NES to PC Joystick

Inspiration

If you have to ask why you probably won't understand. I really enjoy playing old vintage console games but don't like to have to use a cheap PC joystick to play. After experimenting with a few different controllers I decided that I needed to figure out a way to convert a NES controller to plug into the joystick port on a PC. This project was done before there were commercially available chips to convert the NES controllers to USB.

Description

The circuit consists of a PIC16F84A that interfaces with a couple of CMOS switches to switch in an out resistors on the joy port of the PC.

PC Controler Interface

The Game Port of a PC is fairly straight forward. It usually has 15 pins hooked up to a DB15 connector. One game port can support up to 2 joysticks at the same time. Google is your friend if you want to know more about the game port but it is really pointless as most PC don't have one anymore.

Nes Controller Interface

The NES controller is fairly easy to interface with. The basic controller is basically an 8-bit shift register.

Circuit Card Top

Here is a lovely picture of the top of the circuit card after it was populated with parts.

Circuit Card Top

Here is a lovely picture of the bottom of the circuit card after it was populated with parts. This project was done early 2001 before I really new that it is not required to completely remove all of the copper from a PCB. I got a little over excited when I created the PCB for this one.

Circuit Assembled in Box

Once the circuit card was all function I assembled the circuit inside a project box to keep the circuit from being damaged. The wiring is pretty crapy but hey it worked.