NES/SNES Controller on PC?

[SoulBlazer]

Hello everyone,

Hope everyone is doing well. I used to be a very active poster here, for those who don't know me, but real life and other issues ate up my free time to the point where I just did'nt have the hour to two I used to spend each day surfing on here. I still chat with some guys from here, but it's been a REALLY long time since I logged in. (Hell, it says my last vist was 7-26-06! )

Anyway....I don't have much free time right now but recently I took out my old NES-to Printer Port and SNES-to Printer Port devices I got years ago from buying them online and was trying to get them to work on my new computer. It's been a while since I played any games on my emulators and I love using real controllers. Years ago, back before USB support was standard, I bought these convertors....basicaly, it just plugs into the computers Paraell (Printer) port and allows you to use a real NES or SNES controller. I got a new motherboard for the PC about a year ago and I THOUGHT I had used them at one point with it.....now I'm not so sure.

I can't get them to work. :( I tried a few different Windows XP drivers I found online that offer support for them. I installed them correctly but nothing registeres when I push anything on the gamepad. I have the 'standard game port' working correctly in Windows.

Money is tight right now and I can't afford -- and don't even if they OFFER -- a controller to USB device. Is there anything else that anyone can suggest that could get these to work?

BTW, I'm not sure if I posted this in the right place. If I did'nt, please feel free to move it.

Oh, I do play XBox Live on my 360 -- about the only gaming I do these days. Feel free to look me up under SoulBlazer07. I have about 50+ games on there. :)

You can also reach me directly on Yahoo Instant Messager under gpolander.

Thanks, Greg

[rally9x]

Something you might want to try is to go into your bios and try setting your parrellel port to a different mode (i.e. epp etc.). The convertors are usually setup to work with one type of setting only, and some of the other settings can mess with them.


The best adapters if you come across some money in my experience are:

http://www.retrousb.com/index.php?categoryID=79

Some think their a bit pricey, but I really think their worth every penny, he sells kits too if you can solder.

I've only ever seen one other commercial SNES adapter and I had heard that it had problems with multiple button presses in games like Mega Man X where you would hold charge and try and dash and jump at the same time.

Another option is that a wired 360 controller will work with XP otherwise you can get an adapter for the wireless ones for 15-20 bucks. The 360 d-pad is pretty questionable though. Like so: http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-Wireless-Gaming-Receiver-Windows/dp/B000HZFCT2/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1211451671&sr=8-1

A lot of Targets clearanced them out recently so you might be able to get one on the cheap their but I think most are sold out by now.

[Harkunan]

The SNES plugs have pinouts that is the same inside the USB, Printer port, or even mouse port. All you have to do is search for the diagram ( like I did with the Dreamcast/Saturn Pinouts and get there matching plugs and attach them together.

[Jorpho]

I was just wondering what happened to SoulBlazer. Is he still reading this thread...?

Anyway, I was playing around with this "Sad Samsung" parallel port utility (http://www.dunfield.com/clp510/) a while back and discovered that some motherboard parallel ports do not support bidirectional communication, which you might need for a gamepad adapter like this. For my purposes I found a PCI I/O card (~$10-20) to work better.

You might also need UserPort, which you can download from the Playsaver page (http://members.aol.com/playsaver/p3.html), but I'm thinking that might not help much if you already found parallel port drivers that were explicitly said to work with these adapters.

(And ignore Harkunan aka RugalSizzler; he has serious problems.)