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Dual Analog N64 Controller


Chevmatic

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Years ago there was a video of a guy who combined two N64 controllers in order to have dual analog sticks for Star Wars Episode 1 Pod Racer and 007 Goldeneye. In the video description he mentions a website where he documented all of his work. This website appears to be long gone. Does anyone know anything about this? I would like to make my own and have confidence in my abilities to make the shell, and in a pinch could figure out the wiring, but would love to just be able to follow this guys wiring schematics to streamline the process.

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30 minutes ago, Chevmatic said:

Why did man start to walk on two legs rather than continue to walk on four, progress. 😁

That's not the same thing. I'm wondering why you want to put 2 controllers into one wire when the games you mentioned have native support for 2 separate controllers plugged into 2 separate ports.

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7 minutes ago, Code Monkey said:

I'm wondering why you want to put 2 controllers into one wire when the games you mentioned have native support for 2 separate controllers plugged into 2 separate ports.

One wire? The controller in the video still uses two wires.

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20 minutes ago, Code Monkey said:

So why is he wondering about wiring? There isn't any wiring to do, you just plug both controllers into the system.

Well I want to have one controller rather than holding two for ease of play. As far as why does any wiring need to happen I suspect it may have to do with needing to cut the circuit boards slightly so they can fit together. I suspect if this isn't accomplished then the system might just register two broken controllers plugged in rather than two working ones and it may not function. I'm thinking he tied the D-Pads, Start button, L, R, A, B, and C buttons all together. For the same reason, I'm also curious exactly where he cut the circuit boards. The N64 controller I don't think is sophisticated enough to have a more than a single layered board, but anything I can find on this would just save me time too.

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40 minutes ago, Chevmatic said:

Well I want to have one controller rather than holding two for ease of play. As far as why does any wiring need to happen I suspect it may have to do with needing to cut the circuit boards slightly so they can fit together. I suspect if this isn't accomplished then the system might just register two broken controllers plugged in rather than two working ones and it may not function. I'm thinking he tied the D-Pads, Start button, L, R, A, B, and C buttons all together. For the same reason, I'm also curious exactly where he cut the circuit boards. The N64 controller I don't think is sophisticated enough to have a more than a single layered board, but anything I can find on this would just save me time too.

It isn't one controller, it's still 2 separate controllers, they're just joined in the middle. You don't need to have a layered board, you can just cut the sides off 2 controllers and glue them together. The boards will overlap, if they even reach each other. It's unlikely they'll even touch.

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Unfortunately, it looks as if the mod instructions for this are gone. The site that used to host it is no longer active. http://www.made-by-bacteria.com/

I found many mentions of the controller, but no alternate site for the build. I dug through the Internet Archive a bit but had no luck since they don't keep every page of every forum. Maybe someone else will have better luck.

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13 hours ago, Code Monkey said:

It isn't one controller, it's still 2 separate controllers, they're just joined in the middle. You don't need to have a layered board, you can just cut the sides off 2 controllers and glue them together. The boards will overlap, if they even reach each other. It's unlikely they'll even touch.

Have you seen the video posted above? Wiring aside, you need to cut the boards.

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Editorials Team · Posted

I think Robotron 64 also used 2 analogs, I'm trying to find if there are any more...

He says in the video that the 2nd controller has only the joystick and Z hooked up, so I'm guessing it's a matter of cutting the traces of all other buttons from reaching the wire/chip on controller 2, and soldering wire to those traces from controller 1. I have a broken n64 controller board that would work well for this project; I can take a look at the traces tonight. From there it's just a matter of "frankencasing" the 2 controllers together using ABS cement or epoxy, and bondo. Sand, reapply, sand, paint. It was a shame to lose the Bacteria forums but there are still lots of this kind of modder at bitbuilt.net.

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On 12/10/2019 at 8:57 AM, Splain said:

I think Robotron 64 also used 2 analogs, I'm trying to find if there are any more...

He says in the video that the 2nd controller has only the joystick and Z hooked up, so I'm guessing it's a matter of cutting the traces of all other buttons from reaching the wire/chip on controller 2, and soldering wire to those traces from controller 1. I have a broken n64 controller board that would work well for this project; I can take a look at the traces tonight. From there it's just a matter of "frankencasing" the 2 controllers together using ABS cement or epoxy, and bondo. Sand, reapply, sand, paint. It was a shame to lose the Bacteria forums but there are still lots of this kind of modder at bitbuilt.net.

That's what I'm thinking. Excited to hear what you can find on your test board.

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  • 4 weeks later...

The guy who made that is Clarky over on N64Forever. I'm the one who won his other custom controller from a Mario Kart 64 lap time contest! I'm very grateful for his hard work and fun contest but in truth the C-stick analog had always been wonky and not too useable, Clarky didn't really know what to make of it. I kept the controller more as a trophy than something useable 🙂

IMG_20200105_210852.jpg

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