Retro Console RJ45 Pinouts - PS360+, MC-Cthulhu, Brook Retro Board

I build a lot of arcade sticks and I like to use them on old video game consoles, and the best way to do this is usually to get a control board that is compatible with multiple consoles. There have been a few boards that do this over the years, including Toodles' MC-Cthulhu (mostly discontinued but still available sporadically), Akishop Customs' PS360+ (discontinued) and now (at the time of this writing) Brook's Retro Board.

The preferred way to connect these boards to the consoles is via RJ45 connectors soldered to the board and then a console-specific connector soldered onto the other end of the cable. A few arcade parts stores sell premade cables for some of the more popular consoles at the time of this writing, but that will probably stop at some point, so it's good to know how to put these cables together.

There used to be a huge thread with really great tutorials on making these cables on the Shoryuken forums by user "rtdzign" but when SRK migrated to a different forum software a few years ago, it completely fucked up their post index so you can't get to things from google search results and I think the whole forum is shutting down completely soon, so all of this will be lost (most of it already is, really; I had to go sifting through the Wayback Machine's archives to collect most of this stuff).

Anyway, here goes (note: the pics in this post come from rtdzign's original tutorial on SRK and from Akishop Custom's PS360+ manual, with copyrights for those respective images belonging to them):

If you buy a MC-Cthulhu from somewhere, you may want to make sure you have the latest firmware. Toodles' "Godlike Controls" site has been down for a while, but the Wayback Machine cached the firmware file here.
Mirror

The ethernet connection pinout looks like this:

USB

The first cable you'll probably want to make is a regular USB cable (for PC and PS3). It's pretty simple - ground (pin 4 of the USB cable) goes to pin 1 of the ethernet cable, data+ (USB pin 3) goes to pin 5 of the ethernet cable, data- (USB pin 2) goes to ethernet pin 6 and VCC (USB pin 1) goes to ethernet pin 8.

Color - Purpose - RJ45 Pin - Cthulhu - ETH Color
Black - GND     - 1        - G       - Orange Stripe
---   - ---     - 2        - A       - Orange Solid
---   - ---     - 3        - B       - Green Stripe
---   - ---     - 4        - C       - Blue Solid
White - DATA-   - 5        - D       - Blue Stripe
Green - DATA+   - 6        - E       - Green Solid
---   - ---     - 7        - F       - Brown Stripe
Red   - VCC     - 8        - V       - Brown Solid

Original Xbox

Once you've done USB, OG Xbox is a logical next choice, as it's just USB with a proprietary plug:


OG Xbox also has a yellow wire that is unused and can be ignored, but otherwise it's the same as the regular USB cable.

NOTE: in general, don't trust wire colors blindly. *Always* test continuity with a multimeter to confirm wire-to-pin assignment. Cheap, knockoff extension cables are notorious for using essentially random wire colors (including nonsense like red GNDs, black VCCs, etc.)

If your construction skills aren't great and you would rather buy something, I believe you could also just use a USB-female-to-Xbox-male adapter like this one (or build one) and get the same effect pairing it with your newly constructed RJ45-to-USB cable.

Once you've got the hang of it, the rest of the consoles are just a matter of matching up the gamepad pins with the ethernet wires.

Gamecube

Gamecube (not compatible with PS360+) only uses the first 3 pins of the controller, which makes it pretty easy: controller pin 1 is VCC, which goes to ethernet pin 8, controller pin 3 is GND, which goes to ethernet pin 1 and controller pin 2 is DATA, which goes to ethernet pin 7. Easy-peasy.

Here's the diagram:

GC Pin - Purpose - RJ45 Pin - Cthulhu - ETH Color
1      - +5v     - 8        - V       - Brown Solid
2      - DATA    - 7        - F       - Brown Stripe
3      - Ground  - 1        - G       - Orange Stripe

And the same info in order of RJ45/Cthulhu pins:

GC Pin - Purpose - RJ45 Pin - Cthulhu - ETH Color
3      - Ground  - 1        - G       - Orange Stripe
---    - ---     - 2        - A       - Orange Solid
---    - ---     - 3        - B       - Green Stripe
---    - ---     - 4        - C       - Blue Solid
---    - ---     - 5        - D       - Blue Stripe
---    - ---     - 6        - E       - Green Solid
2      - DATA    - 7        - F       - Brown Stripe
1      - +5v     - 8        - V       - Brown Solid

N64

The Brook Retro Board has support for N64, and its pinout is very similar to the Gamecube's but in reverse order. That is, pin 1 is GND, pin 2 is Data and pin 3 is VCC (+3.3v).

N64 Pin - Purpose - RJ45 Pin - Cthulhu - ETH Color
1       - Ground  - 8        - G       - Orange Stripe
2       - DATA    - 7        - F       - Brown Stripe
3       - +3.3v   - 1        - V       - Brown Solid

And the same info in order of RJ45/Cthulhu pins:

N64 Pin - Purpose - RJ45 Pin - Cthulhu - ETH Color
1       - Ground  - 1        - G       - Orange Stripe
---     - ---     - 2        - A       - Orange Solid
---     - ---     - 3        - B       - Green Stripe
---     - ---     - 4        - C       - Blue Solid
---     - ---     - 5        - D       - Blue Stripe
---     - ---     - 6        - E       - Green Solid
2       - DATA    - 7        - F       - Brown Stripe
3       - +3.3v   - 8        - V       - Brown Solid

PS1 and PS2

PSX is another good one, since it covers both PS1 and PS2 and was considered the "standard" connector for sticks prior to the adoption of USB, so you can find PSX-to-whatever adapters fairly easily from companies like Raphnet. In fact, Akishop Customs recommends using a PSX cable with a PSX-to-Gamecube adapter to cover Gamecube and Wii inputs with PS360+ boards.

Note: the 'RUMBLE' pin carries 7.2v-9v for use by the rumble motors. We don't need to mess with it.

PSX Pin - Purpose - RJ45 Pin - Cthulhu - ETH Color
1         DATA    - 4        - C       - Blue Solid
2         CMD     - 3        - B       - Green Stripe
3         RUMBLE  - ---      - ---    
4         GND     - 1        - G       - Orange Stripe
5         +3.3v   - 8        - V       - Brown Solid
6         ATTN    - 5        - D       - Blue Stripe
7         CLK     - 2        - A       - Orange Solid
8         UNUSED  - ---      - ---
9         ACK     - 7        - F       - Brown Stripe

and here's that same data shuffled around to use the order of the RJ45/Cthulhu pins, in case that is easier to understand:

PSX Pin - Purpose - RJ45 Pin - Cthulhu - ETH Color
4       - GND     - 1        - G       - Orange Stripe
7       - CLK     - 2        - A       - Orange Solid
2       - CMD     - 3        - B       - Green Stripe
1       - DATA    - 4        - C       - Blue Solid
6       - ATTN    - 5        - D       - Blue Stripe
---     - ---     - 6        - E       - Green Solid
9       - ACK     - 7        - F       - Brown Stripe
5       - +3.3v   - 8        - V       - Brown Solid

NES and SNES

SNES / NES is another interesting case insofar as they use the same protocol, just with a different connector. Rather than making/storing/transporting 2 separate ethernet cables, I made one ethernet-to-SNES cable and use a self-made SNES-to-NES adapter for NES (also useful for using the more ergonomic SNES pad on an NES). I also have a cheap SNES-to-Wiimote-expansion adapter (this one from Hyperkin https://www.amazon.com/Hyperkin-Controller-Adapter-Classic-super-nintendo/dp/B075RMYMNH) but neither my PS360+ nor my MC-Cthulhu work with my SNES Classic/Mini through it, so YMMV (worth noting: MC-Cthulhu and PS360+ don't work with my Analogue Super Nt using the normal SNES cable, either, though they both work with an actual SNES console, so clearly something fucky is going on that probably won't ever be resolved for either of the essentially dead products). I haven't tried either of them running through a Wiimote's Bluetooth connection (to, for example, use an arcade stick wirelessly with emulators on a softmodded Wii), so if you try that, please let me know your results in the comments.

To be verbose, here are both the NES and SNES pinouts and pics, respectively (the "unused" pins are reserved for special controllers and serve no purpose for us):

NES

NES pin - Purpose - RJ45 pin - Cthulhu - ETH Color
1       - GND     - 1        - G       - Orange Stripe
2       - CLK     - 2        - A       - Orange Solid
3       - LATCH   - 7        - F       - Brown Stripe
4       - DATA    - 4        - C       - Blue Solid
5       - UNUSED  - ---      - ---     - ---
6       - UNUSED  - ---      - ---     - ---
7       - VCC     - 8        - V       - Brown Solid

And here it is sorted by RJ45 pin:

NES pin - Purpose - RJ45 pin - Cthulhu - ETH Color
1       - GND     - 1        - G       - Orange Stripe
2       - CLK     - 2        - A       - Orange Solid
5       - UNUSED  - 3        - B       - Green Stripe
4       - DATA    - 4        - C       - Blue Solid
6       - UNUSED  - 5        - D       - Blue Stripe
---     - ---     - 6        - E       - Green Solid
3       - LATCH   - 7        - F       - Brown Stripe
7       - VCC     - 8        - V       - Brown Solid

SNES

SNES pin - Purpose - RJ45 pin - Cthulhu - ETH Color
1        - GND     - 1        - G       - Orange Stripe
2        - UNUSED  - ---      - ---     - ---
3        - UNUSED  - ---      - ---     - ---
4        - DATA    - 4        - C       - Blue Solid
5        - LATCH   - 7        - F       - Brown Stripe
6        - CLK     - 2        - A       - Orange Solid
7        - +5v     - 8        - V       - Brown Solid

And sorted by RJ45 pin:

SNES pin - Purpose - RJ45 pin - Cthulhu - ETH Color
1        - GND     - 1        - G       - Orange Stripe
6        - CLK     - 2        - A       - Orange Solid
2        - UNUSED  - 3        - B       - Green Stripe
4        - DATA    - 4        - C       - Blue Solid
3        - UNUSED  - 5        - D       - Blue Stripe
---      - ---     - 6        - E       - Green Solid
5        - LATCH   - 7        - F       - Brown Stripe
7        - +5v     - 8        - V       - Brown Solid

TurboGrafx-16 / PC-Engine

TG16/PCE is kinda weird insofar as it has 2 functions on each pin (e.g. D-pad up and the I button) and then it uses the DATA SELECT pin to select which set of functions to poll.

I don't have a TG16/PCE, but from rtdzign:

The American TurboGrafx-16 uses has a female Din 8 port on the system while the Turbo Duo and all the Japanese systems use a Mini Din 8. I recommend that you buy a number of 6 ft monoprice Mini Din 8 cables. For an TG-16 you can buy a male Din 8 connector and solder that to an ethernet cable.

And here's the diagram sorted by DIN pin:

DIN Pin  - RJ45 pin - Cthulhu - ETH Color
1 +5v    - 8        - V       - Brown Solid
2 UP/I   - 2        - A       - Orange Solid
3 RT/II  - 3        - B       - Green Stripe
4 DN/Sel - 4        - C       - Blue Solid
5 LF/Run - 7        - F       - Brown Stripe
6 SELECT - 6        - E       - Green Solid
7 OE     - 5        - D       - Blue Stripe
8 GND    - 1        - G       - Orange Stripe

And sorted by RJ45 pin:

DIN Pin  - RJ45 pin - Cthulhu - ETH Color
8 GND    - 1        - G       - Orange Stripe
2 UP/I   - 2        - A       - Orange Solid
3 RT/II  - 3        - B       - Green Stripe
4 DN/Sel - 4        - C       - Blue Solid
7 OE     - 5        - D       - Blue Stripe
6 SELECT - 6        - E       - Green Solid
5 LF/Run - 7        - F       - Brown Stripe
1 +5v    - 8        - V       - Brown Solid

Saturn

Saturn pads have voltage lines running in and out of the gamepad. When you see diagrams online, they are typically named according to the console's perspective, rather than the controller's, so keep in mind that these names are basically backward.

Sorted by Saturn pin:

Sat Pin   - RJ45 pin - Cthulhu - ETH Color
1 +5v-OUT - 8        - V       - Brown Solid
2 DATA1   - 3        - B       - Green Stripe
3 DATA0   - 2        - A       - Orange Solid
4 SELECT0 - 5        - D       - Blue Stripe
5 SELECT1 - 6        - E       - Green Solid
6 +5v-IN  - ---      - ---     - ---
7 DATA3   - 7        - F       - Brown Stripe
8 DATA2   - 4        - C       - Blue Solid
9 GND     - 1        - G       - Orange Stripe

Sorted by RJ45 pin:

Sat Pin   - RJ45 pin - Cthulhu - ETH Color
9 GND     - 1        - G       - Orange Stripe
3 DATA0   - 2        - A       - Orange Solid
2 DATA1   - 3        - B       - Green Stripe
8 DATA2   - 4        - C       - Blue Solid
4 SELECT0 - 5        - D       - Blue Stripe
5 SELECT1 - 6        - E       - Green Solid
7 DATA3   - 7        - F       - Brown Stripe
1 +5v-OUT - 8        - V       - Brown Solid

3DO

3DO pads have headphone jacks on them, so 2 of the pins are dedicated to carrying audio signals, and there's a second VCC line. I would assume you can use either of them but haven't tested it, since I don't have a 3DO. Neither did rtdzign, it seems, as here's what he had to say about it:

(I don't have a 3DO and am assuming the D-sub follows normal pinout convention Picture is from a 3rd party genesis extension cable.)

3do will currently only work as the only controller, plugged directly into the system; trying to daisy chain off of it or use it through a daisy chain isn't going to work.

Here's the diagram sorted by Dsub pin:

Dsub Pin - Purpose - RJ45 pin - Cthulhu - ETH Color
1        - GND     - 1        - G       - Orange Stripe
2        - VCC+5v  - 8        - V       - Brown Solid
3        - AUDIO1  - ---      - ---
4        - AUDIO2  - ---      - ---
5        - VCC+5v  - ---      - ---
6        - P/S     - 7        - F       - Brown Stripe
7        - CLOCK   - 2        - A       - Orange Solid
8        - GND     - ---      - ---
9        - DATA    - 4        - C       - Blue Solid

And sorted by RJ45:

Dsub Pin - Purpose - RJ45 pin - Cthulhu - ETH Color
1        - GND     - 1        - G       - Orange Stripe
7        - CLOCK   - 2        - A       - Orange Solid
---      - ---     - 3        - B       - Green Stripe
9        - DATA    - 4        - C       - Blue Solid
---      - ---     - 5        - D       - Blue Stripe
---      - ---     - 6        - E       - Green Solid
6        - P/S     - 7        - F       - Brown Stripe
2        - VCC+5v  - 8        - V       - Brown Solid

Dreamcast

No VMU support and only works with games that can be played solely with an arcade stick. (update 8/4/23): Someone in the comments reported that the original pic was wrong, so here's a corrected pic:

 The diagram was always correct:

Here's the diagram sorted by DC pin:

DC Pin   - RJ45 Pin - Cthulhu - ETH Color
1 DATA1  - 7        - F       - Brown Stripe
2 VCC+5v - 8        - V       - Brown Solid
3 GND    - 1        - G       - Orange Stripe
4 SENSE  - 3        - B       - Green Stripe
5 DATA5  - 4        - C       - Blue Solid

And sorted by RJ45 pin:

DC Pin   - RJ45 Pin - Cthulhu - ETH Color
3 GND    - 1        - G       - Orange Stripe
---      - 2        - A       - Orange Solid
4 SENSE  - 3        - B       - Green Stripe
5 DATA5  - 4        - C       - Blue Solid
---      - 5        - D       - Blue Stripe
---      - 6        - E       - Green Solid
1 DATA1  - 7        - F       - Brown Stripe
2 VCC+5v - 8        - V       - Brown Solid

Sega Genesis / Mega Drive

None of these boards work with Genesis / MD because it does its own crazy thing that's very difficult to reproduce without spending a ton of money on dedicated parts. The best thing to do for these is to padhack a crappy 6-button pad, which can be purchased online for peanuts. See my post here for a look at that process.

MC-Cthulhu Secondary Solder Point Pinout

The Cthulhu boards include a double-row of unlabeled solder points on the side of the board opposite the RJ45 solder points. These are intended for attaching a 360 padhack for adding 360 support, but they're just additional hard-lines tied to the screw-terminals, so they can technically be used to add any additional PCB, so long as you tie the VCC and Grounds together.

Since they're unlabeled, it can be a hassle to use them, but you can easily identify by testing continuity between the solder points and the screw-terms. Nevertheless, I'll include the pinout here to make it easier (the labeling scheme assumes right-alignment; that is, H and 9 are on the far right, lined up, while A and 1 are staggered on the left side):

    [A] [B] [C] [D] [E] [F] [G] [H]
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]

A = VCC
B = Down
C = Ground
D = Select
E = Right
F = 3K ('Roundhouse' in Street Fighter nomenclature)
G = 3P (Fierce)
H = 1P (Jab)

1 = Up
2 = 4P (PPP)
3 = Left
4 = 4K (KKK)
5 = Start
6 = 2K (Forward)
7 = 1K (Short)
8 = 2P (Strong)
9 = Home/Guide

And, just because I keep needing it and don't feel like searching for it every time, here's a copy of the MC-Cthulhu pinout:

Building an SNES Controller

This was a fun little project that I intended to log in great detail but I just didn't really take enough pictures, so I realized too late that it's more of a "draw the rest of the fucking owl" situation. Oh well, here's what I ended up with, and I'll follow up with some info on how I got there:

My giant SNES pad with original pad for scale reference

It's a 6:1 scale SNES/SFC gamepad built from scratch. Unlike the other oversized gamepad projects floating around online, I don't have a 6-figure woodworking shop (and I'm not a good carpenter anyway), so I used manufactured arcade buttons instead of rigging up funky homegrown button/dpad mechanisms, and I built the internals using a breadboard and a couple of shift registers instead of padhacking an original SNES pad (those things are getting expensive these days).

I had originally planned to make the size an even 10:1 scale but after doing the math, I realized the resulting pad would be over 6 feet across and wouldn't be practical to actually use (i.e., like most of the other oversized gamepad projects floating around online). I had chosen 10:1 because SNES pad buttons are right at 10 mm in diameter and you can purchase humongous 100 mm arcade buttons on Amazon/eBay, but they also sell 60 mm buttons, which results in a much more reasonable 6:1 scale.

I found this dimensioned image online but it seems to have disappeared so I'll rehost it for others to benefit from.

Once I got the scale figured out, I cut the outline of the pad shape out of a piece of particle board I had left over from a previous project. I don't have a router and a circle jig, so I used a jigsaw and fashioned a compass out of a pencil and some string to draw the round parts:

For the internals, S/NES controllers are exceedingly simple, consisting of nothing but a couple of 8-bit shift registers. I happened to have 2 CD4021Bs lying around from a previous project and figured I'd give it a shot. This schematic shows up various places online and was very useful for getting everything wired up to my breadboard:

And here's what it looks like all wired up:

The only part I didn't make myself is the actual controller port plug, which I took from a newly manufactured SNES extension cable.

I used terminal blocks to make it easier to swap things out in the future and to reduce strain on the breadboard connections, which are the weakest link in the chain. The terminal blocks also came with bridges (the red-rubber thing on the one at the bottom-left of the image) that were useful when running voltage lines out to the button LEDs.

I left the back open and just built a little frame around the wiring. I may go back and put acrylic or another piece of wood over it, but I'm okay with it as is for now:

You can also see the L and R shoulder buttons, which are just the same 60 mm buttons used for the face buttons (the button sets come with 5 buttons and I ordered one additional one for a couple of extra bucks on eBay). The dpad buttons are also 60 mm buttons, but they're flat instead of convex:

Testing the button LEDs. You can get a good look at the flat dpad buttons. Still lacking some of the paint, as well.

It controls surprisingly well and is sort of like a Playstation controller with the separate directional pads. The start and select buttons are just regular ol' 30 mm arcade buttons. I would have liked to do something that looks a little more authentic but there just aren't any off-the-shelf long, skinny buttons.

Some day, I may go back and fabricate a small dpad to lay over the individual buttons and/or rig up something over the start/select buttons, but I doubt it, since they work fine already.

Anyway, here's my 3-yr old daughter and me playing some Donkey Kong Country on it:

She still doesn't really get video games, and her fine motor skills aren't really good enough for a standard-sized gamepad (which isn't really designed for her toddler-hands anyway), but she likes pushing the buttons on the oversized pad and having me control movement lets her focus on a single action, like jumping. I can also call out the color of the button she needs to press, which helps her work on her color mastery.

Anyway, that's it. If you have any questions, hit me up in the comments.

SNES to NES Controller Adapter

Historically, the SNES was originally intended to be backward compatible with the NES, with a CPU from the same 6502 lineage as the NES and a similar controller signal protocol over the same 5 wires: data clock, data latch, serial data, +5v and ground. The SNES signal has more data clock pulses after the data latch pulse but the protocols are the same, otherwise. This means that if you make a pin-to-pin adapter that sends SNES controller signals to an NES port, everything works just fine and the NES will just ignore the extraneous clock pulses.

Now, original NES controllers are getting fairly expensive these days--particularly the "dog bone" controllers that are round instead of pointy--and the third party reproductions from Tomee et al. are pretty universally reviled for being flimsy, unresponsive and altogether crummy. SNES controllers, on the other hand, are more ergonomic, originals are generally more plentiful and some of the repros (like this one) are actually pretty great. I also already have a bunch of SNES controllers, including an ASCII Pad, which is possibly the finest third party controller ever produced...

So, with all of that in mind, I cobbled together an SNES to NES controller adapter (there are a number of guides online, see also: here and here, among others) using a couple of cheap extension cables, specifically Tomee NES extensions (I found a set of 2 from an eBay seller for $9) and "Gen" 2-pack SNES extensions. I'll post which wires I connected, but it seems the factories that produce these extension cables just pick a handful of randomly colored wires when they put them together, so don't assume they'll apply to your own cables in any logical way:

NES side   |   SNES side 

  Yellow  <->  Black 

  Orange  <->  Green 

   Black  <->  Red 

    Blue  <->  Yellow 

   Green  <->  White

Ideally, you would figure out which wire carries which signal using a multimeter but mine is on the fritz, so I just trial-and-errored my way through it, which was a pain in the ass, but whatever. It worked in the end. Interestingly and unexpectedly, NES' B-button becomes the SNES' Y-button, and NES A becomes SNES B, which is really fantastic, since the angle of the SNES B and A buttons would make them hard to press at the same time had the naming/mapping been consistent.

Tomee SNES Retro Controller Review

I've been re-acquiring some old gaming consoles lately and it seems official SNES controllers are getting pretty expensive these days, commanding $15-20 at the time of this writing. I already had one official controller but wanted to get a second controller on the offhand chance anyone wanted to play a 2-player game. I wasn't too keen on paying the full price for an official one, so figured I'd try out the Tomee SNES controllers, which are super-cheap and readily available (i.e., no eBay; I got a 2-pack for ~$7 on Amazon).

To be clear: at a price of $3.50 each, these controllers are totally worth the money. They're functional and have a look and feel that's reminiscent of the official SNES controllers. I plugged them up and was able to play games just fine.

However, the plastic feels a bit flimsy and the d-pad is shaped a bit differently from the official Nintendo controller's (it's significantly fatter than the Nintendo version; Nintendo on top, Tomee below):

The four face buttons are also slightly different size and sit taller, though that's a pretty minor issue, IMO (Tomee on the left, official Nintendo on the right; the pic's blurry because my camera kept focusing on my hand instead of the controllers...):

The L/R buttons are significantly sharper-edged and clickier, though they rarely get used in games anyway, so it's also not a big deal. Perhaps more important is the fact that the Tomee controllers are thicker/fatter and don't taper the way Nintendo controllers do, which messes with the overall feel and ergonomics quite a bit (official Nintendo on the left, Tomee on the right):

The start/select buttons are much mushier than the official controller's and they're extremely prone to getting wedged under the controller face, which is more annoying than detrimental. Both of my d-pads also have an odd quirk whereby pressing down-left with a bit too much force will trigger all directions simultaneously. This can have some pretty hilarious results in games that weren't programmed to expect it, lol.

Overall, I think these controllers are a great value for someone who wants to do some casual playing or, in my case, just wants a second controller on-hand for the rare occasion that a friend/guest wants to throw down on some multiplayer action. If you're serious about your gaming, though, you'll want to have an official controller, which is more reliable, more comfortable and built to last.

If you're planning to use an SNES-to-USB adapter to use a real controller with an emulator, I suggest looking instead at the Buffalo Classic USB Gamepad, the price of which varies from around $12-20. This controller feels significantly more solid than the Tomee and actually feels extremely similar to a new official Nintendo SNES controller in weight and button-feel. Here's a (shitty) picture of mine next to one of the Tomees for comparison: