Official LOB64 Interface Standard

[Mario]

Wow, that is nice! I'm going to put that in the first post. Did you see one that's just one plug?

[smitty]

I have a question!! Well, maybe more than one, but just one main one and possibly some rhetorical.

Mario said the GameCube uses 1 pin for controller data, same as N64, correct? So, it should be possible to link 2 GC portables using the LOB.. uh.. GC... But that's not my point. It might also be possible, though not completely functional, to have a Master Gamecube and a Slave N64... Maybe you'd need some sort of adapter, but still... It'd be really cool, for MGC and the people who are just making 1 master and a couple slaves. This way, people with N64ps could play with people with GCps, and you could have slaves that are N64s and GCs. But, like I said, you might need one of those N64-GC adapter.

[bentendo64]

why cant u have a switch on the n64p to choose which player it is? it wouldnt require a modified cable to play with 2-4 players. ill make a picture soon.

[pLover]

Please delete this post.

[Mario]

I have a question!! Well, maybe more than one, but just one main one and possibly some rhetorical.

Mario said the GameCube uses 1 pin for controller data, same as N64, correct? So, it should be possible to link 2 GC portables using the LOB.. uh.. GC... But that's not my point. It might also be possible, though not completely functional, to have a Master Gamecube and a Slave N64... Maybe you'd need some sort of adapter, but still... It'd be really cool, for MGC and the people who are just making 1 master and a couple slaves. This way, people with N64ps could play with people with GCps, and you could have slaves that are N64s and GCs. But, like I said, you might need one of those N64-GC adapter.

I never said the GC uses 1 pin. If I remember correctly, it uses 3.
So your whole argument is thus rendered invalid.

why cant u have a switch on the n64p to choose which player it is? it wouldnt require a modified cable to play with 2-4 players. ill make a picture soon.

You could do that, but I don't like unnecessary switches on my portables. I'd much rather make a simple specialty cable.

[smitty]

I have a question!! Well, maybe more than one, but just one main one and possibly some rhetorical.

Mario said the GameCube uses 1 pin for controller data, same as N64, correct? So, it should be possible to link 2 GC portables using the LOB.. uh.. GC... But that's not my point. It might also be possible, though not completely functional, to have a Master Gamecube and a Slave N64... Maybe you'd need some sort of adapter, but still... It'd be really cool, for MGC and the people who are just making 1 master and a couple slaves. This way, people with N64ps could play with people with GCps, and you could have slaves that are N64s and GCs. But, like I said, you might need one of those N64-GC adapter.

I never said the GC uses 1 pin. If I remember correctly, it uses 3.
So your whole argument is thus rendered invalid.

OK, you never said it, but I'm positive someone did! And that someone is..... eagle5953!

my thoughts exactly!

example:

snes
1. Composite Video
2. Left Audio
3. Right Audio
4. GND
5. P1
6. PL
7. SL
8.

obviously, they could be in a different order for the final version. but snes only uses 5 pins for the controller. 1 is for vcc, which won't need to be included, and one is ground, which is already covered. so you only need 3 of them!

i'm not sure of the exact for nes, but i know it's similar!

It is similar, but this is the issue:

Unless the portable is always 'master' or always 'slave,' you'd need to reserve space for two controllers. This is why the LOB64 pinout has a wire for each player - you don't know in advance which player you will be.

The following is not in regards to a dedicated secondary 'slave' system. It is for standalone portables.

You have 8 wires in a standard ethernet cable. You would use four of them for video, left audio, right audio, and ground (you'd power the controller with the portable itself). You have four remaining wires to transmit the signals from two controllers (player 1 and player 2), which is 2 apiece.

NES uses 3 pins for data - wouldn't work.
SNES uses 3 pins for data - wouldn't work.
Genesis uses 5 pins for data - wouldn't work.
Playstation uses 6 pins for data - wouldn't work.
Dreamcast uses 3 pins for data - wouldn't work.

Gamecube uses 1 pin for data - should work.
Xbox uses 2 pins for data - should work.

One option would be to connect the systems using a different cable - one with more pins. To determine how many pins you need, take the number listed above for the system of choice, multiply it by 2, and add 4. In the case of the NES, for example, you'd need a cable with 10 wires (3*2+4) for 2-person play.

Common cables:
serial cable: 9 pins (not very helpful in this case)
parallel cable: 25 pins (should be plenty)

Another option is to have two ethernet ports on the portable: one for when it is the master portable (with the game in it), and the other for when it is the slave portable. This would allow for up to 4 pins (5 if you combined the audio) for the controller to transmit signals to the master portable.

Aha! I'm not going crazy! Someone said it! See!?! Don't you see it!? I'm not crazy! Aha! Ahahaha!!!

[eagle5953]

I may have been incorrect when I said that... I'm pretty sure I was pretty tired when I was looking all that stuff up.

Edit: I rechecked the pinout for the gamecube controller. There's only one line for data, a few grounds, and two lines for power. Thus, you could use Ethernet for a two-person protocol (video, left audio, right audio, ground, p1 data, p2 data, 5v, and 3.43v) or ignore the 5v line (rumble). Actually, you could probably supply the 3.43v and 5v on the slave system itself, to allow for 4 player.

[smitty]

So, then.... I was right? A little more complicated than I thought, but I was right.... Right?

[nachoz12341]

wait i dont understand what does this do

[Mario]

Well, I'll be darned. Sorry, Smitty. Guess I shoulda checked my facts before posting.

So, yes, it is possible to use ethernet to make a 4-player GC interface such as this one. You can connect the 3.3v and 5v lines to the portable itself, thus only having to transmit the data line, and ground is already connected.

Source: http://www.int03.co.uk/crema/hardware/g ... ontrol.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Nachoz: This is an interface to connect 2-4 N64 portables together for multiplayer.

[nachoz12341]

holy crap that's awsome but how would it send the same picture to all the portables and whos the genius who created this

[mako321]

mario, life of brian, and partially rekarp.

[thewise1]

Since you'll need batteries for an external docking station for controllers I ran a little test for controller power.

Yobo controller while pushing all the buttons only draws about 4mA at the most, and only 3 at 2.7v (rechargeable NiMH) And both of these were when all the buttons were being mashed.

So you're average 2000 mAh AA battery will allow 4 players to constantly button mash for a little over 5 days straight.

So although there's now power coming through lob64 for the controller an alternate power source will last a long, long time.

[JariV]

I will be including this in my portable, still have some old PC's and laptops to get the port

[eagle5953]

I will be including this in my portable, still have some old PC's and laptops to get the port

Or just hit up some thrift stores for old routers, modems, or PCI modem cards.