Unmodified Sega Saturn controller in use on XBOX 360

Written by Dan Zuccarelli

Tuesday, 08 August 2006 04:00

Excellent! I'll have to make one of these. I mean how hard can it be... right? The beginning of this article talks about using an unmodified controller with an XBOX 360. Sounds easy enough.

I'm adept enough to handle unmodified.

On second thought... maybe not.

Of course this guy, who OBVIOUSLY has a good deal of experience with this stuff, managed to rig up his Sega Saturn controller for use with his 360. It's by no means a small task, as is obvious from the picture to the left.

The dude went all out. And in the end, he has a working Unmodified Sega Saturn controller working on his 360, and the whole rig is wireless. He does, however, explain how to do it all here.

Wonder how serious this guy was about getting this done? Check out this little excerpt:

From there it goes into a Microchip PIC16F690 Where the Saturn's Joypad protocol is decoded into a parallel output.... Adapting it to a Wireless Xbox 360 controller was a particular challenge however. MS utilizes an interesting button matrix to help reduce the pin count of their controller's encoder chip. This means that the buttons don't work with a simple logic high/logic low interface. Without the equipment to properly analyze the controller to work with this unique system I simply used an array of Analog Switches that emulated a button press on the 360 controller. This proved to work well.

Maybe this explains why I've been getting my ass handed to me on Street Fighter II over live, all my opponents must've been using this controller!

Check out a video of it in action after the jump.

Check out the original posting about all this here.

References:
Saturn Joypad Protocol and Pinout: http://www.gamesx.com/controldata/saturn.htm
RDC's Xbox 360 PCB Scans: http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=512342

Project Info:
PIC16F690 Code: http://www.web-nine.com/files/SATto360/Sat-2-360_V1.txt
PIC16F690 Hex: http://www.web-nine.com/files/SATto360/sat2parV1.HEX
Circut Diagram: http://www.web-nine.com/albums/Xbox360/Sat_2_360.png
Prototype Circuit: http://pictures.xbox-scene.com/xbox360/sat...ler/proto2a.jpg
360 Controller Interface: http://web-nine.com/albums/Xbox360/ctrlrbn.jpg

Comments (7) Add Comment

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written by Video Game Blog & Video Ga, August 09, 2006

[...] Netphantom is having a bit of trouble against opponents on Xbox Live. It might be because they are using superior technology developed for the era of 2D fighting games - The Sega Saturn controller. This was, in my eyes, the ideal 6 button gamepad for fighters. None of this L and R crap - you could swiftly deliver your arcade combos without cracking your wrist on a large format joystick. A resourceful hacker on Xbox Scene has found a way to connect the dots and rig a Saturn controller to his Xbox 360 and even shows us they joypad in action on video. It’s also safe to say that he finished this project at 4am, because you can’t see a damn thing. I’d love to buy something like this… but I’ll wait till version 2.0 when they figure out a way to do it without leftover props from The Matrix. [...]

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written by Greshkov, August 09, 2006

the saturn controller had l and r buttons as well as the abc and xyz buttons. if you could combine the saturn's 6 button layout with the dreamcast's triggers, my ideal controller would be born. but hey, at least the 360 doesn't come with the god damn white and black buttons anymore

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written by Lord Meph, August 11, 2006

Man, I wish one didnt need a degree in astro-physics to create this.

I'm getting tired of 50% of my dragon punches not registering on the crap-ass 360 d-pad...

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written by æˆ‘ä¸å–œæ¬¢-Blog » Top , August 16, 2006

[...] Twistedsymphony created a nifty adapter that allows you to use “a completely unmodified Sega Saturn controller to play XBox 360 games.” More information here. More specifically I wanted a good 2D gamepad to play upcoming Xbox Live Arcade titles such as Street Fighter 2 Hyper Fighting and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Thankfully I was able to complete my adapter before either of the game have been release… so I’ll be ready [...]

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written by æˆ‘ä¸å–œæ¬¢-Blog » Satu, August 16, 2006

[...] Twistedsymphony created a nifty adapter that allows you to use “a completely unmodified Sega Saturn controller to play XBox 360 games.” Video demonstration after the jump. More information here. More specifically I wanted a good 2D gamepad to play upcoming Xbox Live Arcade titles such as Street Fighter 2 Hyper Fighting and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Thankfully I was able to complete my adapter before either of the game have been release… so I’ll be ready [...]