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Hyperkin Sega Genesis 6-Button Clone Controller Mod


mytek

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Of course, if the Paddle Lines are used, then you could use 3 fire buttons. That was what the Atari Inc Consumer Engineering guys did with their custom Trak-Balls to play 3-Base Missile Command on their Atari 8-bit computers.

 

Just a thought...how many Atari 8-bit games would benefit from hacking to support 2 or 3 fire buttons using "Sega" game pads modded to access the Paddle Lines? Not counting 3-Base Missile Command, of course, since it's still unreleased. :)

 

As I said one button works through paddle port A (the 'C' button), but that's as far as it's going to go without some more surgery to re-attach the green wire (which goes to joystick pin 5 - paddle B). I'll check that out tomorrow and see what it would take to attach that directly to the 'A' button. Be cool to have 3 active triggers :) .

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Hello Lynxpro

 

..how many Atari 8-bit games would benefit from hacking to support 2 or 3 fire buttons using "Sega" game pads modded to access the Paddle Lines?

 

Of the existing games, probably none. But programmers usually don't include features that need hardware that isn't in existence already. Maybe if a special piece of hardware is being developed, but not for stuff that might be developed in the future.

 

But new games would be able to use these new features. So let's not stop people trying to update existing hardware with new options.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

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Hello Lynxpro

 

 

Of the existing games, probably none. But programmers usually don't include features that need hardware that isn't in existence already. Maybe if a special piece of hardware is being developed, but not for stuff that might be developed in the future.

 

But new games would be able to use these new features. So let's not stop people trying to update existing hardware with new options.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

 

 

I should've thought it out more... any game that's on the 7800 - or the 5200 for that matter - that uses 2 fire buttons and is also available for the A8 would work better with such a hack. Any games that used 1 or 2 buttons on the keyboard would also obviously benefit from such hacks/mods/improvements...

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  • 8 months later...

I looked at this idea before. Throughout this thread, no one talked about PACTL, which toggles PortA input to PortA output, but I am not sure if that the "Select" pin is something that can be written to by the Atari. I played around with the MultiJoy8 program code that selects between controllers by putting PortA into output and writes to the 2nd joystick bits to select the controller. Rewire the pins in one of the Multijoy8 box for a Sega 6 button controller. However it is like everyone states, which software is available to take advantage of more fire buttons. All the games I wrote would need to be adapted, only one has an option to use Multijoy8. Also someone can just build a small external adapter that just swaps the signals between the pins.

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  • 4 years later...

I tried this mod on my GN6 Hyperkin controller. The hyperkin used to brown out my Atari when I plugged in the controller. The mod now doesn't brown it out, but the buttons are not responsive. You have to hold down the buttons for it to signal, little taps of buttons get ignored.

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OK, I lost my temper with this Hyperkin controller. I decided to bypass the mole chip, hack and wire directly, with the Atari 2600 style pinout with 2nd button. The second button needs a 330 ohm resistor. The hyperkin controller will no longer work as a Genesis controller, but makes a lovely 2600 controller.

 

May be an image of text

 

1. Disassemble the controller and whip out the circuit board.

2. Desolder the wires going into the circuit board.

3. Cut through the circuit board connections with a knife that go from the buttons back to the black mole chip. 

4. Cut the solder mask off the tracks going to the buttons/directions to make wiring pads.

5. Solder the wiring directly onto the circuit board pads according to this:

 

brown-1-UP
red-2-DOWN
orange-3-LEFT
yellow-4-RIGHT
green-5-No Connection
blue-6-B Button
grey-7-330 ohm resistor which then goes to C Button
black-8-GROUND
white-9-C Button

 

Tested on my 2600 and 7800 and it works fine (for 2600 games).

 

What is cool is the wiring colour code for the controller cable uses a modified resistor colour code scheme. (Well done Hyperkin).

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