The NES64 Controller: an "upgrade" for the NES controller to make it C64/Atari compatible

On today's video, let's dig into an easy way to modify a reproduction NES controller so it can work on your 8/16bit computer.
-- Video Links
PCB Source Files: (to make your own)
gitlab.com/nes64/NES64
Project information:
nes64.pryds.eu/
Store to buy PCB or kits from Thomas:
www.tindie.com/products/autum...
Using a NES D-Pad on a C64: (without a new PCB)
• How to use D-Pad contr...
-- Tools
Deoxit D5:
amzn.to/2VvOKy1
store.caig.com/s.nl/it.A/id.16...
Jonard Tools EX-2 Chip Extractor:
amzn.to/2VazxDS
www.jonard.com/Products/EX-2-...
Wiha Chip Lifter:
amzn.to/3a9ftWw
www.wihatools.com/precision-c...
O-Ring Pick Set: (I use these to lift chips off boards)
amzn.to/3a9x54J
Elenco Electronics LP-560 Logic Probe:
amzn.to/2VrT5lW
Hakko FR301 Desoldering Iron:
amzn.to/2ye6xC0
Rigol DS1054Z Four Channel Oscilloscope:
www.rigolna.com/products/digi...
Head Worn Magnifying Goggles / Dual Lens Flip-In Head Magnifier:
amzn.to/3adRbuy
TL866II Plus Chip Tester and EPROM programmer: (The MiniPro)
amzn.to/2wG4tlP
www.aliexpress.com/item/33000...
TS100 Soldering Iron:
amzn.to/2K36dJ5
www.ebay.com/itm/TS100-65W-MI...
EEVBlog 121GW Multimeter:
www.eevblog.com/product/121gw/
DSLogic Basic Logic Analyzer:
amzn.to/2RDSDQw
www.ebay.com/itm/USB-Logic-DS...
Magnetic Screw Holder:
amzn.to/3b8LOhG
www.harborfreight.com/4-inch-...
Universal ZIP sockets: (clones, used on my ZIF-64 test machine)
www.ebay.com/itm/14-16-18-20-...
RetroTink 2X Upconverter: (to hook up something like a C64 to HDMI)
www.retrotink.com/
Plato (Clone) Side Cutters: (order five)
www.ebay.com/itm/1-2-5-10PCS-...
Heat Sinks:
www.aliexpress.com/item/32537...
Little squeezy bottles: (available elsewhere too)
amzn.to/3b8LOOI
--- Links
My GitHub repository:
github.com/misterblack1?tab=r...
Commodore Computer Club / Vancouver, WA - Portland, OR - PDX Commodore Users Group
www.commodorecomputerclub.com/
--- Instructional videos
My video on damage-free chip removal:
• How to remove chips wi...
--- Music
Intro music and other tracks by:
Nathan Divino
@itsnathandivino

[@zaooo]

I got grounded from my NES for a week as a kid due to grinding blisters onto my thumb from playing too much Skate or Die, where the halfpipe sections had you twirl circles on the D-pad for sick tricks.

[@ThomasPryds]

Thank you, Adrian, for making a whole video about the NES64 and for all the nice words! I hope it will make things a little easier for people who want to convert a Nintendo controller, or help them make sure their decades old controller can be converted back at some point. Sorry about the bent pins; I would have thought the packaging was good enough to survive shipping, but apparently not. Also, I'll try to make the holes on the PCB larger for the leads. I actually solder the leads flush onto the pads myself, while the pad holes are meant if someone wants to use a header connector instead. Also, there seems to have been some problems with how Tindie shows shipping costs, where for some destinations people were shown a much more expensive option as the only option. That should be fixed now so that one kit ships for 12 USD to the entire world. And yes, that is unfortunately what shipping costs from Denmark -- every year there are stories of people near the border for whom it is much cheaper to cross the border and have their greeting cards shipped back over the border from Germany, than it would be to ship them internally in Denmark. Well...

[@LeftoverBeefcake]

No need to rip up a joystick for the cable - just use 9 pin joystick/gamepad/controller extension cables which are cheap and sold just about everywhere and lop off the end you don't need.

[@adriansdigitalbasement]

Sure if you can't find one of those cheap Atari controllers. They are usually $1 or $2 in the junk bin at my local thrift store... And those modern replicas are just plain terrible IMHO

[@user-wu4cw5ed5w]

Oh, almost forgot... let's get right to it! One of the most funny intros I've ever seen, made my mood better

[@misterkite]

Another source for the atari cable that produces less waste: you can buy atari extension cables off amazon. Just cut off the socket on one end.

[@rastislavzima]

Less waste and less wasted time.

[@gorjy9610]

that hardly can be less waste knowing that amazon often ship cables in box large enough for average car

[@misterkite]

@@gorjy9610 I just ordered cables from amazon, they come in a little padded bag.

[@stevethepocket]

@@misterkite Those are arguably worse than boxes full of loose bubble wrap; cardboard is recyclable and bubble wrap likely is too, but when the bubble wrap is fused to a paper envelope, you can't really do anything but throw it in the trash.

[@RetroHackShack]

Adrian, you really went all out with the editing on the 8-bit dance party at 20:37. That didn't go unnoticed. Love it and LMAO!

[@MostLovedGod]

Those don't hurt your hands, they make them stronger!

[@nathanhamman418]

That depends on how long you play, for a 1-2 hour session its fine, but a 4-8 hour session i start to get pains in my hand from the corners.

[@MostLovedGod]

@@nathanhamman418 I'm sure now that you are a grown man that pain seems like child play :)

[@pablot5809]

💎🙌

[@JMcMillen]

@@nathanhamman418 I sometimes had pain in my hands buy eventually I found a very solidly built 3rd party Atari/C64 controller that had rounded edges and corners. Could play for hours with virtually no pain.

[@rdoetjes]

@@nathanhamman418 sissy :) try learning to play guitar then you know what pain in the hand is :)

[@jamesbeat9258]

In about 1985-1986 (UK) I had a friend who had a C64, and he had a controller with a D-pad for it. I remember it very distinctly, as it was the first time I had ever used (or even seen) a gamepad. I remember thinking what a brilliant idea it was, and that it was like the controls on the Donkey Kong Game & Watch. I have been trying to figure out what it was. I am pretty sure it wasn't a Sega Master System controller, because I think it predated the release of the MS, and I'm pretty sure it had a cross-shaped D-pad anyway. Just to complicate matters, he and his family had recently moved back to the UK after living somewhere in the Caribbean for most of his early childhood, and he had brought his C64 and controller with him from there. Ironically, he was a bit embarrassed about not having a 'normal' joystick like the rest of us, and eventually got a Quickshot II Turbo.

[@ArmpitoftheGiant]

Kits ordered, been looking for this for a long time for my retro Amigas and Ataris. Thanks!

[@more.power.]

Donkey Kong bought back so many good memories for me when my children were young playing on the C64. thanks Adrian you are awesome

[@techtomek5062]

If you don't want to modify or are not technically skilled enough, there is a small hobbyist in Poland who has made a PS2 & USB to 9 pin adapter. Ryś MKII is the adapter name and the page name is 7-bit

[@theoldone22]

The reason everyone calls it "kilobyte" not "kibibyte" is because "kibibyte" is a new term. It was "kilobyte" longer before the term "kibibyte" was a thing than the term "kibibyte" has existed.

[@Spelter]

Nobody remembers these times but is old farts. Yeah, it never caught on and was forgotten. I remember my 486 handbook, 600 pages I've read because no internet, had it in it and said "it's the future". It was the same like they loved the "unbelievable fast" Quad-speed CD-Rom drives. Mitsumi I think was mine.

[@DavidWonn]

The phony "new" terms were a failed attempt by one guy at standardizing the difference between the binary and decimal terms. A big reason why nobody uses them (outside perhaps some Wikipedia editors he swayed and on some Linux distros) is in part because they’re just flat out unpronounceable. Personally, I’ll stick to saying "binary gigabyte" or "decimal megabyte" if I ever feel the need to be unambiguous and more precise when the context is required. Otherwise I stick with the original binary definitions. The bulk of the blame for this madness goes squarely to the hard drive manufacturers in the 1990s for going against the grain in trying to redefine the original binary definitions into decimal definitions, just to rip off the consumers into thinking their shiny new drives had more capacity than expected once they reached the gigabyte era.

[@theoldone22]

​@@DavidWonn I actually agree with you. If I remember correctly "kibi" was proposed because of HDD manufacturers misleading claims.

[@brentboswell1294]

The term was invented because of the increasing divergence of powers of two and decimal numbers as RAM went to gigabytes and storage went to terabytes...and we now have commercial storage solutions that have capacities in petabytes! And also so that spinning hard drive manufacturers could be dishonest....

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@DavidWonn the new terms (not usually spelled in full, just MiB or kiB) are also used on torrent sites. Also Apple devices switched to the decimal definition about a decade ago, starting with OSX 10.6, and thus they subscribed to the theory too, just the other way - they don’t say GiB, they say GB, but they are actually the decimal ones.

[@nikolaszisoudis8408]

Nice one. I found this yesterday in the internet and i wanted to see if it worked so this video was helpful. Thanks

[@emuboy85]

Adrian, thanks for all the contents, you helped me going through a very difficult moment in my like in the last months, every time you published a video you gave me something to get excited about, thank you!

[@terosaarela4555]

I wonder if the select button with some logic chip could be used to switch the jump button on and off? That way, you wouldn’t have to drill holes into the case.

[@nickwallette6201]

I was thinking the same thing.

[@ThomasPryds]

That is a brilliant idea! The connector even provides 5V for the logic, so it should be possible!

[@pedrofelck]

I was looking for this comment, I was thinking about it too.

[@markjohnson3737]

Love this. I was just about to perform your mod on an old NES controller, now I’m definitely getting this PCB!

[@superbatcat1278]

Thanks Adrian I just got that song out of my head from the last time ,now it's back. Great video .

[@Dreamlgider]

I modified a NES controller for c64 use years and years ago, pretty simple mod and very useful. Keep em coming.

[@falksweden]

A great mod would be to replace the physical switch for the jump button to make it controlled by the not used select button.

[@tetsujin_144]

Probably the most practical way to do that would be to add a cheap microcontroller to the PCB - this leads to the rather comical situation where your joystick contains a more powerful CPU than the computer does, and uses it to do the job of a toggle switch... Agreed, though, it'd be a great way to avoid the case-cutting issue.

[@falksweden]

@@tetsujin_144 Yeah, something like that. Or just some kind of latch. With a microcontroller you could have the whole C64 in the unit 😁

[@danielmantione]

@@falksweden A 74x74 should be able to do the trick indeed.

[@Dukefazon]

Did you know that one of the pins on a 9pin controller provides 5V? I put LED backlit buttons in my 2 controllers :) There's a limit to how much current can run through those 5V lines but the LED's don't draw too much, I checked before buying. I love the blue PCB and especially that the wiring is shown there. I'm always having troubles figuring out if I find a pinout if the pins I'm looking at are the joystick side or socket side, the from or the back where you are soldering. Here it's clearly stated, awesome!

[@lowpinglag]

Hi, viewer from Denmark here. Love the things you do on this channel :-)

[@robertlawrence9000]

That's nice to have that controller I bet for those old games! Cool addition to a collection!

[@JoesComputerMuseum]

I built a couple of these a couple years ago for my JCM-1 homebrew computer project. Great idea!

[@thebishtable]

Wait... If you're old, then I'm old... That can't be right...

[@P5ychoFox]

Just had mine delivered. Fantastic item and a great price. Thanks for showing me this cos I hate up for accelerate in 8-bit racers.

[@ProlificInvention]

You are one of my favorite people on KZbin Adrian, been watching and enjoying your videos for years. I'd like to see you do a video on taking a Rasberry Pi 400 and making it a commodore 64 or Amiga emulated computer.

[@BBHexKey]

I wonder if a turbografx controller could be modified to work on your computers, that was one of my favorite retro consoles.

[@joshuathompson3258]

Looks reasonable, the pinouts are available, though you'd probably want an adapter box as I'm sure the pads are rarer than NES ones.

[@rberlim79]

He man, greetings from Brasil! I never touched an C64 or those classic macs, just ans MSX and then, PCs, but I love the channel! I'm learning so much,! Thanks for the excellent work!

[@Dukefazon]

I build 2 joysticks not long ago made from regular plastic box (that professionals use to build all sorts of electric thingies inside), 2 arcade buttons and an arcade style joystick. Everything is so clicky with the microswitches inside :) And I have some switches build in that allows me to switch between UP or a seconday button to jump, because sometimes it's more precise to do your jumping with a button press instead of the joystick which you are already using to steer your on screen character. The other switch is for to turn that secondary button you can use to jump to turn it into Fire2, some Amiga games support 2 fire buttons like Mortal Kombat 2 or Bubba N Stix. I did the same principles you showed us with that NES controller but I didn't get the idea from you :P :) Also, you can buy NES-looking or any kind of USB controllers from Aliexpress and mod them too, this way you don't destroy real Nintendo hardware. Ohh, and talking about the cable, I bought 9pin extension cables from Aliexpress, those are not that thick, they are soft and also they are black. But on one of my controllers I used a similar solution, I bought a 8 pin cable (phone cable probably or something like that) and a metal 9pin din connector. Both turned out really good.

[@electronicengineer]

Instant thumbs up. Thanks for sharing Adrian! Fred

[@Fifury161]

Great job on the controller and making it open source is very generous. The $12 shipping costs is what's stopping me buying a kit...

[@ThomasPryds]

Thanks for the kind words. Wish I could ship it from somewhere cheaper, but the $12 is literally just postal service cost + Tindie's cut on shipping.

[@Fifury161]

@@ThomasPryds I understand - really appreciate the efforts and thanks for making it open source!

[@DavidWonn]

I’d love to have one of these! I also like to use the "wrong" controller on some systems either for challenge or for a different feel: While I’ve heard it is dangerous to plug a Sega Genesis controller into a C64 (don’t do it), you can safely plug an Atari controller (or preferably a 3rd party one) into a Genesis. It makes for a perfect 2nd controller in games like Sonic 2 and Ms. Pac-Man with no lack of functionality. Additionally, it makes for a fun alternative in port 1 for games like Sonic 1. Start out with a Genesis controller, type in the stage select code, then you can hot swap to an Atari controller at this point. The fire button will be able to select the first stage, and you can play normally, though you lose the ability to pause. Furthermore, it makes for a more challenging way to play Streets of Rage because the Atari fire button behaves like pressing both A and C buttons on the Genesis. Go to the options menu and carefully decide whether to sacrifice attack, jump, or special for the duration of the game. I’ve confirmed the entire game is beatable this way if you choose the options correctly. And if that wasn’t enough, you can start up Super Street Fighter II on a Genesis, take out the game while the power is still on, put in Street Fighter II: Championship Edition, press Reset, and your controller options can have strange settings like mapping Up to an attack! Stick in an Atari controller, and the game can be somewhat playable, sacrificing many moves if you want a challenging handicap. Hopefully some of these experiments above may help inspire some interesting ideas you can do with alternative controllers on the Commodore 64 as well.

[@JMcMillen]

I'd imagine that the problem with the Sega Genesis controller is that it's using the unused pins that the Atari used for the paddle controllers for its additional buttons. I believe that the C64 can use paddle controllers but I don't think there were many (if any) games that used them. With the Genesis controller you'd be forcing an invalid input into the system and it may not be able to handle it.

[@sanderheijselaar5687]

Nice solution. Back in the '80 I used my Atari 7800 ProSystem controllers and they still work great. But the switch to map the up button to a fire button is a great idea 👍

[@bitoxic]

22:44 really like the 8-bit dance party intro running in the background! 😁👍

[@draggonhedd]

With this board and commonly available buttons on ebay you could 3d print custom cases for this. I might get on that...

[@renepedersen7141]

I live in Denmark, really enjoys your videos. I have to order a few of theese pcb's :)

[@rdoetjes]

Wow! That’s cool, I had the idea to make a shift register adapter but someone already did! Nice!

[@Rowsdow3r]

This channel is like This Old House but for electronics

[@Bleats_Sinodai]

If someone knows someone who makes a better d-pad for the clone controller, that'd be super welcomed! It'd make speedrunning old games much more accessible.

[@briangoldberg4439]

The second letter of the DSUB name is specifically supposed to designate the size. If you order a DB connector, and you want a DE connector you are going to get the wrong thing in the mail from pretty much anyone (digikey, mouser, amazon, newark, whatever). Maybe that's fine if you say it wrong, who cares, but it's practically not a great idea to assume that it doesn't matter.

[@francoisrevol7926]

Well a real "DB9" would be a bit empty in terms of pins, so it doesn't really exist anyway. The only confusing one would be the HD DE-15 (VGA) I suppose, although the non-HD one is DA-15. Now, I only recently noticed the E size is the smaller one and only exception from the progressive size order: A to C is getting larger, although DD is about the same width as DC but thicker. I suppose they started with DA-15, then people wanted smaller connectors than DB-25, as on serial ports not that many pins were used. And the first D refers to the shell shape of course.

[@trekaddict]

Gotta admit, this is amazing. I prefer the Dualshock series myself (mostly because of the way my hands are, and the twin sticks) but it'll always be neat that this sort of thing is made by the community.

[@Zhixalom]

Here is a thought... Take a small Arduino/STM32/ESP32 tinker-board (with enough pins to do the job obviously), hook it up to both ports on the C64, and also hook up a Sega Genesis 3 style pad (the more buttons the merrier). - Let the micro-controller deliver the 5V on pin 5 and handle the button multiplexing on pin 7 for the Genesis 3 pad, and then translate it all into Atari joystick style signals going into the C64. - The "Select" or "Start" button could be dedicated for the micro-controller to switch between profiles like swapping between the "joystick" being in port 1 or port 2. - In one of the profiles "Up" could be redirected to any of the extra buttons, or some of the extra buttons doing those sometimes harder directional combinations. Some of them could maybe even trigger small macro-combos like "Up, Right, Right+Down" or something similar in sequence, depending on the game. - Since the fire button of port 1 is the same as hitting space on the keyboard, it would work great as a second fire-button in games like Commando etc. when the "main joystick" is set to port 2. - 2 of the extra buttons could also double as auto/rapid-fire versions of the fire buttons in port 1 and 2. - The possibilities are numerous and since the micro-controller is re-programmable, new ideas can quickly be added and tested out. - An ESP32 with Bluetooth could even handle a PS3/XBox controller, with some DAC's feeding the thumb-stick data into the paddle-potentiometers. I have actually seen a project like that, just without the thumb-stick part. - But most importantly, since the tinker-board micro-controller would be a small box going between the Sega Genesis 3 pad and the C64, no alterations are needed to either. I have actually already build something similar for one of my friends... just as an Arcade-Joystick-Board instead, with a build in Arduino-Mega 2560 and a 3.2" TFT screen handling the mustard. Sort of a proof-of-concept prototype. The software it is running in these videos is quite crude and only really for testing it out. The idea was that I was suppose to teach him how to program it and then we would develop it together. But then, you know... Covid19 happened. kzbin.info/www/bejne/o5XWkpuuotVqgMk kzbin.info/www/bejne/eWG0pZh9i8eEY6c

[@john_ace]

Hi Adrian, you should think about grounding your soldering iron. There is a small screw with the ground symbol on the soldering iron. I have a very similar product and it carries 60V and more on the tip. When i had a grounded PCB, i could sometimes even see small sparks when touching the ground-layer. This effect did not occur when the iron was powered from battery.

[@adriansdigitalbasement]

Where you using a non isolated power supply on the TS100? I use a 20v isolated PSU so even if there is voltage potential on the tip, it has no reference to ground so it won't cause an issue even if the board were still connected to power. I'd assume grounding it just helps in ESD situations but I'm not concerned with that ... Obviously hehehe

[@jsteezy80]

You're finger placement on the controller cracks me up

[@loganjorgensen]

You got an interesting asymmetrical grip style for the NES pad, think I'll try it. ;)

[@twocvbloke]

Yeah, I did the scraping of PCB mask and cutting of traces on a modern replica made for the NES Mini (and they used the Wii plug on those!!!) and used a serial cable to make it, was a pain to get the wires all set up properly for the job... :P

[@adriansdigitalbasement]

Heh yeah I saw some videos of people doing that. Certainly works but for someone who isn't good with soldering fine wires this might be a good solution.

[@JVHShack]

I will definitely buy one for my Amiga when I get a chance!

[@fredrickseiler4492]

You could also simply cut the tabs off with a rotary tool or if you're careful enough, a metal cutoff wheel.

[@Megabobster]

Honestly fatiguing them until they break off would probably be easiest

[@osgeld]

while back I did a NES to 2600/7800 board with rapid fire, and once I grew tired of dealing with making them I open sourced it, a couple people have asked to re issue it and I see it pops up here and there through various sellers. I bring this up cause anytime I see something similar, like this, I look at the PCB ... cause I added some "features" if I ever wanted to be a gumpy pants about it (open source doesn't mean free for all). Of course this PCB design is completely different and that's a good thing, more people making retro gear is most excellent!

[@lurch666]

Back before the internet existed for the general public (mid 90s) I built one of these for my Amiga to play bomberman (dynablaster) with. I want to a weekly Amiga club and there was fierce dynablaster rivalry there and the NES pad was to me superior to the the other options available back then plus I could connect the second button for two button games since most controls back then only had the one button. I used the existing PCB and cut the tracks so I could wire the directions,buttons and common connections directly to the cable that connected to the Amiga. Because we didn't have youtube I couldn't make a video of it but if I had it might have been similar to this.

[@andydragon69]

Just be careful with a metal shield on the plug. I killed my C128 SID by plugging in my mouse with a metal shield when the machine was on and accidently touched two of the pins on the metal shield. Lesson learned - ALWAYS turn off the machine when plugging in any joystick port device with metal shield. Also, thank you for all the videos - I would have never been able to troubleshoot the SID failure without watching your diagnostics techniques!

[@frazzleface753]

I always wanted the NES controller to work with my Speccy 😁

[@draggonhedd]

What if you mounted the switch in the start button hole? so you can still access it that way

[@kirbyyasha]

That is pretty cool, I've always used a Sega Genesis controller.

[@simonsunnyboy]

Great video as always! My ordered PCBs just arrived. If I would want to leave out the switch and bridge middle and the pin "UP", will the A button work as UP? Thank you!

[@adriansdigitalbasement]

It seems the switch selects up as either A or UP -- so if you want them both to work just bridge it all together.

[@rimmersbryggeri]

We used to use master system pads on the c 64.

[@retrogamer33]

Yep

[@magoid]

It works as-is or you need to do something?

[@rimmersbryggeri]

@@magoid Yeah as I remember they did. It's been almost 30 years though. 8-Bit guy talks about this in a joystick video.

[@stevethepocket]

Those are the ones that, if you press the wrong combination of buttons, can break the computer, right? Or is it only the Genesis ones that can do that?

[@rimmersbryggeri]

@@stevethepocket Only the genesis that has more inputs than there are pins since the buttons were originally hard wired to the connector pins. Wouldnt use genesis controllers at all even though I know the original ones worked. Master system only had six buttons no start or select. (Jump, Shoot, Up Down Left Right).

[@Arti9m]

I have an ongoing hardware project that lets you mix PS/2 keyboard with two Sega (genesis) gamepads and connect it to the PC via keyboard PS/2 port. The idea is to use two gamepads for DOS and early Windows gaming without a hassle (gamepad buttons are simply assigned to keyboard keys). I got it to the somewhat working state ("pre-alpha"), but PS/2 keyboard protocol turned out to be quite a complicated mess to fully reimplement in a cheap microcontroller I chose. I hope I finish it someday :)

[@tetsujin_144]

Back in the late 80s I sometimes used a Sega Master System controller with the C64 - though rather than wiring the second button to "up" I wired it to the button on the other controller port (equivalent to space bar on C64) - I didn't have a lot of games that would benefit from two buttons but that setup worked well for the ones I had, I guess. Two buttons on Lode Runner would be really nice, but I don't know if that would work without patching the software

[@P5ychoFox]

Fantastic, going to buy one now. I hate joysticks and up for jump! Postage is $12 to UK now, many thanks- ordered.

[@ThomasPryds]

Hey P5ychoFox. Sorry about the shipping costs. Tindie seems to show the 39USD option as default for some countries, however, there should be a 12USD option available as well during the ordering process for all countries. If not, it must be an error with Tindie, and I will of course reimburse you the difference, should you decide to order. Just mention it in a comment when ordering. Thank you!

[@P5ychoFox]

@@ThomasPryds Thanks, I’ll order with $12 shipping.

[@P5ychoFox]

@@ThomasPryds Hi, just ordered but website said it didn’t work so I tried again. I think I have 2 orders for the kit placed now (249199 & 249200). Could you cancel 249200? (I’ve also contacted you via Tindie). Thanks :)

[@CheshireNoir]

Was going to ask what the Galaga clone was. but managed to pause the video at your Easyflash menu and determine it was Galencia.

[@iocat]

Denmark is wonderful! Copenhagen is great, as is Roskilde and AEro island.

[@asbjo]

Here is a “Æ” and a “ø” for Ærø. And thanks for the kind words. :)

[@lindoran]

Would be a good arduino project to use the start and select to switch the button modes and replace the built in switch. Wouldn't have to be much of anything and you could use the chip without a crystal..

[@kokodin5895]

it would be nice if you could use start select as a sort of button layout switch it could be possible i don'r know if it is just adding a as another up or remaping it but if the first thing is the case you could do that on 2 or 3 transistors for pennys

[@ThomasPryds]

With some logic on the PCB that should be possible. Great idea!

[@loganjorgensen]

Yeah it's a strange debate of joystick versus D-pad, some like the 2600 joystick for it's "short throw" but it's basically a D-pad with a stick extension where getting rid of the stick makes the the throw as short as possible so... However if you have joystick with micro switches like a Competition Pro you're using something closer to arcade standards. The other generational beef is the left and right hand dominance, hence the vertical orientation of the early 80s game controller. Truth is horizontal is a much more comfortable control orientation and if you want to move the directionals you just flop the controller directly which is a trivial matter Eg. Gravis Gamepad. Also the new PCB you featured addresses another trivial matter in pinouts like the C64,VIC-20, and 2600 which is adjusting the input layout to can make Up or Down as face buttons. We should have been doing that a long time ago. :| Only untapped things left on C64/VIC/2600 is using the unconnected paddle pins for two more buttons, or use both for an analog joystick for new homebrew ventures.

[@gillesgeeraerts5751]

12:55 Kilobytes and kibibytes actually both exist and are different units. One kilobyte is equivalent to 1,000 bytes (just like 1 kilogram is equivalent to 1,000 grams), while 1 kibibyte is the "binary version" and is equivalent to 1,024 bytes (i.e. (2 to the power 10) bytes). Same goes for megabytes (1,000,000 bytes) and mebibytes (2^20 bytes), and so on. Thanks for another nice video!

[@DavidWonn]

Good luck revising all the documents written many decades ago that all use the original binary definitions! Hard drive manufacturers in the 1990s are chiefly to blame for trying to revise the original binary definitions into decimal just to rip off consumers who bought 1 GB drives, expecting the binary definition rather than the lesser 1 billion bytes. The guy who made up those "new" terms should’ve used something more pronounceable if he wanted them to succeed, and should’ve kept the original binary definitions intact. That’s partially why you won’t see these artificial terms very much outside of perhaps some Wikipedia articles and some Linux distros.

[@gillesgeeraerts5751]

@@DavidWonn Yes, you're right! Those standards (kilo=1000, kibi=1024) were actually adopted quite late (1999 according to Wikipedia), and, indeed, only after several lawsuits related to hard drives capacity. Cheers!

[@HeffeJeffe78]

Adrian, you're not that old. Your logic board still works. No corrupted brain sectors. Beard might need some retrobright treatment soon though. (I'm in the same boat.)

[@misterkite]

If you're looking for a more ergonomic retro controller.. the NES Max is more rounded to fit the hand. It doesn't use a d-pad though, it uses that weird plastic disc. Swapping that out with a d-pad is trivial though, you can even 3d print the part. So you get a more comfortable controller, made by nintendo and not a 3rd party.

[@annikajinx]

Your magical flailing fists and wrists in the 8-bit dance party always crack me up. Keep on grooving baby.

[@gregjarvis1232]

Nice kit and video though I'd much prefer to use snes controller than the square nes controller also have the nes dogbone controller but find that 1 is to small

[@theannoyedmrfloyd3998]

The Sega Master System controller works on Atari systems without any changes! I modified an NES controller by ripping out the chip and soldering a spare Atari joystick cable directly to the circuit board where the chip was. Of course, I'd like to wire up the 2nd fire button to work with Omega Race on the 2600, and I guess it's too much of a stretch to add Game Reset and Game Select. OF Course though, I wired MY NES controller to have the fire button on the left and the cross key on the right! A shame you don't like the CX40 Atari Joystick. I love the brand new sticks with tight control and very little throw, great for precision play such as scoring 1 million on Activision's H.E.R.O.

[@adriansdigitalbasement]

Actually damage to the C64 is possible with an unmodified Mega drive controller: www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=57614&sid=e40fd3bd50b160c0b89730541739d213 IIRC the damage would happen if you push certain keys at the same time as some inputs on the mega drive controller

[@tsuikagura]

I have to have this :D

[@geezerdiamond]

Would it be possible to AND the Start & Select buttons rather than have that switch to flip the up-for-jump feature by pressing those together?

[@SuperJ03y]

Simpler solution for cable and connector is to buy the Atari controller extension cable from Ebay and cut off the male end.

[@christopherbaar4498]

This is great. Sure, you can plug a Sega Master System controller into a C64 (or Amiga, or Atari) no problem, but that little switch I think will improve gameplay in so many cases. Plus, the NES controller D pad is better than the Sega one, at least in my opinion. Now what would be great would be something that you can just plug an unmodified controller into and convert it, with that switch functionality. Not sure what would have to be done to handle the shift register, though. But since something already exists for SNES controllers, which are just evolutions of NES controllers, I'm sure it could be done.

[@stevenbalekic5683]

My favourite Commodore 64 joystick is the brown Commodore C-1342. Growing up I had many others and most broke at the internal spring clicky contacts or the cord wires broke at the grommet. The C-1342 lasted many decades (with a cord replacement) before I stupidly sold the whole system for $25 in 2015. When the C64 mini was announced I was hoping for the brown C-1542 to be the included joystick but got this big bulky red thing instead....I hate it. It's hard to hold and is so clumsy...even the old blue coloured Quickfire joystick is leaps better.

[@slaytallica136]

He should make a version that fits in a pc engine, or Turbografx controller. All the nes controller goodness, that is way more comfortable and potentially turbo options. Also a magnetic Reed switch would be a reasonable alternative to the toggle switch so you don't have to open it up if you don't cut the hole.

[@slaytallica136]

@@blitzwing1 they make modern ones as well. I'm not saying it's cheaper or easier to source, just more pleasant to use.

[@EarlofBaltimore]

Maybe if you are using a vintage casing it might be possible to insert an inline switch for the jump function? Just a thought.

[@IanSlothieRolfe]

Yes, there must be room for the switch in that DE-9 case....

[@ThomasPryds]

Definitely a good idea! Thanks for sharing!

[@RandomUser311]

Recently got my first controller (for my Pi400/RetroPie). I wish the pad was on the right side though where most right-handed people would probably have better motor control. Would have preferred a Competition Pro if they sold them with Bluetooth.

[@tetsujin_144]

It's kind of interesting to me that D-pads have always been on the left - and equally interesting IMO it is not usually a problem. I wonder if operating the buttons is actually more demanding...

[@RandomUser311]

Might just take some getting used to it, but I did turn it around for a bit and it seemed easier to not constantly run into walls. Of course that isn't really a solution because of the shoulder buttons and the shape of the case.

[@elmariachi5133]

For me it's the other way around xD DPads are painful to use (especially the sharp edged NES ones), and less precise. Of course most C64/Amiga games are also not made for being played with a DPad, as you will notice pretty fast, when in example, trying to play Turrican or another game where you have to jump using complex rotating patterns on the DPad all the time.. ;)

[@JMcMillen]

I agree, I almost always had issues with pain using those NES controllers. I went through a bunch of different controllers back in the day for my Atari 2600 and later my C64. The only one that every really caused any hand pain was one I got that was about 2/3 the size of the original Atari ones (but in it's defense, it was a SOLIDLY built joystick). Eventually switched to a larger version of that small joystick and never had problems. Edit: The small joystick I mentioned was the Slik Stik by Suncom. The larger one was the Tac-2, also by Suncom (which is worth getting if you can).

[@eddielegs344]

I have another option a controller that you put in the c64 where you can use a wireless joypad. now use the 8BitDo Wireless USB Adapter on it highly recommended although I say it myself good build quality

[@CrazyMan_Engineer]

On the controller kit the db9 connector should have been shipped inside its shell with tape holding it in for protection.

[@renatoscutube]

So, Adrian is the man who gets right to it, no foreplay... : )

[@TheRetroChannel]

Best joystick tester I've found so far is this one: csdb.dk/release/?id=150804&show=summary It's nice and simple, the whole screen changes colour depending on which direction is being pushed and because it is constantly polling the joystick and changing the entire screen it also makes finding a bad contact really obvious (the screen will flicker)

[@lucarioqp4976]

My names Lasse and i am from denmark i love your Channel

[@Psychlist1972]

The D-pad was one of the best things Nintendo gave the world. I have no love for the old wrist-wrecking joysticks, despite having used tons of them back in the day.

[@skonkfactory]

What about machines like the Amstrad that have two fire buttons?

[@glenndoiron9317]

I'm not a fan of Hyperkin's products (basically because they didn't want to repair my Retron5's cartridge port), but their Cadet controller improves on the NES controller in every way that it can be ergonomically improved on, and is a much better controller than the original d-pad. You should consider getting one, especially if you don't like the original's shape/corners, you'll probably retire the original ones like I did.

[@gamepad3173]

This would be great for using on a Raspberry Pi powered Commodore 64 alongside an Atari 2600 controller.

[@drruncmd]

I know it's not retro, but does the xbox 360 controller suit your hands? Although, I use primarily the analogue controls myself. Oh and for gaming on a PC with a wired 360 original controller used with steam.

[@adriansdigitalbasement]

Yeah I use the 360 controller on all my PC gaming. I hate the D-pad though. Far too easy to accidentally move up or down when pushing left or right. So for retro gaming I prefer a SNES or NES controller.

[@lowlevelretro]

Should we get these ENIG or is HASL going to be fine?

[@MrBlackmaxDK]

If you ever come to Denmark, ill will ask you to sign my Commodore 64 :)

[@WilliamAndrewPhilipBodie]

tror han gøre det med glæde :_:

[@stephenvalente3296]

Unfortunately shipping to the UK is $39! Damned Brexit as I’ve had bits sent over from Denmark really cheaply in the past.

[@danielmantione]

Shipping to the UK is a pain at the moment, but IMO this seller is overasking.

[@jonnycando]

It’s retribution plain and simple….they are soaking you to get a back at you!

[@ThomasPryds]

Hey Stephen. Sorry about the shipping costs. Tindie seems to show the 39USD option as default for some countries, however, there should be a 12USD option available as well during the ordering process for all countries. If not, it must be an error with Tindie, and I will of course reimburse you the difference, should you decide to order. Just mention it in a comment when ordering. Thank you!

[@stephenvalente3296]

@@ThomasPryds Thanks for taking the time to comment. The Danish Postal Service has usually got things to me within about 3 days too. Will look again later. Update: When I added to the cart, it does change to $12 for the UK, so not that bad after all :-D

[@xqqqme]

Sidebar: Adrian, did I miss the story of how/why your Hawkins T-shirt appears to have become the official uniform for your Mailbag segments? Inquiring minds....and all that.

[@garyhart6421]

I got a cheap NES mini with 2 DB9 controllers.

[@williamsquires3070]

BTW - helpful tip: if you (or viewers) modify the NES controller, stick a label on it that says what system it’s for - this way, you don’t plug it back into the NES and damage either the controller or the NES (best case, you push “fire” and your ship goes left, or some weird B.S.)! 😉

[@danielmantione]

Not possible, the NES uses a different plug.

[@ElectroBidouilleur]

The C64 Doctor disk has a clearer joystick test, with a dot that moves toward the edge in the proper direction when you input on the joystick. Light blue background also helps. commodore.software/downloads/download/148-c64-testers/859-64-doctor

[@newfilephilips6131]

Another excellent joystick tester I can fully recommend is Joyride (github.com/T-Pau/Joyride). Imho one of the the best available for the C64. Tests Joystick, Mouse, Paddle, Koalpad, Light Pen...

[@elamriti]

you can use a og nes pcb no need to buy a extra board ! just remove the controller chips and rewire the wires

[@darkwind9000]

8-Bit dance party for the win!!!

[@CrazyBossDK]

I have the NES64 print, and fit it in my cheap chinese NES controller, but I feel its not work as good as it should, often when you press left or right the computer will also think i pressed up. So you actually should press the direction buttons quite soft.

[@gadgetman4494]

thanks.