Control NES from RPI?

[CynicalJedi | 0]

Is it possible to wire the GPIO pins from an PRI directly to an NES controller port to attempt to control the game from software? I'm wondering if you'd need a shift register for it to read or if the RPIs GPIO would be enough on its own. 

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

The way the inputs get serialized are pretty well documented right?

I would suspect it is possible to emulate that in software so that the GPIO was piping directly into the controller port.

(which in turn would open up possibilities to have your RPI drive different controller types)

 

That said -- almost certainly "easier" to just wire up the GPIO pins directly to controller buttons and use the physical serialization chip. 

[CynicalJedi | 0]

Thanks, I'm having trouble understanding how you would emulate it via software with the GPIO directly. There are plenty of example of people using a shift register with the RPI but I haven't found anything that looks like emulating one.  I may start with just wiring to register on the controller directly, the only 'gotcha' I see there is that when buttons are pressed it pulls to ground but I think the RPI can handle that.