Retro Gaming Hacks

Use Console Controllers on your PC

Convert practically any video game controller into a USB joystick.

So you’re running some classic games on your PC, but the feel just isn’t right. You’re not getting the same vibe as you do playing the real thing. Maybe what you need is your old controller.

Thanks to those tireless hardware manufacturers in Hong Kong, it should be possible to use a controller from nearly any console system as a PC joystick or gamepad. For most controllers, you will need an additional piece of hardware: an adapter that lets you plug your controller into your PC’s USB port. The Xbox controller, however, is already a USB device, so we can apply the hacker spirit to connecting it to a PC by making our own physical adapter!

For Windows users, this hack should proceed in a fairly plug-and-play fashion (once you have purchased or created the proper adapter so that you can plug, that is). Linux users will want to read “Use USB Gamepads Under Linux” [Hack #52] .

Since the Xbox controller can be made into an interesting project for the handy (or not so handy, in my case!) with a soldering iron, let’s tackle it first!

Xbox Controllers

As stated above, Xbox controllers are USB devices, so you will not need any fancy silicon to convert the electronics to USB. You will, however, need a physical adapter, as Microsoft made sure (for purely technical reasons not related to marketing lock-in, one presumes) that the physical plug for the controllers is not a standard USB one. Such an ...