N64 controller hacked by modders to work with Xbox One
Microsoft at E3 this year had announced a fancy new Xbox One controller that will allow users to make changes to it by exchanging the D-pad and analog sticks, and even reassigning buttons to new paddles on the bottom. The controller is said to be available at a steep price of $150.
A new Xbox One game titled Rare Replay, a collection of 30 games from developer Rare’s last 30 years, that includes several hits that were originally on the Nintendo 64 were also announced by Microsoft. The company is hoping to make up for the Xbox One’s middling gamepad, however, that would not make the upcoming Rare Replay feel any more authentic when you play.
The folks at Hyperkin, who are the makers of the Retron 5 console, a system that combines nine classic game consoles into one are aware of this and came up with a challenge. They modified a N64 controller to work with Microsoft’s current generation console, which they succeeded in.
They have done most of the hard work which is revealed in their video clip above. As you will see in the video, the three-pronged paddle can navigate menus and make selections on the Xbox One, but then they hit the basic restrictions of the hardware. Since the N64 controller only has one analog stick, it rules out it playing nicely with a immense variety of modern games. The wiring is a bit unsteady and certain inputs trigger at random, but, from the sounds of it, the project is far from over.
In other words, it means that a N64 controller, in its standard form, cannot play Xbox One games, irrespective of how much wiring magic is pulled off. However, Hyperkin is not giving up. They said that their plan is to make “an awesome controller” that would work in time for Rare Replay’s release in early August. It almost certainly goes without saying that they need to somehow get a second analog stick.
Does it imply that Hyperkin will actually sell a N64-styled controller for the game? It sounds pretty likely. Well, we will have to wait to hear from the company on this.