I dropped behind my desk while I was building the controller and I never found it again.
The controller worked fairly well but as with nearly all projects there are improvements that I'd like to make. These include improving the how the joystick is handled, adding macros, an option to remap buttons, more joysticks (like a C stick similar to the gamecube) and implementing the rumble and memory pack.
Rather than continue with the limited hardware the next iteration of the N64 controller will use a faster micro with more inputs and enough memory to implement all of these functions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT_C8aPI8m8
OFFICIAL SITE: http://code.google.com/p/micro-64-controller/wiki/Mini64Controller
Our thanks to 'Kaois2K' for this news story!