Idea for Mega Drive/Master System Controller

[VenomMacbeth]

The thought occurred to me...while there are tons of aftermarket joypad a for the Genesis, SNES, and NES, there are few dedicated Master System pads.  And that got me thinking...since the Genesis and SMS have the same plug, why not make the joypad completely cross-compatible between the systems?  And while many would disagree with me on this, I would want such a joypad to somewhat replicate the look and feel of the original SMS pads, square directional pad and all.  Lots of people hate the square D-pad.  I happen to think it's marvelous, although I suspect it's more prone to wearing on the rubber contacts within than the NES pads.  Surely this could be remedied with a little modern engineering, yes?  What are your thoughts?

[DragonmasterDan]

The thought occurred to me...while there are tons of aftermarket joypad a for the Genesis, SNES, and NES, there are few dedicated Master System pads.  And that got me thinking...since the Genesis and SMS have the same plug, why not make the joypad completely cross-compatible between the systems?  And while many would disagree with me on this, I would want such a joypad to somewhat replicate the look and feel of the original SMS pads, square directional pad and all.  Lots of people hate the square D-pad.  I happen to think it's marvelous, although I suspect it's more prone to wearing on the rubber contacts within than the NES pads.  Surely this could be remedied with a little modern engineering, yes?  What are your thoughts?

I hate that disc. It's too loose. I think there's a way by snipping one of the wires inside of a Genesis controller to make a regular Genesis pad work with all the SMS games.

[Tatsujin]

?

the MD and SMS pads are already compatible.

I always use my MD Blaster pad to play the sms..such good!

[sirhcman]

?

the MD and SMS pads are already compatible.

I always use my MD Blaster pad to play the sms..such good!

some games arent compatible with a genesis controller, like wonder boy in monster land

[Mzo]

The square pad is terrible =[

It's way too big and it's almost impossible to hit a clean direction.  If you play Wonder Boy in Monster Land (and you damn well should) you'll be crapping out spells by accident left and right like an incontinent wizard.

The very first thing I did was drop those pads into a storage bin and modified a Genesis 3-button pad to work with all the SMS games.  World of difference.

[sirhcman]

i would have always liked a nes or pc engine controller for my sms. unfortunately i am not very handy at all so i was never able to make one

[Tatsujin]

?

the MD and SMS pads are already compatible.

I always use my MD Blaster pad to play the sms..such good!

some games arent compatible with a genesis controller, like wonder boy in monster land

sure? maybe incompatible only on the western SMS? I played my WBiML a lot with the MD blaster pad on my JPN SMS.

[CrackTiger]

Most SMS games work fine using a Genesis pad.

The SMS/Mark III pads control perfectly with the screw-in joystick-nub.

[Tatsujin]

Ah I got it. the western SMS probaly got the Joy port harness of the japanese markIII which also isn't compatible to the JPN SMS, and the japanes SMS got already a different (the future MD one), since it was released quite later

[IrishNinja]

some games arent compatible with a genesis controller, like wonder boy in monster land

whoah, really?  never knew this...i dont spend nearly as much time with 2 as 3 (the timer throws me off) but that's a bummer.

[Tatsujin]

so then there is even one more advantage of the japanese SMS over the oversea one

[Mzo]

some games arent compatible with a genesis controller, like wonder boy in monster land

whoah, really?  never knew this...i dont spend nearly as much time with 2 as 3 (the timer throws me off) but that's a bummer.

If you cut through the Start button wire, it'll work.  You can mod a switch but fuck that.  CHOP CHOP

[DragonmasterDan]

Most SMS games work fine using a Genesis pad.

The SMS/Mark III pads control perfectly with the screw-in joystick-nub.

While it does give slightly tighter control I hate that the cords come out of the side of the pad on the screw in SMS pads.

[ApolloBoy]

so then there is even one more advantage of the japanese SMS over the oversea one

Indeed. However, the Mark III and the SG-1000 are totally incompatible with Genesis/MD controllers. It's an easy fix though, the reason why they don't work on those systems is because pin 7 is connected to ground, so that messes up the multiplexer chip in the Genesis/MD controller. Just desolder pin 7 or cut the trace for it and you're good to go.

[TheClash603]

SMS pad = worst ever made.  Give me a Jag controller any day,

[Tatsujin]

so then there is even one more advantage of the japanese SMS over the oversea one

Indeed. However, the Mark III and the SG-1000 are totally incompatible with Genesis/MD controllers. It's an easy fix though, the reason why they don't work on those systems is because pin 7 is connected to ground, so that messes up the multiplexer chip in the Genesis/MD controller. Just desolder pin 7 or cut the trace for it and you're good to go.

yeah, I figured that out once, but didn't know that the ouversea SMS was built on the same tech level, whilst the JPN SMS already moved on to the MD (and other D-Sub 9 compatible system) standard.