This is a project to emulate a N64 controller as a modern one with ESP32. It works with (almost) any ESP32 and with any original N64 controller (from the original console, not the Switch one).
It's also compatible with the original joystick, so there is no need of using an alternative one or doing your own with analogs.
The recommended way is to go to the Online Installer from a supported browser (like Chrome), connect your ESP32 in Boot/Flash mode, and click in Install. It'll always install the latest version.
The other way is to clone the project and building it yourself, thought this is not recommended for new users.
In the Hardware directory, you can find some useful files for building your own controller. Sadly there is no tutorial about building steps by step except for a Step-By-Step draft in spanish, but I added all the photos that I took while doing my own controller, so I hope it helps you.
You can find also the Pinout for both the ESP32 and the Gamepad itself. You zoom them a lot so do it if you cannot read something.
Please note, you have to join the JP5 mounting point (at the right of the controller). And, if your controller has a capacitor named C10 above the joystick's connector, don't remove it. The rest of the components (resistors, IC, capacitors, jumpers, etc.) must be removed before connecting your ESP32.
Also, if you speak Spanish, you can follow MundoYakara's video where he builds a N64 controller with this project. Just keep in mind that he uses another pinout which is NOT compatible with the binaries from this repository. This means that you'll need to flash with his binaries which may not be up to date. Another workaround would be to use his video as a walkthrough but using the pinout from this repository.
After flashing it for the first time, the BluN64 will start in Switch Mode, this means that the control will try to connect to an already paired Nintendo Switch, or to a Nintendo Switch in pair mode (i.e. in "Change Grip/Order"). If you want to change to BlueRetro Mode, you have to press L, R and Start at the same time for about five seconds until the Mode LED (GPIO 16) turns off. In BlueRetro Mode, the controller will be available for every type of device, including any console with a BlueRetro on it, Android Device, Windows, etc. It'll work as a generic controller so everything should be working without any problem. To go back to Switch Mode, you have to do the same steps (L + R + Start for 5 seconds)
You can switch between both modes on-the-fly, you don't have to shut down neither the controller nor the console for switching, and every time you turn on the controller it'll start on the latest mode used.
In Nintendo Switch, to press the Home Button without a physical button wired to GPIO 2, you can press both Start and then L at the same time. The same thing applies to ZR (which can be optionally wired to GPIO 4), but this time with Start and R
I'd recommend you to clone this repository using the GitHub Desktop app, otherwise, always remember to add --recursive to your git clone command. Don't download this project as a ZIP
For building, I recommend you to build it using Visual Studio Code with the Espressif IDF extension and with ESP-IDF 5.0 or newer installed. Remember to open the project as a Workplace by going to File -> Open Workspace from File -> ./.vscode/BluN64-ESP32.code-workspace on Visual Studio Code. You have to build both the n64-switch and n64-blueretro projects, one at the time, then, you have to flash them manually to your ESP32 using ESP Flash Tool with the following parameters
n64-switch/build/bootloader/bootloader.bin @ 0x1000
n64-switch/build/partition-table/partition-table.bin @ 0x8000
n64-switch/build/ota_data_initial.bin @ 0xd000
n64-switch/build/n64-control-switch.bin @ 0x10000
n64-blueretro/build/n64-control-blueretro.bin @ 0x110000
Pull requests are welcome. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.
dpedu.io for his blog about N64 analogs with Arduino
Jacques Gagnon (AKA Darthcloud) for his help with BlueRetro (License)
Mitch Cairns (From Hand Held Legend) for his help with HOJA (License)
Yakara Colombia for his support, contributions and ideas
This project uses Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. This means that you can modify and distribute it in a non-commercial way, but you must credit the original project and under the same license. You can read more about that in Create Commons website
