Putting the Wii in orbit around Saturn

[Jess Ragan]

...the Saturn controller, that is. The Classic Controller is serviceable, but it leaves a lot to be desired where comfort and precision are concerned. It took a few painful hours of Mega Man 9 before I decided that the controller had to be retired in favor of something more thumb-friendly. I really shot for the moon and chose the Sega Saturn joypad as its replacement. It's my all-time favorite video game controller, but it wasn't going to be easy to get it to play nice with the Wii. There aren't any adapters that let you use Saturn controllers on the GameCube or Wii, and they won't even recognize the replica Saturn controller that Sega had made for the Playstation 2 several years back.

 

My only option was go the MacGyver route and build a controller from spare parts... so that's exactly what I did. I first grabbed a spare Saturn controller, opened it up, unsoldered the cable, then popped off the logic chip on the printed circuit board. I then soldered tiny solid core wires onto the traces where the chip had rested, then routed them to a 15-pin connector. I then took a cheap GameCube controller, stuck wires on the metal pads where the D-pad and buttons rested, and soldered another 15-pin connector to the other ends of the wires. Presto, I just made my Saturn joypad compatible with the Wii! The best part is that the design allows me to make other adapters out of old controllers and connect the joypad to a whole host of game systems... the Super NES, the 3DO, the ColecoVision; you name it and it's probably possible!

 

Here are some pictures of my handiwork. Right now, it's pretty fugly, but I plan to get an extension cable and set the GameCube controller's PCB inside a plastic project box.

 

 

[doctorclu]

I like it!! Reminds me of when I adapted a 2600 stick to my Dreamcast.

[shadow460]

Probably the reason why the Saturn pad doesn't play nice is that it's a dumb controller to begin with. Heck, why pack a smart controller in with a dumb system?

Serious...its called a "dumb" controller as opposed to even the N64 and PS1 pads. When you press a control on a Saturn pad, two of the pins in the plug are shorted together in much the same way a 2600 joystick works. The main difference is that there's not really a common wire in the Saturn controller, although there is a ground wire. There aren't enough pins for a common. The logic chip you see in there chooses which pins to short based on what control you have pressed. The system then figures out what controls you are pressing. Even if you're holding more than one, (say, START + A + B + C) it knows by what pins are shorted on the port.

Let's take this to the extreme: If you build the right pin to pin only adapter, you can make a Saturn pad work on a VCS, and you can make a VCS joystick perform very limited functions in a Saturn game.

 

I'm not entirely sure how "smart" pads like PS1 and N64 ones work. I've never been inside a no shock, no analog, bare bones PS1 pad, but I've read that it's a smart controller. I've been inside several other Sony controls, and they remind me of a 5200 controller aside from the ICs they have. N64 controls are very complex inside, and they have to communicate with the system even when you're not doing anything with the controller at all (and no memory card is inserted, either).

 

Put simple, all thinking in regard to a Saturn controller is done by the console. PS1 and N64 controls, however, think for themselves. Later systems like the GameCube are going to have smart controllers that think on their own.

I suppose even a DC pad thinks for itself, hence the slogan: "It's thinking."

Edited September 27, 2008 by shadow460

[Gregory DG]

Cool...

 

Now someone needs to come up with a universal adapter so we can play any controller on the Wii.

 

I'd like to use my Dreamcast controllers on it.

[Jess Ragan]

I think that's possible, buuuut I'm not entirely clear on how to wire up the analog thumbstick. This mod was fairly easy, requiring no resistors, capacitors, transistors, or electronics math... it was just straight wire to wire connections. If you introduced a thumbstick to the picture, that could make things a lot more complicated!

[shadow460]

I kinda wondered about that myself, too. I wonder if the NiGHTS pad is some kind of smart device? It would almost have to be given that it has analog triggers, the analog stick, and it was originally supposed to have a detachable Jump Pack.

[Jess Ragan]

Well, I do know that Saturn adapters typically don't recognize the extra features of the 3D pad.

 

I was able to finish a 3DO adapter earlier this evening. It was ludicrously easy... I couldn't believe that it worked in one try! I just need to install a switch so I can play both Super Street Fighter II Turbo and every other game in the 3DO library without accidentally pausing the action.