Substitue joystick with sega genesis d-pad?

[geno whirl]

Hi I am new here and I would like to make my first portable but for now at least, I am on the idea phase where I am thinking what would make the best n64p. I have looked at many n64ps and seen how sometimes the d-pad is either thrown on there or left off but is sometimes necessary for several games (so if it's gone, that prevents you from playing those games). I got the idea of leaving off the d-pad AND the joystick and replacing it with an 8 direction d-pad then install a switch which could make it work as a d-pad or a joystick depending on the game. I started searching the internet for different controllers and found that the sega genesis has an 8 direction d-pad. Would it be possible to hook the genesis d-pad up to and n64 and use it?

[blaze3927]

no not at all im afraid due to the n64's joystick being a bit "different" to most other joystick interfaces. there is a tiny chance is possible because a few guys managed to reverse engineer the gamecube joystick to get it to work on the n64.

[vskid]

It could be done. You'd have to use a 3rd party controller, due to the way the joysticks work in the official vs 3rd party. You'll probably have to wire up resistors to each direction, but you could get it to work. The only problem is you'd lose the fine control of the joystick (characters would always be running, etc). You could do the opposite, and have a joystick that could also act as a d-pad. I think there was a thread about it recently, I'll let you or someone else dig it up.

@blaze: 3rd party N64 controllers use the same style of joysticks as modern controllers.

[geno whirl]

Well the only other thing about not having a joystick is that a d-pad doesn't protrude as much

[Basement_Modder]

That is a good point..

[blaze3927]

id kill for a slim n64 joystick right now

[geno whirl]

If anyone knows how you could do this, could you possibly draw out a diagram?