Using NES controllers with a Sega Genesis

[billdotson]

I have not seen any adapters that allow original NES controllers to be hooked up to Sega Genesis controller ports and this serves a problem as I am considering purchasing one of the Sega Genesis/NES combo systems. I don't think it would work, but what if I took the controller plug from a Sega Genesis controller, lopped it off, lopped the controller plug off the NES controller and took the data and power wires and soldered them together? I am pretty terrible at electronics stuff as I have pretty much no knowledge about it outside of how to solder things. I might remember about resistors and such when I start doing electronics projects again but as of right now I don't.

[D-EJ915]

just hearing the idea of that makes my hands ache

[PRMan]

Sega Genesis uses the same controller scheme (electrically) as the old Atari 2600, 8bit, 5200 and ColecoVision. You can plug Sega Genesis controllers directly into an Atari and they work great (even the turbos). You can also use Atari joysticks in a Sega if you only want button 1 and that works too.

Nintendo controllers are completely different electrically, so you would need a fairly complex circuit board to do the translation.

Short answer: it's not going to work.