In Hardware

Do they have gamepads that can connect to an USB port?

Yes, most newer gamepads that I know have a USB connector.
You also can find gameport-to-USB converters.

Am I missing something?

Gamepads have been using USB connectors for a few years now.

And all (full hardware, not onboard crap) soundcards still have a gameport as the gameport is really a MIDI port which is still required for MIDI equipment.

What country are you hailing from Hunter?

Well, I now know better.
Actually I did not search hard enough.

Gamepads are not very common in my country( Don't ask which).
Most of the guys Play PC games using keyboards and Mouse. So the Hardware dealer are not so much bothered for gamepads.

As KeepGood said, all soundcards have gameports(unlike the onboard crap). Unfortunately my PC has an onboard oned and I don't look into Computer Magazies this days. That's why I was unaware.
Thanks for your replies.

ill look into it but i found a site that had detailed instructions on how to mod an original nes controller to a usb controller all it seemed to need was the controller, a usb cable, and a solder iron (it seemed easy enough)

it uses the basic controller drivers on windows and you can set up the button functions to work with games and emulators

ill look into it but i found a site that had detailed instructions on how to mod an original nes controller to a usb controller all it seemed to need was the controller, a usb cable, and a solder iron (it seemed easy enough)

it uses the basic controller drivers on windows and you can set up the button functions to work with games and emulators

unfortunately it's not quite that simple... you have to add a controller IC to the NES pad, since the IC on the board is incapable of dealing with the USB signals...

looking for it right now =)

ok its a lil more involved but its not bad at all heres the link



heres a link to make a snes contoller into a db 25 capable controller

I highly recommend making the LPT version of the NES to PC gamepad adapter. Its really easy to do (I mean REALLY easy!).

All you need is......

3 x Diodes (1N4148) like this....



About the diodes....As you can see there is a small black line at one side of the diode, this is called the cathode. This is the side that the POWer comes out. So when you connect the diodes, the black line will be pointing away from the DB25 connector ie. the POWer will be coming out of the computer end going into the pad. When looking for diodes, if you look carefully the diode number is written on it. On the picture above you can just see 'N' and '1' written on the diode. Actually, for those that dont know, I'll tell you what a diode actually does.... A diode is a small component that only allows an electrical current to run in one direction (simple eh). There are different types of diodes out there, each with different values but for now we'll take it that is the only thing they do

1 x Male DB25 plug (a plug that will go into you computers printer socket) like this....



Try to find a plug that you can open so you can solder the wires directly in to the plug. If you cant find a plug and you only have a cable with a moulded plug, you can use a multimeter to find out which wire corresponds to which pin in the DB25 connector. Then you can tape the wires together.

A soldering iron and solder or some sticky tape.



The iron in the pic above is a bit big, its looks somethign around 25+ watt. If you are using a high POWer soldering iron, make sure you solder the diodes quite quickly or you can burn them out.

Believe me, try this, its great playing emulators and such with the original pad.

You could make the USB version but this requires a USB micro-controller to convert the outputs of the pad into a native 'USB language'. With the LPT version you could easily find the parts needed (diodes) in almost any common electrical deVice.

And this how its done....

First grab yourself an old pad and chop the connector off it. You can keep the connector so you can use the pad on the NES or the PC, the diodes wont affect the NES at all.

Strip the wires so you can connect them the DB25 connector.

Take three diodes and solder the diodes onto pins 7,8 and 9 of the DB25 connector. Remember to put them the right way round, otherwise your pad wont have any POWer

Connect the end of each diode together. This in effect will take roughly 1 volt out of each pin of the DB25 connector and because the diodes only allow the electricity to flow in one direction you will have roughly 3 volts coming out of the other side....following me? 3 volts is enough for the NES pad.

You then need to solder the other wires of the nes pad to
pins 2 and 3 of the DB25 connector.

Then you need to connect pins 18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25 of the DB25 connector all together, these pins are all ground. The ground wire of the NES pad needs to be connected to one of those pins.

This is a basic wiring diagram, it should be easy enough to follow.



And thats all there is to it

I'll see if I can find my old notes. I did note down which colours go to which pins but its easy enough to work out from the NES connector.

All you need now is software to run the pad. I use PSXPad, it is made to run NES, SNES, PSX and XBox (I know an XBox pad is just a USB pad but the PSXPad software has a good config applet for it) pads. It fully supports WinXP. You can get it from . The site is in Japanese but there is an english link at the top of the page. Download the beta version from their beta section, version 0.9. It runs perfectly.

Have fun

That's a pretty good description.
Thanks man.
Perhaps I'll try that when I get a bit more self confident in using tools.

you really dont need all that. What i did was buy a 25 dollar rumblepad logitech feedback gamepad and it works with all emus and NES ROMs.

funny, seems to me that $25 is more than $0.15 on diodes, and $1 on a male end connector... could just be my math though.

Wow, I only 4p for my doides lol

Still......Nothing beats the original pad



This was my first project using a soldering iron. It really is that easy. Basically you are just changing the plug on the end of the controller

Go on.... Give it a bash

I made an LPT adapter for NES emulation, and it's a PAIN IN THE ASS.

Go here and buy a USB NES controller:

How can it be a pain in the ass??? A blind monkey could a 100% perfectly working adapter lol

The only problems you should ever get when converting a.....

SNES pad,
SNES multitap,
NES pad,
NES Fourscore,
PSX pad,
PSX multitap,

...is the software. There is software out the called NTXPPAD or something of the likes of that but it sucks big time. Dont use Direct Pad Pro or SNESKey or any old software like that (they all blow now), they were good in their day but have been long surpassed.

USE PSXPAD....



I have converted over 20 different controllers ranging from the old Atari2600 joysticks through SNES controllers to the latest PS2 and XBox pads. They were all used on different PC's and every one has worked perfectly.

The problem with converting controllers is the POWer. Each pad has a different POWer rating. The POWer is easily taken from the LPT port (yiou can get quite a bit of jiuce out of an LPT port).

The problem with USB adapter is again the POWer rating. 5v is the max that you can get out of a USB port. The USB adapters are okay for a while but they wear out quickly. I bought a Skillz cube adapter from Lik-Sang for my Gamecube pad and it was good for about 6 months (it was a bit picky with whcih controllers could be used through it) then it started giving out a really bad signal, in the control panel applet the different axis starts jumping around making impossible to use. The same thing happened to two USB PS2 pad adapter (different makes) after only a few weeks. I can give you explanation on why this happens if you like





If you had problems getting an LPT adapter to work...You MUST have done something wrong.

Remeber there are different 'standards' to LPT adapters, old ones and new ones. The old wiring diagrams are quite buggy and shouldnt be used. A quick search on the net will give you the latest diagrams and software.

Personally I prefer using a SNES multitap or a single PSX pad with the PC. Using the PSXPad software. The driver uses the pad as a standard HID compliant deVice so games dont have a problem seeing the controller. When using PS2 Dual Shock pads the shock also works as the PSXPad driver is force-feedback compliant.

Yeah you could go and buy a pad but hey.....where is the fun in that?

And you dont get that cool sense of achievement when you click 'buy now' on some website that you get when you convert a pad yourself.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I forgot to say.... Dont forget that you dont have to destroy one of your controllers to perform the LPT mod. You can just use a pad extension cable and chop that up. There are lots of websites that still sell extension cables for a couple of bucks

Well since I have to run a cable to draw POWer, I also have to keep the side off my computer if I want to play with my NES pad. It's just too much hassle. I like plugging a controller in and going. I don't mind doing stuff myself, but if somebody has a better solution, I'm normally for that. If I had the technical know-how to make my own USB controller, I'd do that, but I don't.

Well, I ressurected the other thread, but it's more fitting here.

Are the diodes essential? I'm building this for bragging rights with someone that I'm meeting up with tomorrow, and I won't have a chance to get out to get diodes.

I've looked at other guides, and they state to use 5 diodes, and connect them to pins 5-9, using the logic explained above of drawing one volt per pin, and knowing that the VRM in the NES outputs 5v, is it not more stable using all 5 pins?

and lastly, it was explained, but I want to be sure. does PSX pad work with any converted controller? including the NES one?

EDIT: I did some searching, and there are a lot of kinds of diodes... which do I need?

Yeah the diodes are essential. If you dont use them you could damage your lpt port. The diodes are needed to make the (roughly) correct POWer supply for the pad.

The diodes you need are 1N4148 signal diodes.

Yeah you can use 5 doides, use the same instructions as before but add diodes to pins 5 and 6 of the DB25 connector (aswell as pins 7,8 and 9).

I forgot to mention. If you use the PSXPad software you will notice the NES pad isn't in the list of supported controllers, just choose the SNES pad option. As you probably know, the wiring of the NES and SNES pads are identicle.

P.S. Wiring a NES pad to the PC isn't much to brag about LoL

EDIT: I'll amend the wiring diagram to allow for 5 diodes (incase some folks have POWer problems, especially on laptops)

well, I get to brag since his didn't work for him

LoL excellent, i like it

I'll post some pics of some playstation pads and the snes multitap i use on the PC so peeps can see exactly how its done.

to connect more than 1 pad to the same LPT port, you just have to give it a separate data pin, correct? obviously more pads mean POWer concerns though...

If you find your notes, could you either post them or email them to me? I am interested in doing something to this effect, just with a different type of NES controler.

Yeah for every pad you add there is a different data line. It can be a bit of a nitemare trying to solder the wires from 4 pads onto an LPT connector tho

You can always make a kind of adapter board to make it easier connecting alot of pads (I'll leave that to your imagination).

I personally think you should try and get a hold of a multitap (of sorts), the NES four score can be adapted but for software support (especially with 2000/XP) I would use a SNES multitap. I have one of those cheap third party multitaps that has 5 joypad connectors. It happily runs with 5 pads with no problems (on any comp I've tried it on), I did change one thing slightly though and took the POWer supply from the PC gameport. It seems to POWer the pads nicely.

For POWer you could use the a USB, PS2 (mouse or keyb), PC gameport or any of the internal connectors for floppy and hard disks (use the red wire), there are loads of places you can pull 5 volts from.

I built a single NES pad adaper today, and it works great!

though I couldn't find 1N4148 diodes, I used 1N914, and they seem to work just fine. took a little bit of wrestling to get the windows joypad configurator to stop using it as an analog pad though...

Nice one mate.

Yeah I've used a few different types of doides and they've all worked so far. Almost every project I have encountered has need 4148 doides so I bought a truck load of them lol. So I always use 4148's now.

Whatt software are you using to run your pad NES-Luke?

Whatt software are you using to run your pad NES-Luke?

Up until today I was using PSXpad, but it seemed to want to keep 4 buttons pressed at all times and took a lot of fighting to get working. Today at the suggestion of a friend, I tried PPjoy, and it works awesomely, much easier to set up as well.

Excellent, I'll give it a try.

so on this part does the ground wire have to be connected to one of those pins or all of them

All of those pins should be connected together so you can connect ground to any of them

k thanks

I know this is old and all, but I have a question about this.

I have a Midi cord. Salvaged from an old game pad. Is it possible to use that instead?

I am going to be modding an SNES controller to work on my NES so I am using the NES Cable, so I was hoping there is a way for me to just add in the new cable.

this might help