pva
Overtop Pathfinder
- Joined
- Aug 28, 2017
- Posts
- 103
I recently chanced upon a mint Sega HSS-0130 at an agreeable price on eBay, and promptly proceeded to buy it as a Christmas present for myself. Having played a metric shit-ton of Saturn games over the holidays, I now find myself wanting to use the stick on other retro consoles besides the Saturn, including the Neo Geo and PS2.
Now, given the stick's minty state, I'd rather not butcher the case for the time being, so I began thinking about an outboard solution.
Based on some googling, it would seem that the Akishop PS360+ and Toodles' MC Cthulhu would be the go-to-solutions for multi-consolising an arcade stick, but sadly the former has been discontinued, and the latter is no longer in stock at PAS. Using the SEARCH. FUNCTION. I also found out about Lemony Vengeance's Saturn to DB-15 adapters, but I assume they have gone the way of the dodo since the FGWidget Converters are out of production, too.
Since I can't simply buy an off-the-shelf PCB or a ready-made adapter, it seems I need to come up with a DIY adapter.
The low tech approach would be to replace the Saturn cords with DB15 extensions, move the original cords and the Sega encoder PCB into a project box, and add some DB15 inputs to it. This would allow me to interface the controller with both the Saturn and the Neo Geo. (No PS2 support, obvs, but I'll take what I can get.) The PCB connectors look proprietary, though, so I don't know how reversible the mod would be in the end, as disconnecting them would involve cutting the leads by the looks of it.
A more involved approach would be to buy a few Saturn and DB-15 extension cords plus an Arduino board. Slap the board and the cords in a box, whip up some code (the logic doesn't seem all that complicated), and you're off to the races. (Still no PS2 support, but hey, beggars can't be choosers, right?)
Any suggestions or hard-earned wisdom as to how I should go about this (or secret stashes of coverter PCBs you could sell me)?
Now, given the stick's minty state, I'd rather not butcher the case for the time being, so I began thinking about an outboard solution.
Based on some googling, it would seem that the Akishop PS360+ and Toodles' MC Cthulhu would be the go-to-solutions for multi-consolising an arcade stick, but sadly the former has been discontinued, and the latter is no longer in stock at PAS. Using the SEARCH. FUNCTION. I also found out about Lemony Vengeance's Saturn to DB-15 adapters, but I assume they have gone the way of the dodo since the FGWidget Converters are out of production, too.
Since I can't simply buy an off-the-shelf PCB or a ready-made adapter, it seems I need to come up with a DIY adapter.
The low tech approach would be to replace the Saturn cords with DB15 extensions, move the original cords and the Sega encoder PCB into a project box, and add some DB15 inputs to it. This would allow me to interface the controller with both the Saturn and the Neo Geo. (No PS2 support, obvs, but I'll take what I can get.) The PCB connectors look proprietary, though, so I don't know how reversible the mod would be in the end, as disconnecting them would involve cutting the leads by the looks of it.
A more involved approach would be to buy a few Saturn and DB-15 extension cords plus an Arduino board. Slap the board and the cords in a box, whip up some code (the logic doesn't seem all that complicated), and you're off to the races. (Still no PS2 support, but hey, beggars can't be choosers, right?)
Any suggestions or hard-earned wisdom as to how I should go about this (or secret stashes of coverter PCBs you could sell me)?