USB Controller Mods for "Weird" Consoles

[teacherpeter]

(There's a lot of backstory here. If TLDR, please feel free to skip to the end paragraph!)

Hello everyone,
I've got all these old games and controllers but my gaming space is small and I've had more than one game and controller get ruined by my chew-happy pups. I've decided to build a dedicated emulator machine in my living room and I want only authentic controllers.

I've just went ahead and BOUGHT the following:
4 N64 USB Controllers
4 SNES USB Controllers
2 NES USB Controllers
2 Atari 2600 USB Controllers
2 Sega Genesis USB Controllers
4 Gamecube Controllers with 2 Dual Ports

I've got a long way to go before I'm satisfied, however. Here's my wish list:

1 USB Atari Jaguar controller
1 Turbografx USB controller
1 R-Zone USB controller
1 DMG-01 Gameboy modded to work as a USB controller

Soooo... I'm brand new to the idea of modding. I've seen mods on ebay but never thought I could do it myself. It never occurred to me. Well, now it has. Unfortunately I just have no idea where to start with a project like this. Any advice would be appreciated. I'd also be willing to consider paying someone to help me mod some of these if they wanted to help/had the time.
Thanks!

 

[ttsgeb]

The most straightforward way to do this for older consoles is to get a modern USB controller, and wire plugs for the old consoles to the switches on them.
Just search around for pinouts, and as long as you don't see "data" in them, you can pull it off.

 

[XCVG]

Google is your friend. The retro controller thing is pretty popular, and you can get premade/premodded controllers and drop-in/solder-in board replacements for many of them.

1 USB Atari Jaguar controller

Someone's already done most of the work. If I'm reading this right, the Jaguar controller uses a matrix like some of the newer console controllers. This circuit will correctly decode the matrix and appear as a USB HID controller to the computer.

You can buy a premade board that can be soldered in: http://www.raphnet-tech.com/products/jaguar2usb/index.php

1 Turbografx USB controller

TG-16 adapter: http://www.brunofreitas.com/node/41

Another TG-16 adapter: http://www.raphnet.net/electronique/tgf ... dex_en.php
Premade version: http://www.raphnet-tech.com/products/nes2usb/index.php

The second one looks like it can be soldered into the controller instead of built as an adapter.

1 R-Zone USB controller

No dice on this one, unfortunately. You're going to have to figure this one out yourself. Opening the controller up and wiring a USB one to the contacts is going to be easier than trying to reverse-engineer the controller protocol.

1 DMG-01 Gameboy modded to work as a USB controller

Again, you're going to have to do this one yourself (or get someone else to), but it should be fairly easy and there's plenty of space inside as long as you don't care about keeping the Gameboy functional as a Gameboy.