NES controller for Famicom

[za909]

I've got a question coming in from a friend, basically the thing is, he really hates how short the cables of the Famicom controllers are and wants to know if the standard is the same as the NES controllers, which would make it possible to cut the Famicom and NES controller cables, and solder the NES controller to the famicom controller cable.

Or if that doesn't work, a workaround could be using a replacable controller on the extra port, but I'm not sure how many games there are that only read from ports 1 and 2. Thank you for your answers!

[lidnariq]

Yes, simply splicing the cables will work. It'll be hard to make it look good, though. Also, they changed the colors of the wires inside the cables, so it won't just be brown->brown.

Reportedly, most 1- or 2-player games for the Famicom treat players 3 and 4 as duplicates of players 1 and 2, so an ordinary Famicom 4-player adapter should work, too.

[rainwarrior]

You can make (or buy) a connector for the expansion port on the front of the Famicom that you can connect two NES controllers to. Here's what mine looks like. That way you don't have to destroy any original parts.

Yes, the controllers are compatible, they use the same set of connections for either the Famicom or NES, though obviously the NES second controller can't produce the microphone signal.

[mic_]

You can make (or buy) a connector for the expansion port on the front of the Famicom that you can connect two NES controllers to

No, but really - you know where those adaptors can be bought? I can sort-of live with the short cables, but I really don't like the fact that the cables are connected to the side of the controllers instead of to the top.

[rainwarrior]

I made mine. All you need are two female NES cables, and the Famicom expansion port fits a Neo Geo controller cable. After that it's just a matter of connecting the correct wires together.

I've seen pre-built ones on eBay and maybe other places, just google it I guess.

There is one caveat that not all games listen for the expansion controller bit. So far I haven't seen any Famicom game that don't work with them, but if you play western NES games with a converter there are a few that won't work with it (e.g. Solar Jetman). Also as mentioned above, a 4-player game will treat the expansion controllers as players 3 and 4.

[mic_]

I've seen pre-built ones on eBay

Ah, yes. There was a guy selling pre-built adapters on eBay for $17, which is entirely reasonable considering that just getting the necessary parts probably would've cost me more than that.

[l_oliveira]

OMG the NES and the FAMICOM player 1 controllers do use the same PCB. Just swap the casing, you heretics.

[rainwarrior]

The problem is not the controller casing, it's the length of the cables.

[l_oliveira]

The problem is not the controller casing, it's the length of the cables.

Funny, that never bothered me... I like the FAMICOM close to me .... <3 (love symbol haha)

[alphamule]

The problem is not the controller casing, it's the length of the cables.

If you really want to, you could source a cable with similar wires and just desolder your controllers on both ends of each to replace the old ones. This has the added advantage of leaving your microphone working!

Another trick is that you can in fact hook a SNES controller up to a NES/Famicom as the SNES controller just has 2 shift-registers instead of the single 8-bit one in an 8-bit generation's controller. If you can make a clean-looking SNES connector using something like an extension cord for the SNES controller, then you can use an otherwise unused/reserved pin on the plug to run your microphone and put it on a 3.5mm cord? That would actually be pretty sweet with a hands-free set. Well, if there were actually tons of games that you needed a mike to play.