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Posted By

GeTE
on 2023-08-10
12:27:11

Re: NES-style Gamepad for the 264 made by AutumnHippo

I am hard working to get all my retro ideas out of my head by writing them down in this forum to see the reactions. Later. Now the weather will become better and I need the feedback on decals when autumn falls (for AutumnHippo

).

Well, but what do you think about the SNES-controller? The 8-Bit Guy chose it for Attack of the PETSCII-Robots and for his Commander X16. For him it is the next generation controller on retro systems and I start to beliebe him. The upcoming controller from Protovision might have the same dimensions and buttons.

Therefore I thought about what would be the equivalented joystick for our 264 systems to the one Protovision builds. Let me describe what I mean (and then I should leave the computer to do something usefull ...). Perhapbs you might think that it's easy.

First of all, controllers like the one from RetroGameBoyz for the C64 and the one from AutumnHippo are made to use two controllers to play together, but normally we sit down alone in front of our plus/4 and for this situation we need a controller. To begin, there should be one plug to fit both joystick-ports. Now I can only find the joystick adapter (https://idoregesz.hu/product/db9-joystick-converter-for-c16-and-plus-4/) and one harness that has the plugs directly soldered on the PCB. It's great this way, but I remember a third one with the plugs not on the PCB but on the edge of it. That would be even better, because you can create the PCB to right fit into one small, black standard box.

Than there was the idea of a joystick switch that can switch one joystick between both plugs (https://www.forum64.de/index.php?thread/51284-c16-joystick-adapter/&postID=765520#post765520). This should be integrated into a SNES-controller-replacement-PCB.

But how that black SNES-controller with the boxed two-plugged plug should work like? Let me tell you. First of all, SELECT and START won't be buttons. The first one should have a LED to show the mode and the second one will have a switch between I and II.

In mode I the steering cross operates as joystick 1 and the fire button for joystick 1 is mapped on the red button. The blue button operates as joystick fire 2, green is joystick 2 down, yellow joystick 2 up, the left shoulder button joystick 2 left and the right shoulder button joystick 2 right. When using the switch, installed in START all those buttons switch between joystick 1 and 2 and the LED on SELECT changes it's colour.

This would be a great and professional gamepad to test out games on plus/4 alone and it will look professional because SNES-controller-housings in black and small black plastic boxes to install the PCB with the dual-plug in, can be optained relatively cheap. Otherwise such a controller might become standard for new upcoming games that need more than one fire button without the need of such adpaters the 8-Bit Guy designed for the user-port (not to be able to use on C16 and 116 either).

Posted By

SukkoPera
on 2023-08-10
11:27:23

Re: NES-style Gamepad for the 264 made by AutumnHippo

Yeah, I see your point but I have never liked the controllers of the era, so I really don't miss them and don't care too much for them to be period-correct (the NES one would be OKish though).

I personally feel that controllers should be comfortable to use, first of all, precise and heavy-duty. PSX controllers fulfill all those requirements and they're even cheap as there's a ton around, so they are perfect for me. The black ones don't even look too bad with the C16 and +4, do they?

PS: Looks like you and me do not have too much to do today, eh? ;)

Posted By

GeTE
on 2023-08-10
11:27:31

Re: NES-style Gamepad for the 264 made by AutumnHippo

Well, I am the retro-decal-recreation-guy and for me it's all about how it looks all together. But I do not like using gamepads anyway, they are meant to bring our kids to play with us multiple player games on the old hardware, when we use the 1341, a Competion Pro, a Quckshot or a new ArcadeR. Nevertheless a wired controller, optical fitting the machine, right in it's box, would be always nice. A controller everyone on the first view recognizes what it is meant for. It's all about beauty, you know?

The only thing I can - from the design side of view - accept, would be when 8BitDo finally modifies their Sega-adapter to be a retro-adapter for all systems with the classic Atari-pinout: https://www.8bitdo.com/retro-receiver-genesis-mega-drive/

Posted By

SukkoPera
on 2023-08-10
11:11:05

Re: NES-style Gamepad for the 264 made by AutumnHippo

Your decals look great IMHO, I'd just go with FIRE/UP or */^ on both.

This will finally be an open project and this already makes it great, but my personal opinion is that we hardly need new controllers. There are already a lot of professional controllers around, why make new ones? We just need adapters for those, and this is why I made my PSX adapter: with it I can use either any PS1/2 controllers on Amiga, C64 and C16 (with an additional adapter, but a native one could be made) while being able to have different and customizable on-the-fly button mappings (and possibly autofire, though I have never made this public, I'm not a fan of it).

I personally use the standard PS2 controller for 95% of games, and when I feel I need a stick I switch to the Namco Arcade Stick, which is just awesome (I have 3!). If I feel bored I can also try playing the occasional platformer with the cumbersome Flightstick or even with the Guitar Hero guitar

. There are also wireless controllers, so I really believe that the PSX controller range already covers all needs.

Oh, and if you prefer PS3, PS4 or Wii controllers, the Unijoysticle2 pretty much does the same with those controllers (and I made a variant of it with the same features as my PSX adapter, there's even a C16 variant somewhere).

Posted By

GeTE
on 2023-08-10
10:36:22

NES-style Gamepad for the 264 made by AutumnHippo

Once I was in connection with RetroGameBoyz from florida and in result he changed his decal for the C64-gamepad to the design I created. I made one for the plus/4 too, but he didn't went into production (maybe a problem with getting the Mini-DIN-plug).

I am still on a trip to create a special Pet's-Rescue-controller (but the decal is far from finished) and on that way I was searching for another source for a PCB and found it at AutumnHippo's page: https://autumnhippo.com/products/nes64

We are in contact and he is thinking about making a controller right for the 264 series. My Pet's-Rescue-Controller will be a very special one but for the standard controller, the Nintendo-decal looks quite wrong.

Therefore I started to think about how the C64-version (with grey housing) and the plus/4-version (with black housing) should look like.

What do you think about those? Would you buy such a controller fully build and ready to play with?