Has anybody modded NES controller ports to teh front of a Famicom before?

[rahga]

I did the Famicom 4 Player Document way back in the day. Elrinth found me on Facebook.

And.... yeah, I simply have no idea how the Hori adapter is supposed to work without Joy1 D0 on the DA15. That's what the Famicom games look for. On the other hand, there really aren't many 4 player Famicom games out there. I just know of the Technos games, and Twinbee supports a 3rd player.

For what it's worth, here's my Four Score mod to support Famicom and NES 4 player games on the NES.  - http://www.rahga.com/fun/image017.jpg

[Elrinth]

Sorry for the late reply, and thank you very much for this reply rahga. I will apply this improvement to my own! since mine is only 2 players atm

[Terpor]

Why not just mod a 'nintendo four score' with a 'neo geo extension cable'. It would only cost like $20 thats what i did. I got a four score for 12 bucks off ebay and a neo geo extension cable from tototek.com. Cut the cords solder the wires and there you go.Play your famicom with all of your favorite NES accessories.

http://video-games.shop.ebay.com/Accessories-/139969/i.html?_nkw=nintendo+four+score&_catref=1&_dmpt=Video_Games_Accessories&_fln=1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m282


http://www.tototek.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=23&products_id=58&zenid=aae95f7dc81d4f0ed10b31d1148e211a

So are there anyone who would make me a similiar converter, and ofc i will pay for it + shipping etc.

[YoshiFan501]

Or the easiest way. Pcb swap. The famicom pcb is the same as the nes pcb for controllers

[Syco54645]

Sorry to bump an old topic however I modified a 4score today. I can confirm that most games work with 1-4 players with this though some games force you to use the hard wired after the title screen.
I am however having a bit of an issue with the zapper. It is not working but if I unplug it then it fires. I have 3 zappers and none have worked yet they test fine in an NES. I have tested on my famicom with both the JP version of duckhunt and the smb+dh from the nes and both produce the same results. Any ideas?

[P]

I also had problems with certain lighgun games on my Famicom with a NES Zapper. Mad City is one of the games that works flawlessly for me.

[Syco54645]

I also had problems with certain lighgun games on my Famicom with a NES Zapper. Mad City is one of the games that works flawlessly for me.

I have only tried with duck hunt so far but have a few others I could try. However when reading online it seems that this works with nearly ever light gun game. I have not read of an instance where it did not. It also didnt work with the NES version of DH in the famicom.

[Gruixeeeeet]

The link is offline now. Does your handmade adapter work with 4P Famicom games like Technos games?

[famiac]

Anybody still have the diagrams? The photos are all down.

[satoshi_matrix]

I know this thread is super old, but I am interested in building an NES 4-Score to Famciom adapter to play the upcoming four player Micro Mages. Therefore, getting all four NES ports working on the Famicom is important.

But a lot of links are down. Can someone please walk me through this? If it helps, I can provide high res photos of the NES 4-Score motherboard, unmodified.

[P]

Since the Four Score only uses D0, all you need to do to support controllers is to connect the five pins to the Four Score's pins. Here is a pinout diagram:

Famicom Controller Port Pinout (front)

 Port I     Port II
  _____     ______   
 |12345|   |123456|
  ¯¯ ¯¯     ¯¯  ¯¯
P I   1: +5V, 2: CLK $4016, 3: P/S, 4: Data $4016.0, 5: GND
P II  1: +5V, 2: CLK $4017, 3: P/S, 4: Data $4017.0, 5: GND, 6: Mic $4016.2
Note: P/S is latch and comes from the $4016.0 output on both controllers.
The controller ports are internal on the main board and uses standard 2.54 mm
male headers, 5-pin and 6-pin in line.


NES Controller Port Pinout (front)

 Port I               Port II
               _                            _
       GND -- |1\                   GND -- |1\
 CLK $4016 <- |27\ -- +5V     CLK $4017 <- |27\ -- +5V
       P/S <- |36| <- $4016.3       P/S <- |36| <- $4017.3
   $4016.0 -> |45| <- $4016.4   $4017.0 -> |45| <- $4017.4
               ¯¯                           ¯¯
Note: P/S is latch and comes from the $4016.0 output on both controllers.
HVC-101 have the same ports as NES but is missing D3 and D4.

According to this the pins that would have to connect are:
Famicom-NES
1 - 7 (+5V)
2 - 2 (CLK)
3 - 3 (P/S)
4 - 4 ($4016 D0)
5 - 1 (GND)

The controller II port has a sixth pin, this is the microphone input. I guess you can connect a 3.5 mm microphone jack here so you can use whatever microphone you want.
Remember the diagram are of the female ports while on the four score you would connect the male head, in other words the NES diagram will be mirror-reversed.

Things like Zappers won't work in your Four Score unless you also connect $2017 D3 and D4 (pin 6 and 5 on the NES controller 2 port), just like when modding an AV Famicom for Zapper. The Zapper should then work in controller port 2.

If I'm correct and you did everything right, you should be able to play both Famicom 4-player games and NES 4-player games. Actually I made a test ROM that tests both the Four Score and Expansion Port controllers at the same time, but since I don't have this setup I haven't tested it on hardware yet. Could you test it for me if you build this?



What I'd like to know is how $2016 D3 and D4 are wired on NES as they are not connected to anything on Famicoms. If they can be connected, the Zapper can be used in controller port 1 as well (for games that support that) and the NES Power Pad should also work. All schematics I've seen are of the Famicom and are therefore missing the $2016 D3 and D4.


Edit: I uploaded the test program here.

mod edit: changed code block to pre block so that it formats correctly
P: Thanks! I didn't know about the pre block!

[satoshi_matrix]

I appreciate that posting, but most of that goes beyond my understanding

What I need is really a step by step guide on where to solder wires to, what traces to cut, what connections to jump, and so on.

I've bought a Neo-Geo extension cable, cut off the male head and identified the coloring of each of the 15 wires corresponding to the 15 pins.

Here are images of the unmodified NES Four Score pcb. If someone would be so kind as to walk me through what needs to be modified in the images, that would be very helpful.

I need all four ports usable on Famicom. I would like to retain turbo fire support via the four score, and if possible NES zapper support.

[P]

Ah just ignore the stuff you didn't understand. I have a tendency to spew out superfluous information sometimes (it's often faster to type a long post than a short one).

The Neo-Geo extension cable will do you no good because you can not use the expansion port for this. Also the Four Score needs to be untouched, so no need to modify that either. You however need to put 2.54 mm male headers on the Four Score or make two adapters from NES extension cables and such headers. The 2.54 mm headers are the head of the Famicom controllers, one is 5 pin and one is 6 pin (the extra pin is for the mic). They are standard stuff so I think you should be able to get those off-the-shelf. In worst case you can take them from broken Famicom controllers.

This is as good instructions you can get from me. I haven't tried this myself but it should work in theory:

Building two adapters is probably easiest, and allows you to still use the Four Score in a NES.
You need two fully populated NES extension cables (or the controller ports from a broken NES) and two 2.54 mm male headers, one that is 5-pin and one 6-pin. Also a 3.5 mm female mono cable/port.
1) Cut the female parts of two NES extension cables.
2) Expose the wires and identify which colour corresponds which pin in the female end. The 2.54 mm headers also needs exposed and identified wires.
3) Solder the exposed wires for one NES cable to one male header, and the other NES cable to the other male header according to the diagram in my last post. For pin 6 on the 6-pin header, solder the 3.5 mm female mono-cable to pin 6 and its GND part to pin 5. Edit: I forgot about the other components for the mic circuit in the controller, these needs to be added to the adapter as well.
4) For the unused NES pins (NES pin 5 and 6 on both adapters), don't cut them off as you may want to use them later, just tape them for now so that they are insulated.
5) Open your Famicom and unconnect the controllers from the PCB and connect your adapters instead of them.

You now should have two NES ports sticking out of the back of your Famicom (might look dumb), and can therefore use NES controllers and Four Scores in your Famicom. Test it in my controller test program in my previous post. It should be possible to use both Four Score and expansion controllers at the same time for a maximum of 6 controllers if there is enough juice. I think you should also be able to connect any microphone into the 3.5 mm port. Some accessories like light guns will not work in this adapter yet. Use the expansion port for those for now.

Connecting NES pin 5 and 6
I told you to leave these unconnected because I don't know where they go into the Famicom. These pins in the second adapter (the one for controller II) needs to be soldered to the same lines inside the Famicom as pin 4 and 5 on the expansion port are connected to respective. This will make the Zapper and Arkanoid controller among other accessories work in the controller II port. For NES pin 5 and 6 on the controller I port, I don't know where these goes.

Famicom 15-pin expansion port
  1___________________8
   \ o o o o o o o o /
  9 \ o o o o o o o / 15
     ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

Possible problems:
You might not want to have too long cables on the adapters or there will be too much resistance. Keep them short and rely on the length of the NES controllers instead. They need to be long enough so that a Four Score can connect to them though (since the Four Score has two heads stuck together). If it doesn't work anyway, you may need help from someone with more expertise than me.


Just ask if there is something that is unclear.

[satoshi_matrix]

The Neo-Geo extension cable will do you no good because you can not use the expansion port for this.

Whaaaaat?!

I have a Twin Famicom I want to use to play Micro Mages on once it gets shipped. I want to be able to use four players on it, so I want to modify one of my NES Four Scores to Famicom using the DB15 expansion port.

The use of the Famicom expansion port is very much necessary.

ericj here made a video showing it. I want to do what he did.

https://youtu.be/43ETUs-dxV8

[ericj]

ericj here made a video showing it. I want to do what he did.

https://youtu.be/43ETUs-dxV8

Not my video but he does the same mod.