Hey everybody, just wanted to let you know that circuits are now available at Raphaël Assénat’s website to convert a Virtual Boy controller to USB, so if you have a spare and want to use it on your PC, now’s your chance!

I had seen a previous post on Planet VB about building your own circuit for this purpose, but if you’re lazy inexperienced like me yet still comfortable with relatively simple soldering (or would rather buy a preconfigured circuit than build one from scratch), this is the perfect opportunity for playing games on your PC with the controller they were meant to utilize.

Because I personally contacted Raphaël regarding this matter and he was kind enough to inform me of previously unreleased VB circuits that he was willing to add to his store, I figured it was only fair to help him advertise a little bit.

NOTE: As of this posting the wiring diagrams are not yet up, but rest assured they are coming and should be ready with more than enough time to spare if you decide to place an order.

Huh, I emailed him my updated source archive back when I posted that, but he never emailed me back about it or updated the firmware version on the DIY page, so I assumed he never received it or didn’t care. It’s funny to see that product in the store now, I wonder if he merged my code or wrote a version himself… Either way, that’s pretty cool. It’s a whole different experience playing with a real VB pad, so hopefully that option will be accessible to more people now.

I’m not familiar with that one, but I did build one from RetroUSB: http://www.retrousb.com/index.php?cPath=25 . They used to sell one labeled as a VB kit, which I don’t see on their site anymore… but it should be the same as the NES/SNES one (should email to verify). Here’s my writeup on building it: http://www.projectvb.com/mods/controllers/usb.html .

DogP

Fwirt wrote:
Huh, I emailed him my updated source archive back when I posted that, but he never emailed me back about it or updated the firmware version on the DIY page, so I assumed he never received it or didn’t care. It’s funny to see that product in the store now, I wonder if he merged my code or wrote a version himself… Either way, that’s pretty cool. It’s a whole different experience playing with a real VB pad, so hopefully that option will be accessible to more people now.

When first contacting him I referred to your modified version of the SNES/NES adapter firmware, but he was quick to respond that he had preconfigured/unreleased versions of the circuit available, so who knows. If I had known a bit more about building circuits I would have certainly attempted to follow your lead, so thanks for that!

DogP wrote:
I’m not familiar with that one, but I did build one from RetroUSB: http://www.retrousb.com/index.php?cPath=25 . They used to sell one labeled as a VB kit, which I don’t see on their site anymore… but it should be the same as the NES/SNES one (should email to verify). Here’s my writeup on building it: http://www.projectvb.com/mods/controllers/usb.html .

DogP

I hadn’t realized you were the one that wrote that tutorial! That’s too cool. I actually originally purchased one of the NES/SNES kits from Retro USB to attempt the conversion with the help of your handy guide, but unfortunately the thing never worked when I plugged it into the computer. Emailing them afterwards revealed that the NES/SNES kit is, in fact, incompatible with the Virtual Boy controller.

Unfortunate, but I can still thank you for the inspiration to pursue this endeavor in the first place!

andy[w] wrote:
Emailing them afterwards revealed that the NES/SNES kit is, in fact, incompatible with the Virtual Boy controller.

Really??? That’s very odd… the VB uses the exact same protocol as the NES/SNES, and both the SNES and VB transmit 16 bits (the VB has more buttons, but the SNES just transmits those extra “buttons” as not pressed). I’ve even hooked up NES and SNES controllers to work on the VB. Did it not do anything when you hooked it up, or were buttons missing, or something else?

DogP

DogP wrote:
Really??? That’s very odd… the VB uses the exact same protocol as the NES/SNES, and both the SNES and VB transmit 16 bits (the VB has more buttons, but the SNES just transmits those extra “buttons” as not pressed). I’ve even hooked up NES and SNES controllers to work on the VB. Did it not do anything when you hooked it up, or were buttons missing, or something else?

I found this odd as well, since I was sure the VB controller used the same protocol. When I plugged the controller into the PC it didn’t do anything; it was never even detected. Maybe I just ended up with a faulty circuit, but Retro USB’s email response stated that they had performed tests revealing incompatibility.

Interesting… I’d guess you either had a bad board, bad cable, or something wasn’t connected correctly. Reading the troubleshooting tips at the bottom: http://www.retrousb.com/product_info.php?cPath=25&products_id=44 , it says the PC should detect a game controller with just USB connected.

I’ll have to email them and see what the incompatibility is… I built mine about 5 years ago, and haven’t run into any problems. And if it works w/ SNES controllers, I REALLY don’t see why it wouldn’t work w/ the VB controller. But if there is a problem, I should update my page to warn of it.

That’s cool that the Raphnet one works though… I’ve never used any of his, but I really like how his stuff is open source with good documentation. I’ve personally bought several Retrozone things and have always been happy with them though.

DogP

As I have never built anything like this I wanted to ask that I would need this circuit, a usb wire, and a VB controller? Solder the VB controller to the board and the usb wire to the board?

This looks like a fun project and I am interested in it.

NOTE: As of this posting the wiring diagrams are not yet up, but rest assured they are coming and should be ready with more than enough time to spare if you decide to place an order.

Lester Knight wrote:
I would need this circuit, a usb wire, and a VB controller? Solder the VB controller to the board and the usb wire to the board?

Yep, it’s that simple! You could actually follow DogP’s guide for everything but the actual soldering part.

If I understand the color-coding of the VB wires correctly, looking at this picture of the circuit, you would solder the orange wire to the point PC5 (top-right), brown to PC4, yellow to PC3, and then black to (-) and blue to (+). The USB cable is soldered to the left side, with white going to W, green to G, and then black to (-) and red to (+).

In total I reckon that would be about 9 points that you have to solder 🙂

I am so knew to soldering and electronics so please forgive me for this question…

After complete the USB powers the controller or how does this work?

The controller will be recognized by direct-x in windows automatically?

I’m considering building a portable gaming computer (nettop or micro-atx) and I am not all that familiar with Linux. How would Linux recognize the controller? Does it behave similar to direct-x and install a generic interface driver?

Thanks!

Talk about overkill… a $20 ATMEGA board to do simple shift-register to USB conversion?! It could be done with a $1-$2 8-pin ATtiny and zero extra components (well, maybe a ceramic cap or two). I know it’s because all of his controller converters are based on the one board, but in this case, standardization is not the way I would go… In fact, I just got an AT90USB162 board from eBay for ~$14 (shipped) that would do this easily. Sure, the firmware would have to be written, but it would be very simple, and could possibly even be ported from Raphnet’s (freely available) code.

Anyway, your questions are all answered on the product page (if you use a little logic).