Does anyone have any insight into how the 4 player dock works? Does it contain special circuitry or can you simply wire 4 controllers directly into an NES?
Joined: Sun Mar 23, 2008 9:42 am Posts: 126 Location: CANADA
I'm curious about this too, I'll look something up on the nes four score, my nes broke but im in the process of fixing it and I want to make a four score. The only 4 player nes game i know is nightmare on elm street
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I would also like to know what's up with it.....i started a thread like this quite a few years ago, but got no replys on it. Maybe this time something will show
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CraigD wrote:
Does it contain special circuitry or can you simply wire 4 controllers directly into an NES?
It has some special circuitry, but probably not anything that you couldn't do yourself. You might be better off just getting a four score, though. I think Wikipedia has some info on it.
Joined: Sun Mar 23, 2008 9:42 am Posts: 126 Location: CANADA
nevermind1534 wrote:
CraigD wrote:
Does it contain special circuitry or can you simply wire 4 controllers directly into an NES?
It has some special circuitry, but probably not anything that you couldn't do yourself. You might be better off just getting a four score, though. I think Wikipedia has some info on it.
hmmm, I looked but came up empty
_________________ i hate how electronic part suppliers give you an option on their website to filter your searches so that you can find a certain part and no results come up!
Does it contain special circuitry or can you simply wire 4 controllers directly into an NES?
It has some special circuitry, but probably not anything that you couldn't do yourself. You might be better off just getting a four score, though. I think Wikipedia has some info on it.
hmmm, I looked but came up empty
Yea me too; I assume that it's just gonna be easier to buy one and crack it open.
Joined: Sun Mar 23, 2008 9:42 am Posts: 126 Location: CANADA
CraigD wrote:
footinmouth wrote:
nevermind1534 wrote:
CraigD wrote:
Does it contain special circuitry or can you simply wire 4 controllers directly into an NES?
It has some special circuitry, but probably not anything that you couldn't do yourself. You might be better off just getting a four score, though. I think Wikipedia has some info on it.
hmmm, I looked but came up empty
Yea me too; I assume that it's just gonna be easier to buy one and crack it open.
once someone does, I hope they make a schematic and take some extra notes. Once i get my lcd ill keep my eyes out for a fourscore I'm pretty good at drawing schematics.
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Joined: Fri Aug 13, 2010 12:40 pm Posts: 463 Location: Here
information reposted from NESdev.comnes4play.txt reposted without permisssion as contact information was not included.
Spoiler:
Fredrik Olsson wrote:
NES 4player-adapter documentation
Date: 1998-01-20 By: Fredrik Olsson Version: 0.9
Background: The NES has a couple of good 4player games and I wanted to emulate the 4player-adapter, but there was no documentation. So the only solution seemed to be to hack some games to see what they were doing to read the adapter. And here it is, the (hopefully) complete documentation on NES 4player-adapter.
To start the reading of a joystickport you will have to do the normal strobe (write #1 to $4016 and then #0 to $4016). Then you read bit #0 of $4016 8 times for joystick#1 and 8 times again for joystick#3. The same rules apply to $4017 for joystick#2 and #4. This would be all if it wasn't that some games need to know whether there is an adapter or not. The information is supplied in the next 8 bits (read 17 to 24),these bits I think represent the kind of adapter, for normal emulation it wouldbe "0001.0000" in $4016 and "0010.000" in $4017. It seems that there are adapters that supply the information in the second bit of $4016 and $4017, but I don't think any games require these. If you want to make your emulator emulate this too then the last(?) (17 to 24) 8 bits would be "0010.000" in $4016 and "0001.0000" in $4017, but then you must supply the bits for joystick information in the second bit (bit #1) of $4016 and $4017. A real NES has some timing aspects too, but that won't (probably) matter for an emulator.
Code:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |Read# 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Joy#1/Joy#2 | Joy#3/Joy#4 | Adapter info | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | A | B | Select | Start | Up | Down | Left | Right | A | B | Select | Start | Up | Down | Left | Right | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -----------------------------------------
To test this I recommend Gauntlet II for test without adapterinfo and RCProAmII for test with adapterinfo.
So use this information for your new cool NES-game =)) or in your emulator. And please give me some credits if you think I deserve it ;). This information may be put in either Yoshi's NES-doc or Marat's NES-doc without any questions, but please ask me first if you put it somewhere else, thank you.
Special thanks to: Juan Antonio Gomez Galvarez Yoshi Marat Fayzulin Morgan Johansson
NES Four-player devices (Satellite and Four Score) Used by Tengen's "Gauntlet II", and Nintendo's "RC Pro Am 2". The device is connected to both of the consoles two controller ports, and up to four controllers can be connected to the device. The device is accessed much like normal joypads, except that the returned bitstream consist of 24 bits instead of normal 8 bits:
Code:
write "1-then-0" to (4016h) (that only once, for all 24 bits) read 1st 8 bits: controller 1 (4016h) / controller 2 (4017h) (as normal) read 2nd 8 bits: controller 3 (4016h) / controller 4 (4017h) (new ports) read 3rd 8 bits: 0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0 (4016h) / 0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0 (4017h) (ID codes)
The ID codes can be used to detect if the 4-player adapter is connected (used by RC Pro Am 2, not used by Gauntlet II). Otherwise the ID field typically contains all ones (normal/single controller), or all zeros (no controller connected at all).
The NES was designed to accommodate the use of the light gun and robot that were already being used for the famicom, without making the console more complicated. To accommodate this without redesigning their devices and programs, the ports of the removable joysticks were equipped not only with data line D0, but also D3 and D4. Unfortunately, this prevented games that used other methods of communicating with the Famicom expansion port, including keyboard and four player games, from being released on the NES without major modifications.
To accommodate four player gaming on the NES, Nintendo later released the Satellite and Four Score, which requires games to support another method of reading the joystick ports (first eight reads come from the first controller on the port, second eight reads come from the second controller on the port, followed by another 8 reads that includes a signature, letting the game know whether or not a four-player device is plugged in).
It comes as a surprise to most people that the Famicom's four player games are incompatible with the NES' Four Score, but many of them forget that the original Famicom's controllers were hardwired on to the unit.
Meow; This the first time that I've seen an article plagarized to Wikipedia! I am troubled and yet also very much amused.
Joined: Fri Aug 13, 2010 12:40 pm Posts: 463 Location: Here
It looks like the FourScore uses a single PGA/custom IC that has toffleable modulator for bits A/B.
I think that I've worked out a compatible logic (minus turbo) for a four player adaptor. (I know that it can be reduce by to IC's, but it works in theory...) Logic Diagram
Spoiler:
EDIT: Attachment deleted, PM for CDL file. Additional gate definitions for scienceontheweb.netCEDAR LS 1.5 beta (insert into line #4848 of cl_gatedefs.lib where "#NOTE: Need to make the 8-bit shift register shape." follows.)
Spoiler:
Code:
#NOTE: Need to make the 8-bit shift register shape. <gate> <name>BE_SHIFT_REGISTER_8</name> <caption>8-Bit Shift Register</caption> <logic_type>REGISTER</logic_type> <logic_param>INPUT_BITS 8</logic_param> <logic_param>MAX_COUNT 255</logic_param> <logic_param>SYNC_CLEAR true</logic_param> <logic_param>SYNC_LOAD true</logic_param> <gui_type>REGISTER</gui_type> <gui_param>VALUE_BOX -1.6,-1.3,1.6,1.3</gui_param>
Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2010 4:06 pm Posts: 289 Location: Inside My Nintendo 64 Ram. (Dont Turn It Off!)
bump
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nevermind1534 wrote:
By, I cringe every time I see a post by you, because of the immense number of useless comments that seem to be there for no reason other than to up your post count.
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Last edited by gamax92 on Sun Aug 22, 2010 10:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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