This section will be far less extensive than the keyboard hack pages. It aims at explaining how to convert a Sidewinder joypad into an arcade joystick. With a little talent and just a few tools everybody should be able to do this, once you have all your material together it should not take you more than a few hours to hook it all up.

What you need is:

1) a Sidewinder game pad (make sure to use an original gameport connection Sidewinder. Sidewinder Pro has a different PCB, USB connectors don't work in DOS)

2) an arcade joystick (a 4-way stick is adequate for a Sidewinder conversion since it recognises simultaneous e.g. up and right contacts as a diagonal push) and 10 arcade buttons (check Happ Controls or your nearest arcade equipment retailer)

3) a few meters of cable (check the inside of your Sidewinder for the cable width, it should be the same as the ground and trigger button cables)

4) any kind of wooden board, depending on what shape and size you want your arcade joystick to be, get inspired by checking out Cyber Jedi's, or the HotRod, mine looks like this :-) (old speaker boxes come in handy although I used more solid wood)

5) tools: a soldering kit if you plan to solder the cables (optional), tweezers to cut the cables, a Philips screwdriver to open the Sidewinder as well as whatever you need to stick your wooden boards together (screws, nails, glue, etc.)



Advantages and disadvantages of converting a Sidewinder

The biggest advantage of using a Sidewinder circuit board for your arcade stick is that your stick will always be recognised as a Sidewinder game pad by Windows. This means that it is compatible with all PC games and that you will be able to use the Sidewinder software to customise it. It also means that you will be able to create profiles for different emulators, and that you can record macros to execute your favourite combos in fighting games, switch to your favourite weapon in shooting games etc. at the touch of a button. (For more help on creating profiles check the  support page) Furthermore you can hook up four Sidewinders in daisy chain fashion for multi-player gaming. This is also recognised by most emulators.

The main disadvantage is that you cannot use your arcade stick with any emulators which do not support joysticks. In this case it would be wise to rather use a keyboard hack. This will be universally supported because only keystroke signals are sent out, they are recognised by all emulators. Using a converted keyboard is however much more work intensive to set-up in the first place. (Refer to the keyboard hack pages for more info)

Having said that I have yet to come across an emulator which does not support the Sidewinder, or at least recognises a Sidewinder profile.


Converting your Sidewinder

The conversion of the Sidewinder can be done in a few simple steps and shouldn't take very long:

1) open your Sidewinder by loosening the screws at the back

2) extract the circuit board inside making sure the ground (GND) as well as the trigger button cables (BL,BR) remain intact and attached to the board

3) locate the little connector holes on the circuit board. (See graphic below)

4) as you can see on the little simplified graphic of a Sidewinder board which I prepared all the connector holes are clearly labelled and so are the cables. All of the buttons are identified (A,B,C,X,Y,Z,BL (left trigger),BR (right trigger)) as well as the contacts for the directional pad (U,D,L,R). Also note the importance also the ground cable (GND)

5) there are two ways to connect your cables to the Sidewinder: you can either solder them on (check Cyber Jedi's page for details) or tighten them with little knots which is what I did since I couldn't solder to save my life :-) To do this take some of the cable you have bought (making sure it will eventually be long enough to connect the circuit board to your arcade button) twirl it up between your fingers so that it fits neatly through the hole. Make sure that the twirled bit which is not covered by the plastic is quite long, at least 10 cm. Once you have pushed it through the connector hole split the twirled up cable strings into two (in my case that where two times three strings) and tie them up into a tight double knot. The cable should now fit solidly against the board. Cut off the cable strings above the knot and you should have a clean connection to the board.

6) to make sure that this knot stays exactly in-place and does not touch any of the surrounding ones, thus causing shadow button pushes, I have used a material called "Bluetac". It is a rubbery mass which is usually used to stick posters to walls but can be used for pretty much anything (earplugs, food :-)). Just roll up a tiny ball between your fingers and stick it on the knot so as to isolate it from any others and keep it nicely in place.

7) once you have done this with all the contscts all that remains is to hook of your cables with your arcade buttons and joystick. You will see that every button and joystick connector has two contacts. One will have to be connected to the corresponding cable on the circuit board, the other will have to be connected to the ground cable (GND). It is sufficient to have one ground cable go from button to button to button etc. from the circuit board.

8) Fit all this into your box, whichever shape it has. Again used Bluetac (the stuff is magic ;:-)) to stick the Sidewinder cicuit board to the inside wall on my box. It's been there for months and hesn't moved a bit... You will have a cable and button mess looking sth like this:

8) that's it you got your own arcade stick! Stick it into your game port and it should be recognised as a Sidewinder game pad. Off you go, play loads of games and have fun!!!



If you have any questions or problems do not hesitate to contact me