how to make X controler work on Y system, hows my schematic?

[MonkeyFist]

This is a slight continuation from my bomberman factory post. My idea has evolved and changed greatly from that initial post, but the general console is still in its planning stages.

In this post I require one last tid bit of help finalizing my knowledge regarding how I want the controllers of my console to work. To save those from reading my long and brainless posts in that thread, the idea of my custom console is a tribute to the Bomberman franchise, with a large gaming console with 4 controllers that has many bomberman games integrated within it (other consoles built into one). Also I'm more than aware that emulation in say an x-box would be beyond easier, but emulating this many games from so many consoles, especially after seeing and playing emulated bomberman games already, is an absolute NO. I have my heart set on making this giant messy pile of hardware disaster, so help me make it work!

After reading threw this guys site about making custom joysticks from controller boards, I got a sort of idea of how I can make my controllers merge. But I still have a few questions, as I'm still not entirely sure that this will work.

This is a picture of my general schematic for the controller mergance. The controller-to-mirror part looks jumbled, but the picture is really making it look easier;

This is a picture of how each "mirror" controller will have to be split to each controller for each system. Its quite dirty, no? This is an example of what one would look like, so there would actually be four of these messes. That picture is also overly-simplified, as there will also be a ground wire, and possibly an extra function button (for example in bomberman jetters on gc, there needs to be a 4th action button for the special powers)

Also back to my schematic, going from the "mirror" controllers to the wireless receivers (or even just the female end of a controller extension cable if I choose to ditch the idea of wireless and just make a controller port), I will have to cut the controllers cable and add the female end of an appropriate extension cable in place of the male end. I'm fairly sure that's how it will work?

The way I see it, yes this is damn dirty and a lot of work and wires. But I have a few things that are going for me that will make life easier;
*each controller pcb is very flat (assuming I don't have any trouble removing the analog sticks from the dreamcast & gamecube controller boards...) and small, I could line the bottom of the entire Bomberman Factory with these, layering them on top of each other and spreading them out flat (obviously shielding the boards from one another with plastic, and supporting the consoles above them with their own support so nothing lays too hard on the pcbs).
*if my idea of having just one SNES multi-tap works, and the pins coming from it can effectively connect to each SNES console that I choose to add, then that really reduces the number of controllers I have to worry about considering how many games I'm getting out of it.
*removing the cases of the cartridges and systems like I am removes any region-lockout on the Japanese bomberman games, meaning I can use 7x SNES mini-systems (after seeing the inside of the one I own with a cartridge in it, it would be incredibly easy to stack these in layers!).




Now for my questions, and man do I need help;

1.) I tried emailing the guy who's site I posted first, but haven't gotten any response. His site deals with taking a controller and assigning literal buttons (he's physically building a joystick in his examples) to the wires coming from the boards. What I want is to assign the wire from the board to the same function on another board (my "mirrors" as I called them in my schematics, with the A-button connecting to the opposing A-button, ground-to-ground, ect). I just don't know if that will work or not.

2.) Obviously truncating the length of cables coming from each controller pcb (also the power cables and AV cables) would greatly reduce space inside this jumbled mess. What are the general facts about removing cladding and cutting and reconnecting cables of controllers, power cords, and AV cables? I don't like the idea of using those little plastic wire caps, as there will be a lot of snipping here, and those can so easily fall off or take up just a huge amount of space.

3.) The guys site also stated that extending the wires of the controllers does make a difference in the latency of actually pushing the button and the console registering it. Having such a giant network of wires coming from just one controller to so many consoles will defiantly cause the same effect. His site said that it was unnoticeable for anyone to even notice the difference when using his joysticks...will it still be unnoticeable for my console?

4.) Looking back on my schematic, everything from the controller pcb's to the right is powered by the consoles, which shouldn't be a problem, but my "mirrors" and whatever controller port I build (be it a legitimate port or just use wireless receivers), I'm not sure how these are powered. At first I though that since everythings connected, it should all work as one giant circuit, but I doubt its that easy. Heres a mock example, lets say I'm making my console have Saturn controller ports, so the mirror would be a saturn controller, which needs 5V. The SNES and dreamcast controllers both also require 5V, so would simply linking those two spots together with wire be the fix? And what about the game cube controllers, which require 3.3V?

I have more questions regarding changing how IR controllers and recievers work (so I can get away with possibly using two pairs of the wireless genesis controllers), and how I want to make the power-selector switch setup, but that's not nearly as complex as this topic is, so I'll stop here.





For those interested in my progress on the entire thing, here is the current checklist of my acquired hardware. I don't plan on actually taking anything apart until 1.) i finalize all of the technical nonsense that I need, such as the contents of this post, and 2.) until I have all but the extra SNES systems (so if I were to ever back out of this idea, instead of a pile of a half-finished project, I just have a giant bomberman collection).

*The checklist isn't quite right, as there are a few exceptions. For example, I do own a lot of stuff on there, but am not willing to sacrifice it for my project (i.e. i went and found wireless saturn controllers, but at their price, they are not for this system unless I find a hell of a deal for another pair). Also I added more games to the SNES list which means I'll have to find a larger selector and power strip to tinker with.



Thanks in advance for any help guys!