Building your own custom joystick adapter cables?

[Zaxxon]

Has anyone here ever done this? What's the best way to do this to get professional looking results? I'm talking about the original sealed plastic plugs, not screwed together from Radio Shack plug parts. Is there a company that would make these for you, small runs?

[CrazyImpmon]

If you put your mind to it, you can build a custom cable that will let you use GC Wavebird controller on original Odyssey 1 system. ;) It's a matter of understanding how they were wired, how the controller communicates with the system, etc.

As for a professional looking molded plug, that would be an injection mold and it's not something you can find at a local hardware store. It's not cheap either. Do a search on google for injection molding. An alternative to this is just grab an extension cable, and cut the middle and leave the nice looking plug alone. ;)

You could check around for a company that can do small runs of electronic parts with molds done on it but they may require something in the range of 1000's before they'd accept your request. Sorry I don't know of any company that can do it, I've always relied on duct tapes for big work and electrical tape for little work.

[congobongo]

I think my PC-5200 y-adapter is pretty smart looking. This pick was taken before it was sealed. Just have electape on it now but with a little shrink wrap tubing it'll look real nice. 8-)

http://www.danandmichelle.com/images/pc5200v2.jpg

[Tetsu]

Just like, take a controller for the system you want to hack apart. Take a picture of the PCB, and map out the chip legs to the corresponding buttons. cut the board up except for the chip itself. Wire it up to an adapter, and throw the whole mess inside a hollowed out Combat cart. It may not be "professional", but the fact that its in a cart case makes it much more ironically hip, in my opinion.