Thursday, August 16, 2007

How To Convert Classic Nintendo Controllers to Work With Wii Console










With the Nintendo Wii there is support for the old NES, SNES and N64 games.
To play these games you can buy a "classic" controller for about $20. But what if you already have an old NES/SNES or N64 controller? Why can't you just use those? Well Raphaël Assénat has done just that. He created an adapter that took those older controllers and adapted them to a Gamecube-type adapter (the gamecube controllers are compatible with the Wii machine.)

Here's an Nintendo 64 Controller guts before being installed
He did this with a little more technical knowledge then I have so I'll leave in his words:

Because of the complexity of the Gamecube's controller protocol, it's not
possible to build a simple conversion circuit without using programmable
components. For this project, I used an atmel Atmega8 microcontroller. Maybe
it's a little overkill, but using this chip allowed me to use my Multiuse tiny 1
PCB. Given the small size of this circuit, it's possible to fit it inside an
original controller.
Here's a video of the N64 Controller to Wii Mod in action
He has a full how-to with loads of pictures, the programming firmware and sourcecode all on his site so go check it out.