NeoGeo to NeoGeo pin converter

Is there a NeoGeo to NeoGeo gamepad converter? A converter that takes the input from all the pins of a gamepad, but then reorders them into a different order before outputting them to the machine?

The reason why I ask is: Imagine you have some custom-made controllers for a supergun. And you want to use these controllers on another supergun. The other supergun also uses the NeoGeo port, but its pin assignment to the JAMMA buttons is different.

So, is there a device that reorders the pins of a NeoGeo controller, so that I can use the same controller on two different superguns?

I am unaware of an existing mass-produced product that exactly meets the specifications you set forth.

But as I understand it, a Neo Geo controller is just a set of make/break switches. You can mount a DA15 plug and a DA15 receptacle on a breadboard and wire the correct pins to the correct holes to remap the buttons.


EDIT: rephrased lead to conform to asker's subsequent clarification

Do you know of any instructions that show me how this works?

Google neo geo controller pinout should provide plenty of resources.

Top row: Ground, NC, Select, D, B, Right, Down, +5V
Bottom row: NC, NC, Start, C, A, Left, Up

Given http://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=cont ... controller and http://www.gamesx.com/controldata/superneo.htm

Just buy one each male and female DA15 connector, and connect things straight through (e.g. 1-1, 6-6, 7-7, 14-14, 15-15) or swap them around if you want to remap things. The DA15 shells themselves usually have the numbers embossed inside (e.g. http://www.globalpc.co.nz/prodimages/P4131.jpg )

And here we go again.

Alright, I'll explain it to you: I'm not a technician. I've never done this stuff. I've never heard of most of these terms that you used.

Yes, I can google for the pinout chart. So what? This doesn't enable me to accomplish the goal that I want, in the same way looking at a graphic of the human heart in a biology book doesn't enable you to do heart surgery. Or in the same way learing the alphabet doesn't make you an author.

I know that working with pinouts and all that stuff is easier than heart surgery. But still: If I have to do it myself, I need a step by step explanation. It just isn't enough to drop three technical terms and a graphic and expect me to be able to build something like that myself.


I've seen this so many times: People who know about stuff just don't understand that there are people who don't know about this stuff.

When I asked on the FamiTracker forum whether a certain kind of sound can be recreated on the NES, they berated me for not reading the wiki.
Oh yeah, having a quick look at this:
http://famitracker.com/wiki/index.php?title=Effect_list
totally enables me to evaluate the possibility of any kind of sound effect.
Even when I explained it to them, they just didn't understand it. It was beyond their comprehension that reading the hard facts for 10 minutes does not make you a composer.

It's the same here:

Yeah, sure. And somebody who has never programmed in his whole life just needs to learn what void, int, char, for, while, if, else and return mean and he can instantly write his own useful application.

Seriously, if you want to help me, it's just not enough to throw the words at me. I need to be able to know how everything of that works together. Or to get a finished solution.


Also, this is not some project of passion for me. It's not like writing a game where you can tell the person: "There is no shortcut. You need to learn this by yourself for a long time, otherwise you will fail."
I don't want to delve into the work of arcade and console hardware.
I have a very specific problem and I'd like to find a simple solution. This means either buying something that does exactly that. Or finding someone who specialzes in this kind of stuff where I can order such a product. Or an easy fool-proof step by step instruction.

I do not want to spend the next four weeks becoming capable of doing this kind of work. So, giving me some general terms that I can do further research on is not my goal.

Just imagine that I want light in my room. So, you would tell me where to buy a lamp and a light bulb. I do not want to become an electrician. The whole "Do it yourself" mentality and providing only the very core basics is totally out of place here.

I asked for a very specific one-time issue. So please understand that it doesn't help me if you just give me hints to things that would require me to first open a work shop in my living room.



How exactly shall I do this?

Shall I buy this?
www.amazon.com/dp/B005QALSR8
www.amazon.com/dp/B007R2JGIG

If yes, how do I remap the stuff? It's not like each pin comes with a long cable that I can just pull out and plug into the hole of the other device. And how do I connect everything in the end?

As I said, I need a detailed step by step instruction. You cannot just tell me to buy X and Y and then do Z in the same way you can tell me to do a bit shift in a certain programming situation.

Unlike the bit shift where I know exactly what you're talking about and immediately understand what this will accomplish, I have zero knowledge about fiddling with controller pins. Also, unlike with the programming topic, I have zero interest to do any more than absolutely necessary.
If I could buy something like that somewhere, this would be the best for me. If I have to build it myself, I need a fool-proof explanation because I'm not willing to spend a huge amount of time to research the basics.
Just dropping some terms and giving a half-sentence of explanation doesn't help me at all.

I gather from your previous post that instead of wanting us to help you learn how to construct the wiring instructions, you want us to construct complete wiring instructions for you. Please answer for us the following forty questions:

1. What button does Up on your joystick press on your first supergun?
2. What button do you want Up to press on your first supergun?
3. What button does Down on your joystick press on your first supergun?
4. What button do you want Down to press on your first supergun?
5. What button does Left on your joystick press on your first supergun?
6. What button do you want Left to press on your first supergun?
7. What button does Right on your joystick press on your first supergun?
8. What button do you want Right to press on your first supergun?
9. What button does Select on your joystick press on your first supergun?
10. What button do you want Select to press on your first supergun?
11. What button does Start on your joystick press on your first supergun?
12. What button do you want Start to press on your first supergun?
13. What button does A on your joystick press on your first supergun?
14. What button do you want A to press on your first supergun?
15. What button does B on your joystick press on your first supergun?
16. What button do you want B to press on your first supergun?
17. What button does C on your joystick press on your first supergun?
18. What button do you want C to press on your first supergun?
19. What button does D on your joystick press on your first supergun?
20. What button do you want D to press on your first supergun?
21. What button does Up on your joystick press on your second supergun?
22. What button do you want Up to press on your second supergun?
23. What button does Down on your joystick press on your second supergun?
24. What button do you want Down to press on your second supergun?
25. What button does Left on your joystick press on your second supergun?
26. What button do you want Left to press on your second supergun?
27. What button does Right on your joystick press on your second supergun?
28. What button do you want Right to press on your second supergun?
29. What button does Select on your joystick press on your second supergun?
30. What button do you want Select to press on your second supergun?
31. What button does Start on your joystick press on your second supergun?
32. What button do you want Start to press on your second supergun?
33. What button does A on your joystick press on your second supergun?
34. What button do you want A to press on your second supergun?
35. What button does B on your joystick press on your second supergun?
36. What button do you want B to press on your second supergun?
37. What button does C on your joystick press on your second supergun?
38. What button do you want C to press on your second supergun?
39. What button does D on your joystick press on your second supergun?
40. What button do you want D to press on your second supergun?

What tepples is saying is that because Neo Geo's connector is a simple one where each button corresponds to a single pin/wire, there should really be no mystery about what to do. There's no moving parts, no digital logic, just wires going from one pin to the other.

If you're asking how to connect wires together properly, maybe watch some video tutorials on how to solder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIT4ra6Mo0s

It doesn't mean that you should write down the instructions. I was asking whether you know of a finished product that can do what I want or whether you know of a manual that describes everything in detail or whether you know where I can pay somebody to do this.

And yes, it's right. I don't want to learn how to do this. Why is this always such a shock?

Let me guess: You would be able to assemple such a converter, right?
Because this whole "Why don't you want to learn it?" always only comes from people who know about the topic themselves. Therefore, they conclude that everybody else who wants anything in this direction has to know about the topic or learn about the topic.

When I ask a technician about technical stuff, he just doesn't understand that I don't want to learn to do it myself. And when I ask a musician about one little detail about stuff in NES sound, he is totally shocked that I don't want to spend my own time finding it out by learning all details that you need to learn before you even get to my original question.

Curiously, I have never seen this with people who don't know about the topic in question themselves.
A non-musician will never criticze me for not wanting to learn major details about music when I have a simple little question. And a non-technician will never berate me for not trying to build stuff myself.

And you know what? Not wanting to do it myself is totally o.k. Because that's how things work in real life.
If my heating is broken, I want it repaired. I don't want to learn how to repair it myself. So, when I ask what I can do against it, I'd think people will tell me a good mechanic and not linking me to a graphic that lists the part of a heating.

So, yeah, you're right: I don't want to learn how to do this. I'm a software developer. And in my free time, I have other things to do.
I wouldn't repair a broken plug socket, I wouldn't fix a dripping faucet and I wouldn't disassemble my DVD player to find an issue in it. I pay people who know about it to do that for me.
I don't grow my own wheat and I don't have my own cattle. If I want to eat bread or meat, I go to the supermarket and buy it. If it tastes crappy, I buy something else. I don't start to learn how to bake my own bread.

And I'm pretty sure you don't do everything yourself either, do you? Do you cut your own hair and sew your own clothes?

So, why is it such a surprise that I don't want to spend a huge amount of time on stuff like assembling controller ports? Why is this such a surprise to you? Because you are able to do this? Well, surprise: According to your logic, you should never ask anybody where to get a specific soup. So, are you not willing to learn how to create this specific soup yourself?



Sure, but how shall I remap them? It's not that I can just pull out the pins from their plug with tweezers and they are connected to a wire, so that I can comfortably pull them out and put them into a different hole of an extension chord.


Which is exactly what I will never do.

Plugging stuff together, like connecting the mother board, graphics card, hard disk etc. in a computer: This is what I would actually do. If I have exact instructions for the thing I want to do.
Because, as I said: I don't see that you can just pull out pins from a NeoGeo controller or an extension chord, so I'd need to know first how to free them and extend them (since they go into different holes of another plug, so the pins need to have some movable wire behind them).

But soldering, i.e. melting metal with some hot pen-like item: Forget it. This is beyond the whole "do it yourself by plugging it together". This is working with actual professional devices that need caution or else you set your apartment on fire or at least burn your finger.
So, no, if creating such a converter requires soldering, then my above arguments of not doing everything yourself, but getting people to do it who actually know what they're doing counts even more.

If you could find something like this, with male and female DB15 solder cup connectors, it could look decent when it's done:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000AA2P76/

What you also need is a wire stripper tool, and some wire (often called hookup wire or similar), maybe 28-26 AWG stranded (not solid). Scissors, or even a cigarette lighter can be an OK substitute for a stripper if you're desperate. You melt some solder into the 'solder cup' on the back of the DB15 connector (don't put too much or it might flow through and block the pin), strip the wire, tin the wire end with solder (just melt some solder onto it. Then with the soldering iron, heat the solder cup, then stick the wire into it. That's a brief soldering tutorial for that.

If you use those connectors with the screw terminals you could get by without soldering anything, those type of connectors with terminal adapters tend to be kind of expensive though. I suppose you could also buy pre-stripped lengths of wire somewhere too, if you really wanted to not involve any tools.

Would you prefer to read half a dozen answers to the effect "No, I am unaware of an existing mass-produced product that exactly meets the specifications you set forth."? If not, then if nobody is aware of an existing mass-produced product that exactly meets the specifications you set forth, what sort of answer would you prefer in the future?


How much are you willing to pay someone to build two converters for you?


I wouldn't, but the person whom you hire would. I am collecting the information so that the person whom you hire would know how to wire your two converters.


I shave my own beard, but otherwise no.


Yes, I sew some but not all of my own clothes. As I type this, I am wearing a nightshirt that I made, along with mass-produced socks and [too much information]. I also made the sack and the hat that I wear in a video where I climb the stairs on my hands.


Then let me rephrase: "I am not aware of a major national brand that mass-produces exactly this soup. To work around the lack of such a major national brand, I'm willing to help you learn to cook."

You're describing a professional relationship. If you want someone to repair your heater, you can hire them. You don't go onto heating forums and berate people expecting somebody to come over to do the work for free.

I'd gladly build you a converter for $250.


Then you'll never build this device. I don't know why you'd want step by step instructions on how to build something if you know you'll never do step 1.

The problem is: If I screw up melting the wires, for example if I map them incorrecly the first time or whatever, I have to buy a new one.

The best would be if I had an extension chord, but where the pins aren't fixed, but where they dangle out, so that I can grab each of them and put them into the corresponding plugs.

Or isn't anything available where you don't have to solder the wires together, but where you can just put them on and off with a screwdriver and that doesn't cost me a fortune?



Why do you think that I would prefer such a bullshit non-answer? No, I wouldn't. If somebody knows nothing about it, he shouldn't answer at all.
By the way, that's already the second time that you ask me this question:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=12966&start=30#p150339


The things that I already mentioned:
Online step by step manual for a simple plug and play solution, if there exists one (which I cannot know in advance, that's why I was asking).
Naming the website of a person who does technical stuff routinely and who could create something like that. Like those supergun creators. Maybe one of them offers custom hardware for a decent price.


I don't know. I wasn't expecting some private person to do this in his freetime. This would probably be quite expensive as rainwarrior demonstrated. I was hoping more for some kind of online shop where you can ask for such things.


But I guess you get my analogy.


If my goal was to cook regularly, I would take this offer. But this is a one-time thing: I want to eat the soup exactly one time. I don't need a steak or beans and I don't need to do this regularly. My questions refers to one soup that I want created one time. So, no thanks, I don't want to learn to cook. I have enough other things to do that I do need to do regularly. Cooking this specific soup is not part of it. So, learning to cook would be complete overkill.


I didn't expect anybody to do work for me. I never asked: "Can anybody create this converter for me?" I asked how to get this kind of converter. To go back to the analogy: "My heater has broken. What shall I do now?"
Nobody would show me a technical plan of a heater and when I say I don't want to repair it myself, they say: "Well, if you're not willing to learn stuff..."
Instead, they would either say: "Oh, that's easy. Just buy a new X and put it at Y." Or they would say: "You need to call a mechanic for that. I know a good one. Here's his number."


May I ask you a question? Do I look like I own a time machine? Because otherwise I don't understand why this is even an issue. You basically asked me: "Why does your first post contain a question about creating something, even though you made it clear that you won't do what I suggested you in the eighth post?"

Those are possible to build, but you'll have to solder.

O.k., that was a creative retort.

The wires can survive several unsolder/resolder cycles. If you make any mistake, you can easily fix it.

Of course, since you aren't interested in doing soldering, you should instead concentrate on the solderless options. One of your Amazon links was to a DA-15 connector with solderless connectors on it. You could use two of those (one male and one female) combined with some pre-stripped wires and connect everything yourself, using only basic tools and no soldering at all.

I don't understand your logic, here, but it's also entirely unimportant. Why would I want to argue about whatever it is you mean by this? (This is a rhetorical question, by the way.)

As an alternative to soldering, someone on IRC suggested that you could use screw terminal blocks. This is actually probably the most sensible solution because it would be easy to remap the wires if you made a mistake. I suggested soldering because you can make something small and clean that way; screw terminals would be a bigger, bulkier thing. The ideal solution might be a combination of both methods, but you clearly have a problem with trying to do anything outside of a very narrow path, so: best of luck!

Another no-solder option is using ribbon cable punchdowns, like Fischer Elektronik: DS_BK_15 and Fischer Elektronik: DB_BK_15.

They're a little tricky to get the ribbon cable onto the metal contacts inside when you reorder the wires, but it's not too bad if you keep most of the individual conductors in order and only reorder a couple.

Do you mean this one?
www.amazon.com/dp/B000AA2P76
If yes, Memblers said that the solder-less variant is pretty expensive, so It thought this one here requires soldering.


My logic is: You asked me a question that basically went like this: "Why do you ask for something that requires soldering if you specify that you won't solder anything?" But this makes no sense. Because when I asked the question, I didn't know yet that soldering would be involved.


Why does none of those screenshots show a connected cable? It might be the right one, but I really have problems imagining what this would look like in the end.

Here's another (mechanical) idea: Open up the controller with a screwdriver. If buttons are individual (arcade-style) capsules in some plastic mount, you can swap the buttons, physically.

Or, another idea, if the joystick's PCB goes to a pin header (plastic connector) which connects to the cable going out, it is possible to use a little flathead screwdriver to pull the little teeth out of the connector (the one on the cable side) and swap them.

No, I meant this one.

The idea is that I want to be able to use any controller with a NeoGeo plug, so opening up the controller itself is out of the question.

Same goes, for example, for SNES to NeoGeo converters: I can connect a regular SNES controller to that converter. And the converter can be connected to the supergun with its NeoGeo port. But since the converter maps the SNES buttons to specific NeoGeo pins, I have to connect a pin switch between the converter and the supergun if I want the buttons to be mapped differently.

So, yeah, fiddling with the controller is not an option.

OK well I didn't think it was really a question but also it doesn't matter, goodbye...

O.k. So, I assume I would put the wires into the little holes on the piece of plastic, right? How do they stay in their place?