This thing is an Adapter to use your old school Sega® Megadrive Controller on any Computer/Device capable of USB Gamepads.

A special shoutout to Matthew Heironimus @ https://github.com/MHeironimus... who wrote an awesome Arduino Library to use any ATmega32u4 Arduino (and clones) as a Joystick/Gamepad device.

Bill of Materials:

obviously a 3D printer for the case

16Mhz Pro Micro you may use the one from SparkFun: https://www.sparkfun.com/produ... i used a cheap chinese clone, they should fit the same space and feature the same pinout

2ea RS232 connectors may be gathered from very old desktop computers shown in pictures

soldering equipment

USB cable to fit the Pro Micro

Depending on the source you may get every electronical part for ~3,-€ at all.

Features:

Connect 2 Megadrive Gamepads at one Computer/Android device/Set-top-box capable of using USB Gamepads

Uses default HID drivers, no additional drivers for Windows/Mac/Linux/Android needed

No external power supply needed

20ms poll rate (which is about three times as quick as Megadrive console was)

ToDo:

Update HID Report Descriptor to show just the used buttons (36 from Adruino Joystick Library currently present)

Add 6 Button Gamepad compatibility i don't own a 6 Button Sega pad myself so i can't test

Possibly port to other processors/boards

apply some better connections between lower and upper case parts

smoothen and shrinken the case a bid to make it look more professional (propably engravings)

Write better documentation

remap Arduino pins to make soldering/assembly more easy

Tutorial:

Download and install either Arduino IDE or Platform.IO .

Unfortunately i can't upload the sources to the Designfiles, so they will be included as PDF.

Copy the sources into textfiles, named the way written in the PDF.

Open the .ino file in the IDE of your choice. In case of Arduino IDE select a board from the menu which fits your board (in my case "Arduino/Genuino Micro").

Click compile and upload.

Your Pro Micro board should flash its LED/s as long it is being programmed.

As soon this is done, assemble the case as shown in the pictures.

Connect (solder) the RS232 cables to the Pro Micro as shown in the pictures.

Setup your emulator of choice and enjoy

You are done!

Made with Designspark Mechanical and OpenSCAD

Happy old school gaming.