Adapting a Mega Drive/Genesis Controller to PC-98

I made an adapter for using Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and Master System (and earlier) controllers with my PC-98 compatible (Epson PC-486GR). Mostly, I just talk to the camera while I work. Hopefully about stuff that is somewhat interesting to you.
This adapter should also work on MSX computers, if you have any of those!
They need a special adapter or only one of the two 'fire buttons' the PC-98 seems to support will work. Pinout is as follows:Sega pins 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6: Connect straight to corresponding pin on PC-98 side.Sega pin 7: Leave disconnected!Sega pin 8: PC-98 pin 9 (ground)Sega pin 9: PC-98 pin 7 (fire 2)PC-98 pin 8: Leave disconnected!
00:5:55 - Parts Used
00:10:53 - My Favorite Soldering Flux (Radioshack flux direct substitute, still in production - Caig RSF-R80-2.)
00:14:22 - Caig RSF-R39-2: might be a similar "no-clean" flux
00:15:10 - Short side stories about Voultar, Kevtris, and NES development (and a little whining - sorry, Voultar)
00:25:03 - I finally zoom the camera in on my soldering
00:30:23 - I start talking about progressive rock (Emerson, Lake, & Palmer; Jethro Tull) rather randomly
00:39:26 -I discover a weird thing about keyboard compatibility with the PC-98 (some keyboards apparently need to be initialized differently than others...?)
00:40:40 - I test to make sure I didn't just kill my sound card (it's fine!)
00:41:20 - testing the pinout of PC-98 joystick port with my multimeter, just to be safe. Confirmed that MSX pinout same as PC-98 pinout for joystick port
01:14:20 - Testing the finished adapter with Touhou and a Sega Master System pad
01:19:55 - About Sega Master System pad variants
01:20:33 - Plans for adapting my other (non-sega) joystick controllers (Comrex Commander, Suncom TAC-2)
01:23:46 - Looking at vintage joystick advertisements for specs
(Did you know? The TAC-2 uses a car tire Schrader valve stem as its stick and return spring!! Isn't that wild?)
01:29:20 - Sega Genesis controller factoids (how it works) and testing on PC-98
(I play Touhou 4: Lotus Land Story until the game freezes when I hit a known bug - one that I did not know about when recording).
01:51:56 - Touhou 4 freezes at stage 5 boss fight (there's a patch to fix this, I found; also you can enable EMS in DOS and that 'fixes' it without the patch).
(I draw a pinout wire diagram in Grafx2 - a pixel art program)
02:08:37 - Looking over my WIP blog post about the PC-98, talking about my hopes for how it will shape up. Reminder to my friend to write her contribution!
02:10:04 - Reflections on how the ways we perceive the world change with time (I get deep in thought) - and why it's so easy to overlook things when trying to describe people.
Also the pinout drawing is completed.
02:12:46 - About my weird IBM ScrollPoint Mouse (Note to self: maybe video-worthy? - I love this thing)
02:19:58 - Putting casing on finished adapter
02:23:23 - Closing remarks

[@cereallane2739]

3rd time's the charm and i'm now armed with a working theory: didn't think embedded links would be marked for spam or something so my bad! Good video, helped answer a question i had weeks ago while editing a wiki page on the sound boards since they have joystick boards too

[@wyatt8740]

I usually don't have things set to be held for review, so that's probably youtube's fault :( What's the question I helped answer? BTW, I use mine with an 86 sound card.

[@MrAlan1828]

why not just build a joystick with quality Sanwa parts? or even better mod an existing gamepad tfor PC98. the Japanese are repurposing the Super Famicom gamepads into MSX/PC98/FM Towns ones

[@wyatt8740]

Because I don't want to destroy a working super famicom pad when I can do it externally with nothing but a 74HC595 chip, and also because a mega drive pad has enough buttons and feels comfy. And as for joysticks, because I like leaf switches! And my comrex. And Sanwa sticks would be quite a bit bulkier. But maybe some day; I just haven't used one so I can't miss what I never had.

[@adolfodavion6198]

*Promo sm* 😓