Fans make an N64 controller work on Xbox One

One of the things that I love about technology in general is the way things can be so… intercompatible. Out of the box, the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive controller is compatible with the Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Commodore 64… The list goes on. Even though they all used the same kind of controller port, different controllers still use the same kind of architecture in the sense that they’re compatible if you have the know-how to rewire the circuits. So these guys took apart a Nintendo 64 controller and modded it so that it can work on a modern-day Xbox One. Let’s have a look.

So as you can see, the reason behind the mod is to make it work with the recently released Rare anthology called Rare Collection for Xbox One. The prototype is really just a proof of concept since, as they said, the N64 controller only has one analogue stick rather than two.

The way that the Nintendo 64 got around the two-analogue stick problem was that they used the C-buttons to do that job instead. It depends on the game, but the C-buttons can be used to move the player (Turok) or move the camera (Banjo Kazooie, Goldeneye). If they can find a way to make the C-buttons to act as a digital input for the 2nd analogue controller, there might be something good to see here.

Another issue which might pop up is that the analogue stick might give out digital output only. This has happened to me with a few 3rd party joysticks that I got for old N64 controllers, they only registered outputs of either ‘stopped’ or ‘full tilt’. I don’t know whether this controller has that issue, but it’s something that happens often when modding controllers.

It’s still just a prototype, but I’d like to see where this idea develops. I’m sure it would have been a whole lot easier with a Gamecube controller.