December 4 2012- The new boards and cables are in. You may now order the new boards, new cable harness and linker boards. See the ordering page for more info.

note: pin color ordering is not correct.

the linker board will hold 20 headers. You may also soon buy a single jumper. So if you have a n64 port you want to add, its only 3 cables, so you will only need to buy a 16 pin header... In general you will only use the 16 pin header for neo-geo jaguar and combos like nes + psx but it saves me no money to order some 4 pin and 8 pin headers. So I only carry 16 pins and 1 pin. Cutting the header is relatively easy if needed.

October 2 2012- The drive bay model is now available. The pictures say it all.

August 20 2012- Bliss-box is being brought to its knees. I have more orders that I can make. The wait time is over 4 moths and growing.  I wish I could go faster….

In other news I added support for the Game Cube wheel. Turns out the f-zero for the Gamecube uses a Logitech Speed Force Racing Wheel. This wheel has the ability to force the wheel right or left and the game supports it. I also think burn out uses it. Skid ( a dolphin developer ) and I are working together to make it work. I was able to make the wheel move use rumble for a quick test. He is going to add a drop down for it and add the FFB( force feed back ) calls. 

This is all quite interesting to me, I didnt know any came used true FFB. That is non usb consoles. I dont really care about the ps3/xbox 360 and what not. Its outside the scope of this project.

July 12 2012- Ok two new things to add. First Bliss-Box is now a solder free solution. The new boards will link to a linker board and all you need to do is connect via a 16 or 8 pin header. This is going to be the way 2.0 is done. So all beta tester to be will be getting this board. The order has not been placed it and will be announced when its read. The hard part ( to some ) will be connecting the port wires to the header ( connector ) You will need to use DuPont header crimps and plug them in to a 8 or 16 pin header. Much like the connectors for your mother board reset/LED/power switch plugs. Here is a picture of what the boards will look like. full image here

Also I'm getting a lot of requests for drive bay enclosures. I will be adding the pricing to the order page soon. To buy this option you will need the USB header type and a faceplate from your computer. Email me if you need clarification.

February 16 2012- Redesigned the reset button. It now has two functions. Pressing it down when plugging in the USB puts you in upgrade mode, pressing it durring play will reset the device.

January 18 2012- Added a new detection method. This pretty much takes care of the fulty detections. If you feel you have issues when detecting, try this code out. You can get this version from the beta folder. Log in to the forums and go to the beta section.

Aslo Ralf has returned to the scene and looks like he has made some head way. Mempack reading and write may not be far off!

January 9 2012- Stephen Anthony, the currrent author/maintainer for Stella has contacted me so that Stella can include a Bliss-Box profile for his emulator. In the next few week we will hash out any issue that may exist. So Atari fans, look out for that upgrade to Stella!s

December 12 2011- The Arkanoid has landed. The nes Arkanoid pad is now officialy supported. I have not tested the snes version but I expect it to also work. There is not really a way to use it like it was intended. Though I have mapped its out put to the slider controle. So you could use this paddel with any emulator that uses analog data. detail here.

November 2 2011- Added a order form, It basicaly calls you local email client and fills in the info I need. I may write a php version soon that does it all behind the scenes. ( it is located on the product page )

Aslo Ralf has returned to the scene and looks like he has made some head way. Mempack reading and write may not be far off!

October 16 2011- Been quiet here for a bit so I figure I'd drop a note. Have not had much luck ( or time ) with the x-box port. The guy that figured out the issue is dealing with cancer and there is no telling on his prognostic. I also started to work on the wii controller. This would be what ever plugs in to the wand.

July 18 2011- There comes a time in one’s life where he/she must decide to put down the old and get with the new. Sigh... Ok I'm now a Windows 7 user. For me it takes some great feat to make this sort of decision. Do to the fact MBR has a 2.1 TB limit and I needed my 3tb drive for roms, I gave in. So far win7 is not all that bad once you un-stupify it a bit.

So what does this mean? Well it means Windows 7 is now officially supported by Bliss-Box. XP will not be left behind by any means. I still have a dual boot set up should I need it. However the main focus will now be win7. Also I still have no use for 64 bit ( maybe some day )

Also the forums will still have a vista/win7 section for anything not related to XP.

June 17 2011- Sega Saturn Twin-sticks are added to the support list! With Logan Stills ( beta test ) assistance I was able to determine the chips used on the twin-sticks are a bit slower. Previously it was observed the digital Saturn stick could work with 1 us between pulls. This stick needed at least 7 us.

June 10 2011- HORI is officially supported. There were a few bugs with HORI pads dealing with rumble. I also updated Raphael’s code that helped with compatibility see his n64 adapter info for details. This was made possible by the help of John ( a n64/gc better tester ), thank you John!

May 22 2011- An old buddy of mine (Raphael Assena) has contacted me about my rumble code. He has set plans to implement this and memory pack reading. The plan is a trade of efforts. In exchange for the rumble code he hopes to work out the mempack reading with me. His idea is a bit different then I originally planned. His idea is to enter a mode at which the data can be read form computer to pack or visa versa. The downfall here is that you need to do this before you use the data. For example before you start the emulators. It would be much like saving you data to a disk and going to a friends house. You then put the data on his system and play... Though the plus is that is can be done via vender requests and no need for mass storage. Also you would be able to use saved data from the n64 this way as well and of course emulator data to n64. For those that are part of the forums lets talk here

May 22 2011- Well first off here it is, may 22, and we are all still alive ;) good thing religious people are poor profits. Dream Cast has a new ruble algorithm. It now is best used with sine/square and supports the 3 values the dream cast jump packs do. Power, frequency, and inclination. Now if you are thinking huh, frequency? Well not in the way you thinking.  They actually use this for duration. Longer the wave, longer the rumble.  There is no speeding up down the motor or any fancy physics going on here. I believe some other Dream Cast devices may use it. Also inclination is what Dream Cast refers to and a fade out. So as the wave plays it fades out. Well you can't really do that with 7 power levels now can you? Again its of no use here. However it seems at least one emulator author uses it. Only two values, 255 and 128, so I put it in anyways. Not like you will notice anything with one motor and 7 speeds. With one basic motor you can only feel the speed. You can also tell the durration, so thats is all that is really needed.

On to the rumble packs out there. Well I’m still trying them out. Seems everyone makes them a bit different. Again MadCatz is the only company that’s is close to the OEM card. This being a card that supports the 3 values. In other cases the cards only support on or off. Bliss-Box detects the cards ability and compensates for it. The only card i can not make work is a "proformance". I may add a list of supported cards. For beta testes the code is available in the download section.

May 6 2011- Memcards… Ok so I decided do to the fact there is little interest in XBOX/PS3/etc.. versions of the Bliss-Box I will start on Memcard reading. If you feel strongly against this make a forum poll. Remember this box does everything I want it to do, the rest it for you guys. I will work on the popular opinion. So far it looks favoring mem card reading.  I did some looking around and there are two options.

• Build a HID interface that emulators can talk to. The main down fall here is I need the cooperation of the emulator authors. Well, we all know how likely that is now don’t we. So, for now this is off the table.

• Find some way to dump the contents of the mem card to a MSD ( mass storage device ). This way any emulator can just save its data to a drive letter. I would have to have a folder for each type of card. ( I.e I:\n64 i:\DreamCast ). The part that makes things difficult is when to read and update the two. If I did this in a loop the user could unplug the card and get a partial write. I know I can read the cards upon insert, but I cannot easily write on extract. The best option is to sense the change to the MSD and populate the memcard then. I’m not sure that option is available, let us hope!

I have been quite busy with the beta team. Thus no new feature were evolving. Since things are slowing down a bit, its time to move on.

April 20 2011- Coleco fans, we have a treat for you. SAC( super action controller ) is now supported. All 4 buttons and the spinner. We can all thank John Rieman for his help. He found some much needed info and assisted in the testing. If the emulator supports a mouse the spinner should work.

TIP: If your coleco number pad is not working it may need cleaning, Use alcohol with an eraser much like you would with the attari paddle cleaning guid.

March 18 2011- Added rumble support to Hori n64 mini pads. Seems there was a little change needed for them. Improved atari 5200 reading.

February 17 2011-Atari 5200 is now supported. Unfortunelty current users need to do some rewiring and a chip modification. The new wiring diagram is up on the tech page. To make the chip change you need an ISP programmer. There is no fee for this if you would like to send your box in. Also any existing reset button needs to be redone. Since the 5200 needs that lead I had to deisable the reset. To fix this you just remove the lead that goes to reset and connect it to usb (-) the white wire. It pretty much does the same thing.

Also, atari paddles do not need to be detected in its defult mode. You can plug them in before or after you plug in the usb. However, if both paddles are turned clockwise ( all the way ) they will be detected as an atari keypad. So either a) dont plug them in until afterwards or b) dont turn both paddles all the way clockwise. If you plan to use mouse or joystick mode you need to hold down the respective button.

February 8 2011-I have come up with a better method to read the paddles and the 5200 stick.  I no longer have a need for that paddle board Mr. Arro Gant came up with. It is completely done within the avr and no additional components are needed. This will be available in 2.0 in a few days. For detailed info see the 2.0 forum posting.

Also, fixed vetrex bug in detection and added atari 7800 support.

January 26 2011- The penguin is happy ;) Linux is now being supported, see forum for details. ATM rumble is untested.

Also fixed a PSX issue. If your psx controller is going nuts you may need an update.

January 19 2011- Saturn fixes galore. First the wheel is now officially added. It’s a bit of a weird thing, it holds up on the Y, but why? The only thing I can come up with is for identification but Saturn controllers have ID's? Also the right shoulder rests at 32 were as the left is 0, yet the wheel does not use the shoulders. So this is a mystery. If there are any avid Saturn users with a Bliss-Box that use actual Saturn emulator contact me!  

Also Squeakychu ( a member of the forums ) was a huge help in beta testing the Saturn.  He was able to find a bug that no one had reported that has fixed a number of things including; 3d pad, mission stick, and the wheel. The bug was discovered by holding down the L and R on the 3d pad and moving the analog. He noticed it would try to rest in the center and then quickly back to the position being applied. This was also the issue with the mission stick jumping around and the wheel.  As a result I no longer need that 20 ms wait for the mission stick making it playable now ;) This was a big help!

December 03 2010- Well things are ramping back up again. I have moved in to my new location and the bench is built. I'm getting a lot of orders for the holidays so please be patient. All orders go in order of payment.  I have a few 2.0 beta testers now, so it looks like it may finally be release this year.

November 01 2010- Looks like Xbox will not be included in 2.0 but rather its own version. Bliss-Box version XBOX will soon be available. The plan is to include the rumble features but that is not 100% yet. The XBOX makes a few illegal decisions.  Do to the nature of the XBOX, USB-v cannot emulate it properly by design. Thx to the efforts between myself and IvIePhisto from the USB-v forum it is now possible to emulate the XBOX on the USB-v platform. A few changes were needed in the original source. This will be explained in the release notes and on the forum for those that are interested.

September 09 2010- Small update: 2.0 has officially moved to the 328 chip meaning to upgrade to 2.0 (when it’s available) requires a chip change. I plan to release a mini 2.0 version that will fit on the old chip but most likely it will not include rumble as that is the biggest hog. None of this is in stone yet.

August 09 2010- Taking a small hiatus. Hope to resume by November. Would also like to mention the troubles with the XBOX mode are now understood. There is a limitation in v-USB preventing it from working. Myself and one other are trying to hack the v-USB assembly code to do this.  At the moment it looks do-able. More later… I would like to also take a moment and pass some kind words to two of my good friends.

Adam) I have came across some very kind people during the life of Bliss-Box and with that some very helpful people. Adam rises above them all. Adam makes the effort to go out and search the net for forums related to Bliss-Box and has also added a FaceBook page, all which was never asked for. He commonly points out better ways to aim this product and how to make things easier to follow.  In addition he has some unique devices that I could not have added if it was not for him. Lastly, I have asked him to attempt a few electronic adjustments and with his willingness did so quite well never attempting this before. Adam, On behalf of myself and the Bliss-Box community, we thank you.

Jesse) One of my week spots has always been spelling, as most of you know ;) Since I cannot really afford an editor I do it all myself. Jesse, has skimmed and searched the forums for these types of errors and made things a lot nicer. Jesse also makes a diligent effort in promoting the project. What makes Jesse stand out the most is he does this all for nothing! Jesse does not even own a Bliss-Box… Thank you Jesse, we all appreciate your efforts.

June 02 2010- Force Feed Back has just been tested with Project 64.Going to mark today as the office day that the FFB interface is 100% working. The issues are resolved and things are working well. This effort has lasted on and off for over a year. This project is now the first non-company based project to use the HID-FFB. That is to say no drivers are needed ;)

May 27 2010- It's finally happened. Force Feed Back is alive.  I was able to make the HID-Based FFB work with the play station controller.  A few tweaks before moving on to n64,gc, and dream cast but its working.  For clarification, this is a driverless solution for turning on a motor ( vibration ).  The matter in which this is possible is quite complicated, thus I may not write this up. If anyone desires this information, please feel free to email me.  Will be on to mem-pack reading soon.

Also check out the new forums

May 13 2010- On the Fly auto-detection is now complete. This allows you to change out any controller during game play. You can go from n64 to sega without the emulator even knowing it. This only applies to controllers with logic. For example Atari, sega master system, and intellivision do not have logic; they are for the most part, a series of switches, everything else is game. If you need to change to a non logic controller you must use the rest switch. NOTE: Do not press buttons while autodetection is in process. Durring the detection pause will be pressed. Once detected, it will unpause( not sure I like this idea, may require the user to un pause ). If this is not clear, a rule of thumb is 3 seconds after the new controller is in.

From this point forward all news will be related to 2.0, unless otherwise stated.

March 30 2010- New write-ups in the technical section are available. Also I have some bad news on the paddles. I will not be able to make an adapters. Turns out no matter what I do,  paddles kill other devices if I share wires.  I cannot use the pins found on any port on the box for the paddle reader board.  So in order to make paddles work, a daughter board must be installed inside.  Not all boxes have the room so I cant really offer an upgrade solution for current models out there.  Do to the extra work paddles can be added for an additional price on new orders, see products page  page. 2.0 will have this included on the board. I also added a write-up for the paddle board if you wish to make it your self.

Also I decided to include a reset switch on all orders. All you need to do is unplug the controller your using, press it, then plug in the new controller and press it again. The double pressing is not mandatory, but it prevents harm to you controller. To date, I have only destroyed one controller ( 3rd party crap ) but better safe than sorry.

March 14 2010- Do to the complex nature of that previous post and to the fact I have started working on rumble support, 2.0 has begun.  Currently it does not exceed the chip limit ( minus upgrades ) but it will soon. Of course anyone can pull a chip ;) So upgrades, currently, are not too hard for 1.0 users. However 2.0 has not even entered an alpha stage, so there is no point in requesting an upgrade.  It’s just .. Progress ;) This also means 1,0 is final. I have done just about all I can to it, in supporting what would fit. This does not mean I won’t fix bugs, I always will try to improve it. But every one that has used 1.0 is quite satisfied.  

So with that being said, I have made the ps2 ruble on both motors, just having troubles with the hid descriptor. If anyone out there has a usb HID ( non driver !! ) based force feedback device let me know. This would be a device that uses the DX built in force feedback.  I think the side winder does, but don’t have one myself.  I need some help looking at the usb descriptor with usblyser.  Also as implied above the universal layout if for 2.0 only.

March 4 2010-I was doing a bit of thinking and thought hmmmmm, how nice would it be to switch controllers during game play. Of course this will work just fine if I install a reset button, but what about the controller button to HID assignments. This would mess things up a bit since start HID on the n64 is not start HID on the snes and so on. Then I decided to work out a universal layout that would match up most of the common buttons. Like start(nes) is to pause(3d0) is to run(tg16) and etc..

notes: I left some blank HID assignments to match things up better, and its ok to skip hid assignments like that, but I try not to. Also there may be some missing layouts, and if you spot them let me know. For example I did not include jaguar pro, mainly because I dont have one.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?...yOXJyTnc&hl=en

February 8 2010- Ok a bit of a change in analog design. Turns out a fully filled bar in the game controller app means 0... Yeah? What sort of crack is m$ smoking? See picture for illustration. So if the trigger / button / slider is fully pressed the bar is empty.. Call my crazy, but that just seem backwards.

January 20 2010- Guitar Hero is officially supported

November 15 2009-The board layout is finalized. They have been ordered and I'm still researching the box production. Looking to in both plastic and metal options.

November 12 2009- Nintendo Virtual Boy is now added. For the most part it talks just like a nes or snes, just had a few more buttons and battery signal. I was able to add it to the detection and made a plastic fitting for it as well. No need to have the battery pack connect to make it work.

I also was able to add the Dream Cast ASCI pad. To save AVR space I did not send the movement dirrectionals to the x,y HID. Instead I left it the same as the Dream Cast intended. So they are mapped the the same buttons as the Dream cast controller is.

October 28 2009- Do to the wonderful people at USB-V I'm able to do some usb disconnect tricks to get the XBOX working with out any special pass-true. If you connect the xbox the usb Bliss-Box will be dropped and the XBCD will be picked up. So nothing fancy for XBOX just plug it in.

October 17 2009- Dream cast is now solid as a rock, no more jumpy buttons. I'm am now the first person ever to do this on a 12mhz avr!!!. NOTE: do to the fact Sega incorrectly listed the timing requirements in the patent this adaptor will not work with 3rd party controllers. Dream cast OEM controllers are 9 clocks on a 12mhz not 6! If you find a 3rd party that works please let me know.

Added an upgrade option. Now you can upgrade the firmware via usb and a bat file. So there is no more needing of hardware to do it. Note: currently to gain room for the upgrade option the intellivision code is removed. I may get it down sized and squeeze it in yet. So as of now it is an option.

I have decided I'm not going to be implementing the atari paddles. Mainly due to having to adding more hardware. I may add this in 2.0 . Since I seem to be out of avr space, it looks like this is as far as I can go on version 1.0. The only controller I didn't get to was the Atari 7800. I left room for some updates as I still plan to get intellivision in there with the update option.

Also I have made the Bliss-Box show up on an Xbox, will be working on this a bit.

Seem the GameCube jumpyness is gone as well..

September 30 2009 - No more switch for the db9, I now use the avr to controller power. 100% switch free!! I also added a pause feature, like the psx. If a controller is unplugged the pause is pressed. A lot of new compatibility is added like sega saturn mission stick.. See compatibility list.

August 13 2009 - Ok big update:
I was able to write a full auto detection system. No need for that clunky switch... You plug in the adapter and then plug it in to the computer and it will find what is attached. No alteration to the controller is needed.

There is only one switch left and that is to switch from normal ( sega ) to collico/inteli. Since collico and inteli wanted to change the power pins around I had to switch them on the db9 jack its self. Fortunately most people will never use these cumbersome controllers, but the support is there if desired.

I have finished everything except atari 7800 , not sure how to get it working on the db15 as neo geo uses this one. Another switch maybe? Why do they changes power pins ARRR atari paddle are in works. They just move the mouse when moved, leave it be when not. The mouse moves from up/left to bottom/right to allow vertical and horizontal games.

The n64 and gc seem to have issues with some usb driver/port dependent. I may need to gather info from beta users to get down to the problem. The DC also is jumping but is a timing issue and I think fixable. Both are playable as they dont happen that often.

Cd32 has 4 buttons sega 6, I just dont know what happens to the other button states. they may always pressed ( hoping not ) My adapter is tested to work with many 3rd party controllers. All but DreamCast anyways. DC seems not to work with 3rd party, as the protocol is so complex. I think I may manage once I get my Logic Analyzer in.

May 12 2009 - A bit of a new design, I needed to add more jumpers so that it support more gamepads. I was hoping to piggyback most but it won't work that way also I added intellivision neogeo and jaguar to the project.

2007-2008 has been archived..

.: v2.0 notes/progress.

I have made some plans to go back the other way, controller to->usb then back to controller. The idea here is you get any adapter on any console. (i.e snes->upb->jaguar ) Obviously there will be some button mapping troubles and in some cases not enough buttons. Not sure how to handle this yet, but have some ideas.This concept may be in v 2.0, posibly 3.0.
auto pause detection : %100 complete
button matching cross controllers : %100 complete
Rumble : %100 complete
Mem card reading for n64 and DC : %10 complete
Other devices like keypad, guns, chuck, etc. Want to see something? now is the time to let me know.%85 complete

.: not to be supported.

Mice/keyboard, multi taps, wireless. These are stupid .. ( multi taps)If you want more than one buy another. The amount of time and size of the chip to support all of these would double the price. Not to mention kill the auto detection. (wireless) Bliss-Box is a corded adapter. If you want wireless get a wireless usb, same thing.. (Mice) whats wrong with a pc mouse? Mice are so standard anyways. Same with keyboards. DC-keyboard is just silly to add in the code and a big waste.