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about the famicom controller...

Posted: 11 Dec 2021, 13:54
by giobbi
hi guys,

I bought a couple of cheap controllers on Aliexpress: https://pt.aliexpress.com/item/32919127872.html

They work, some way, but with some issues: i.e. when I play snake, the arrow buttons work fine for a while and then begin to fail (and my snake hit the wall...). I opened them to take a look inside and I've discovered there's a chip under a blob of resin/glue/etc. (I thought it was something like an Atari joystick, just a matter of switches).

Had anybody my same experience with this kind of controller? I'm not sure if it's an issue (they're quite cheap and of course a poor quality product) or some lack of compatibility.

I was also wonder if there's a way to remove the chip and connect directly the buttons (like an Atari joystick)... I didn't find a trusty pinout schematic.

Re: about the famicom controller...

Posted: 11 Dec 2021, 15:01
by lb3361
The theory: https://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=con ... controller

The practice: I also got a cheap controller on Alibaba. It works but certainly not in the way described above. The data out pin merely replicates the pulse of the s/p pin (vsync in the Gigatron) with a delay of n clock pulses (hsync in the Gigatron) where n depends on the currently pressed button. This is interpreted by the Gigatron ROM as a "type c" controller and can only report a single depressed button. The electronics is buried in goo as well. This must save a few cents over a true 4021.

This doesn't account for the autorepeat fire buttons, btw

Re: about the famicom controller...

Posted: 11 Dec 2021, 17:41
by giobbi
mine has a strange behavior, sometimes it doesn't respond, sometimes you press down and it goes left, etc.
Could it depend by the slightly different crystal frequency (I'm using a 6.4 MHz crystal) ?

Its' a crappy controller, indeed. Oh, well, I could always convert it into a Commodore 64 / Atari Joystick LOL