Forced Co-Op N64 Controllers

I'm not trying to incite an argument of any kind, but I simply cannot play Majora's Mask for any extended period of time. I can't do it. This is a challenge for me, because those around me claim they don't understand my pain and that they love the game. In an effort to finally complete the game, I've asked for their assistance as the other half of player 1.

The basic idea for this project is to have two N64 controllers that are attached to each other, combining both inputs into one player's controls. One controller (controller A) would send the analog stick + Z button, and the other (controller B) would provide the other buttons. D-Pad control could easily be sent from A to B as well, but I ran out of wiring and was certain that I was doing it wrong anyways (doing it the way I did the other controls would have added 8 wires, doubling the cable used).


I ordered two used official N64 controllers off of ebay for $20 and immediately tested them both to see which buttons worked and which didn't. Though the controllers were in rough shape aesthetically, they both worked perfectly fine. I chose the controller designations arbitrarily and then began to open them up and begin work. I didn't take a picture of the process, but I did find this circuit board for the controller online:

To help, I've boxed the two important locations that I worked with:

Location 1 (bottom left) has 6 contacts and is where the joystick is soldered to. Location 2 (middle right) is the two contacts that the Z button goes to.

The process is quite simple, actually. One needs only to solder the wires from A to B along these points and make sure that B's analog stick and Z button were disconnected, but not removed (so they felt normal, but did nothing). In addition, the cable that ran off of A was removed because it served no further use.

After this, I realized the size of the cables was too large to fit through the original cable hole (and in the case of B, there just plain wasn't a hole to use). This was easily remedied by drilling a larger hole in A and a new hole in B to route the wires through. I believe that size drill I used was 3/8" and it was perfect for what I needed.

After the soldering was done and the drilling, I coated the soldered wire ends in hot glue to prevent any accidental touching (even though there was none in the testing). The finished product looked like this:

Not pretty, but it worked. Putting the board back in the controller was a lot of fun, though.

But everything worked, no problems!