NES Project - Possible Controller Issues
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I'm building my first RetroPie project, inside an old NES case. I know, I know... "It's been done". But not by me, and not they way I'd love to have it... So my idea, that I posted over in another thread, was to have my Wireless Xbox 360 controller pretty much do everything, until I get some REAL controllers. I bought a used/broken NES for the case, and the guy was kind enough to NOT include any controllers lol. So I'm going to have to buy some. So a thought occurred to me. Will RetroPie still work correctly if I connect an NES controller up? My plan is to come up with a way to do that (probably will use a NES->USB adapter), but not have the NES controllers always connected. I would basically only hook them up when I'm feeling really nostalgic. So is this doable? Can I still use my Xbox controller, then decide "hey, I'll play some NES now", then plug in an NES controller and off I go? Or is there more to it than that? I imagine there would be some "first time setup" for the controller mapping, but after that, will everything still work? I may decide I don't want to always use the NES controller for playing NES games though. So I figure an emulator/core specific controller setup wouldn't be ideal. Unless there is a way for the system to detect I'm plugging in an NES controller, then switch to the NES setup without deleting the Xbox one.
So yeah, I really need some guidance here. Honestly, I'm still in the build phase, as I just got my NES in the mail Thursday. I'm also still working on the software side, getting the ROMs over, etc. So this is not an emergency type request. Just something I have planned.
If my 'swap controllers and configs' idea will work, I also would LOVE (yes, in caps!) to hook up some DB9 plugs to the case so I can use legit Atari joystics and Sega Genesis gamepads. This is my ultimate goal though, to have the option. And if all works, I may even decide to go all out and add a few other plugs on the case too, for SNES and N64 controllers. I'm not worried about PSX controllers, since that's the Xbox controller for the most part already.
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Ok so the best thing to have the option to use an xbox controller is this. The usb ports are recognized in order (0-3) so place the usb port for the xbox controller to be on a lower number usb port. So if you have the nes ports always on they will be controllers 0 & 1. But when you plug in the xbox controller it becomes controller 0 and the nes controllers become 1 & 2.
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I see. So the Xbox dongle would in port 0, the nes in port 1, the DB9 connectors (if this works) in port 2, and the "rom drive" in port 3. Now, what about using a USB hub? I bought a 4-port hub to connect USB devices to (like keyboard, mouse, etc) via the cartridge slot. Should this be plugged into 0, and then the Xbox dongle plugged into that? Or would it make more sense to connect the rom drive to that and have it plugged into port 3? I found out the 4-port (usb powered) hub isn't powerful enough to supply power to my keyboard, so I'm going to the computer store tomorrow to buy a powered one, and was thinking a 7 port one would work nice. The kind with 4 on one side (available via the cartridge slot) and 3 "internal" that I can connect things like the NES ports too. I'm just trying to figure out the best way to do it.
So is at all possible then the idea of having interchangeable controllers?
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