Atari 2600 Wireless Controller with 4 Buttons

I think the wireless RetroContolller from 8Bitdo are pretty awesome. As an Atari 2600 Fan I had immidiatelly the idea to build such one in a Atari design. The products of Adafruit are quite great for such a purpose. They even have a tutorial on their website how to adapt a SNES-controller accordingly. Can not be that hard to accomplish this. So here weg go!

Step 1: Stick selection

The classic Atari 2600 CX-40 stick is from a visual aspect great, but it does have only one fire button. The problem here is that you do not always play on a emulator with your pc and therefore control the emulator with a keyboard. I for example like to play with a Raspberry Pi which is connected to a projector. A keyboard would only be distracting therefore the emulator should be able to be controlled with a stick. The stick therefore has to additionally include

  • a button to end the current game in order to select a different one
  • a button for the level selection
  • a start button
  • a powerbutton


The challenge by adding additonal buttons is always the same: It easily looks awfull. ;-) Starting off clumsy already the small powerbutton can look disastrous. Just finding buttons which have the identical color as the fire button is about impossible.


The solution here is the Atari tv stick. It looks like the old controller, you can connect it to your tv and ten games are preinstalled. And since you have to control it with all Atari 2600 games it has - lucky for us - all needed buttons integrated. And with 15 Euro at Amazon it is even cheaper as a good preserved original one.

Step 2: Circuit diagram

Regarding the curcuit diagram I took it directly from Adafruit, I only used a different power connection and storage battery.


As you can see all grounds are connected with each other, the switch only decides over the connection regarding the plus poles. The switch defines if the battery is connected with the Bluefruit EZ-Key Modul (ON) or the Micro USB Module (OFF for recharging).

Step 3: Bluefruit EZ-Key setup

The module goes into pairing mode if you press the small button five seconds. After that it can be connected to any computer. The pincode is 1234. The module identifies as keyboard and sends a letter as soon as you connect one of the 12 pins (0-11) with ground. Ex works the pins send following keys.

  • 0: Up
  • 1: Down
  • 2: Left
  • 3: Right
  • 4: Return
  • 5: Space
  • 6: 1
  • 7: 2
  • 8: W
  • 9: A
  • 10: S
  • 11: D


If you want to rearrange the assignment of the 12 pins you don´t have to worry since it is really easy. You activate the module and connect it with your pc. Then you start a program which finds the module and rewrites it. The detailed description with the downloadlink can be found here.

On the page two ways are described, once the grahical interface and secondly the text tool. With me only the text version worked. But it is also very simple, you only have to manually enter which pin shall send out which letter.

Step 4: Disassemble

The tv-stick is luckily premium quality. When you open it you see at once that nothing is clotted. You can easily disassemble it. Some cable connections are glued additonally but only in order to avoid them from bending. The glue can be easily removed.

The technology in the core consists of three parts.

  • the main module with the joystick controls
  • the power-button together with the LED on a circuit board
  • the three extra buttons on a circuit board


The front part with the buttons can be easily removed from the casing and the circuit boards are only screwed on.




Step 5: Power supply

As power supply I use the Adafruit Micro Lipo w/MicroUSB Jack - USB LiIon/LiPoly charger, since micro usb cables are so common. In order not to ruin the look of the stick, I build in the connection simply in the battery slot. You cut the battery disconnector out to have enough space. As you can see my first mistake was not to think about the cable. ;-) The second version to set the module diagionally was then succesful. The screws are M2,5 screws with matching nuts. The plastic of the battery disconnector walls should be kept because it can be cut to close the cable hole.


Step 6: Powerbutton

The power button is together with the LED on a circuit board and can be easily dismantled from the front-panel. We need three cables for the switch which have to be soldered directly on the switch since the tv stick has not function in the off-modus and the cable is missing. With our stick the recharging should be possible in the OFF-modus, so a connection between a Mirco-USB-Charger and the recharger has to exist.



Step 7: The extra buttons

The three additional buttons are all together on a circuit board. It can be unscrewed from the front-panel. All cables are already there you only have to expand them. In order to expand them I use a female jumper cable to later stick it into the EZ-Key Modul. Regarding the wiring you have to be a bit careful. You could think that the yellow cables belong to the two big buttons. But that is not the case.





Step 8: Mainboard

The mainboard appears at first sight a lot complicator as with the orginal stick, which is logical since the entire tv-console is on it. But don´t worry I found out the best soldering possibilities.

First you remove the red marked elements. Simply pinch it off. This is important since otherwise a weak electricity is measured, even if no button is pressed somewhere in the old hardware a connection still exists.


After that you take some female jumper cables and solder it as following.





Step 9: Assembly

First you place the frontpanel inside, solder the power supply and stick the cable of the buttons in the correct pins. Now you can see why I have used the 150mAH recharger and not the 100mAH. The 150mAH recharger fits perfectly in the side pocket of the controller. I have fixed it with a small piece of duct tape.


After that you connect the jumper cable of the mainboard with the Bluefruit EZ-Key and set it inside. The mainboard for that matter is stuck between the pinblocks. The keyboard module sits like this quite tight, is not in the the way, and with a thin screw driver you can reach the reset button without removing the mainboard.

Step 10: The last finishing

From a technical point of view we are done but I am not happy with the old cable hole and the logo. Luckily I saved the plastic I cut out off the battery slot. Simply take the plasticpiece you have saved and press it from the inside against another exact matching piece you have cut in order to close the hole. It almost looks like new now. ;-)


The logo can be removed with Q-Tips and acetonefree nailpolish remover. Don´t be terrified when the Q-Tips turn black. The plastic is not dissolving. The logoprint does not only consist out of white but the black shinny pieces are also printed. Just remove everything thoroughly.


And you see the wireless Bluetooth Atari 2600 Controller is completed.

Extra 1: LED

If you connect it with the L2 connection of the Bluefruit EZ-Key it shows you the connection status, which would certainly come in quite handy as display.


Extra 2: RESET

In order to connect the controller with a new device you have to unscrew it to get to the reset switch. But you can lay the functionality on a external switch via the pin PB.


Extra 3: +1 FIREBUTTON

A lot of the old Atari Arcades have two fire buttons and therefore can not be played with a stick. I added a further button.


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