Building a Better Nintendo

[Apps]

I became aware of Hypserspin software while researching to buy an arcade cabinet. I discovered it was far cheaper to build an arcade cabinet rather than buy one. But, not being confident in the system yet, I needed to do a trial project and see if it was something I still wanted to do. I started on this project in January after seeing something I came across on the internet. I thought that, surely there could be a better way to make 95% of the ones I had seen look more original.

Which led me to redesign, alter, modify, and end result... upgrade my Nintendo to a Hypertindo.

Anyway, I grew up with Nintnedo, and put so so many hours and lawn mowing money into that first true system. This is a tutorial of how to do what I did, followed by a brief demonstration.




And just to be crystal clear, I am not the first to do this.... This was the inspiration..

[Acidburning]

def thanks for sharing that. Video saved in my NES emulator google doc :]

Could you provide some of the emulation specs on what you did?

I have been wanting to do this for awhile now: http://edshowtos.blogspot.com/2008/0...ontroller.html

btw, in your closing credits -- it's missing Kid Icarus and Contra :]

[Apps]

Sure thing.

First, the ending music credits were removed for the video of the section of video where I comprised my opening intro video, because the soundtrack was not exclusively used in lieu of an actual gameplay video. According to US Copyright laws, it is not necessary to grant notification of ownership when a video of gameplay is used. I.e. Hence the reason why so many "Let's Play" video series YouTubers can have hours and hours of video of a particular game, and only ever reference having played said game.

So for emulation,
The system boots to a shell program backed by Win 7. It loads a program called XPadder. XPadder is not free, and comes with a one time, lifetime charge of >~$10.00 USD. The software must be configured (which honestly takes quite a bit of time), to recognize that USB X is plugged into USB port X. Its given a profile name, and is is able to be customized for particular button placement. Essentially the software sees the resistance input and wants you to use that input to assign a mapped key. Result is when you press the "A" button, it emulates a keyboard press. Same thing for Up, Down, Left, Right, and other controllers buttons as well for other games.. PS2, Sega, SNES, GC, N46, Famicom, PS3, XBox, etc etc.

So the start was to solder in the USB chip to the port of the original NES port wiring, so that when its connected to the MotherBoard, its ALWAYS USB chip ID XXXXXXX that is plugged into USB1. The result is any controller plugged into the OEM interface port of the NES is always recognized and used as "Controller 1 Profile" Same for controller port two.

Profile help can be sought from the XPadder Forums.. Located >>HERE<<

Back to the boot sequence.. once XPadder loads, the Intro video loads as part of the Frontend package from the Hyperspin software. To delve into Hyperspin in a single post would seriously do it an injustice. Best way to describe it is....Its like if ISBoxer was a click scrolling menu that would auto launch WoW and set up your games and save them for you... AND when you exited WoW, returned you to the main menu of ISBoxer to pick another game.

Needless to say, Hyperspin is the Frontend shell you see and use. When you set up this software package, (NOT for the novice user), the ROM paths must be configured for every game, as well as ....
path direction to the emulator for each game type
path direction to said emulators game save profiles
path to sample videos
path to redirect game port I/O hardware (Xpadder)
path to alternate systems such as SNES, N64, Sega, Atari, PS, Mame Arcade, etc etc
database for visible menu options
database for game systems to emulators
setup of main menu
setup of alternate menu
loading paths
unloading paths
exit commands

The emulator I am using for Hyperspin to direct all NES games to is called Nestopia. I have found it to be the most stable and responsive emu that works well with XPadder. I can assign "Controller Port 1" in Xpadder, and Nestopia will see that same port as "Input 3" (being as input 1 and 2 are had keyboard designations)

Essentially, once Xpadder, Nestopia, and Hyperspin are all configured and in sync with one another, its all over but the game playin.

I would be happy to go into more detail and provide screen shots for certain aspects of the configuration setup if anyone would like.


BTW, was that your blog and emulator / controller USB project?

[Acidburning]

great info, thanks for putting the time into the response. Saved for later.

No, not my blog.

[Apps]

great info, thanks for putting the time into the response. Saved for later.

No, not my blog.

Gotcha, I was gonna give you props for the Rainbow Island selection. So underrated.