Blue Retro Bluetooth
Nickie Koskinen
The GC BlueRetro Controller Adapter is a an adapter for the Nintendo GameCube and Nintendo Wii that allows you to connect bluetooth controllers like the PS4, PS5, XBOX, Nintendo Switch, 8BitDo and most other modern BT based controllers!
Short press (outside BT inquiry mode): Disconnect all Bluetooth devices from the adapter.
Short press (BT inquiry mode): Cancel Bluetooth pairing mode.
3 second hold: Enable Bluetooth pairing mode (new pairing).
10 sec hold: Factory resets the adapter to default configuration and clears BT pairing keys.
Solid: An error occurred, try shutting off your console and re-plug the adaptor.
Pulsing: Bluetooth pairing mode active (pairing).
Off: No errors, Bluetooth pairing mode disabled, controller connected.
The N64 BlueRetro Controller Adapter is a an adapter for the Nintendo 64 that allows you to connect bluetooth controllers like the PS4, PS5, XBOX, Nintendo Switch, RetroFighters Brawler 64 BT (incompatible at the time of writing, but RetroFighters are working on adding compatibility via a firmware update) and most other BT based controllers. Even the Nintendo Switch Online Nintendo 64 Controller works!
Not only that, but it also adds 4 banks of virtual memory paks for your saves, that you can download and backup through its web interface! It can also emulate a rumble pak, if your controller supports rumble!
Depending on the state of your Nintendo 64 Power Supply, it may have a hard time to power 4 adaptors simultaneously. In our tests with four adapters on one system, everything worked out fine, but be aware that it could cause problems if your power supply is not in a good state.
I want to share here a little project I've been working on for about 2 years now. BlueRetro is a universal multiplayer Bluetooth controller adapter for retro consoles.
No Atari systems supported yet but I'm working on Genesis support right now, so Atari 2600/7800 we land simultaneously. 5200 & Jaguar we come later down the line.
BlueRetro is a multiplayer Bluetooth controllers adapter for various retro game consoles. Lost or broken controllers? Reproduction too expensive? Need those rare and obscure accessories? Just use the Bluetooth devices you already got! The project is open source hardware & software under the CERN-OHL-P-2.0 & Apache-2.0 licenses respectively. It's built for the popular ESP32 chip. All processing for Bluetooth and HID input decoding is done on the first core which makes it easy for other projects to use the Bluetooth stack within their own project by using the 2nd core. Wii, Switch, PS3, PS4, Xbox One & generic HID Bluetooth devices are supported. NES, SNES, Saturn, JVS (Arcade), N64, GameCube & Dreamcast are supported with simultaneous 4+ players using a single adapter. Soon Genesis/Megadrive, PSX, PS2, Parallel (2600, SMS, NeoGeo, JAMMA), PCE, CD-i, 3DO, PC-FX...
I will sell each DevKit 100 USD (No money taken upfront) since the low volume and external assembly will add to the cost. I will also make any cable you want for 20 USD (30 USD for those that require more work). Alternatively you can buy a cable kit for 5 USD that will only include the PCB pre-soldered with the SMD parts & the DB25 connector. (You got to source the cable & backshell yourself). I expect to ship the unit for beta around December 2020. I will send people on the list a paypal invoice once they are ready to ship.
Most bluetooth controllers are already supported (Generic bluetooth controllers, PS3/PS4, X-Box, Wii U, Switch Pro, etc). You can even use a bluetooth keyboard/mouse to emulate a controller if you wanted. The BlueRetro itself supports up to 7 simultaneous bluetooth connections and can emulate/support up to 4 players at once.
For example, Smash TV for the NES had an interesting feature where you can use two controllers at once to emulate the arcade dual-stick setup. BlueRetro can emulate these two controllers and map them to the different analog sticks on a single controller. ( =I0b7eRCILWs)
The Speaker comes fully equipped with 5W power output for clear, rich and punchy bass on your favorite tracks. The bluetooth speaker with 900 mAh battery for up to 14 hours of playtime at middle volume on a full charge.
The Bluetooth speaker is equipped with the latest Bluetooth 5.0 with faster transmission and stronger anti-interference ability. It truly makes the device highly powerful, but you can find other means to play your favorite songs and playlists with the help of a USB drive, aux cable, or SD/TF card.
You can use the Bluetooth TWS pairing and the AUX connection as well as the hands-free mode & stereo to connect two Noizzy Box Cube Xs (effective distance 10m), the music can be played simultaneously so that you can create Immersive Cinematic Stereo Sound, you can enjoy music better.
Note that on the Pi 3 to use on-board Bluetooth you may need to install Bluetooth first with sudo apt install pi-bluetooth but fair warning, the on-board Bluetooth has been known to freeze up the Pi (on RetroPie 3.7 or under), but it can be fixed.
If you want to use a bluetooth dongle with the pi3, you should first disable the onboard BT controller by adding dtoverlay=pi3-disable-bt to /boot/config.txt, then rebooting and plugging your dongle, which should now work.
The simplest way of setting up a Bluetooth controller is through the Bluetooth Configuration menu of the RetroPie Setup script. There are also manual methods that may vary depending on what Bluetooth controller you are using, some of which are described further below on this page.
You will get a window popping up telling you if the connection was successful or not. If it was not successful make sure that you chose the correct mac address, if it still doesn't work you may have to configure it manually (see below).
The following guide is geared to using a controller from 8bitdo but should work with a range of bluetooth devices.The examples below are assuming you have just a keyboard and bluetooth dongle plugged into your Pi.
Make sure your controller is turned on in the correct pairing mode (Power on for FC30 Pro, Start+R for SFC30), then choose:1 Register and Connect to Bluetooth deviceFollow the prompts and your controller should connectThis is shown by a solid blue light on the 8bitdo controllersQuit out of the setup script
If you find your controller doesn't automatically reconnect when you restart the Pi, this process should force the connection.Some users have reported it will work without this if you wait for Emulation Station to fully load before turning on your controller - this is possibly model or firmware specific.
You may find the controller connects on startup without issue, but if not try this. There are different ways to do this, but this should work to start the connection attempt when the Pi starts up.Edit this startup filesudo nano /etc/rc.local
Now the Pi is restarting, make sure your controller is turned on, and trying to pair (I tend to turn the controller on just before the RetroPie splashscreen appears), it should connect about when the Emulation Station splashscreen appears. Then Emulation Station will display with the "1 Gamepad Detected" message.
Hold a button down on the controller and follow the instructions to input your buttons.When the is done, you click the "OK" button with the "A" button on the controller to enter Emulation Station.This process will have configured your controller for navigating ES. It will also have created a controller file for RetroArch to use when you play games (If you are using at least RetroPie 3 beta 3).
However, the content of that file may not have the correct buttons mappings (I'm not sure why this doesn't always work, as its fine with most other controllers). So we will update that file correctly now.
Choose the "Setup" option, then "Configure input devices for RetroArch" (Do not choose the "Install RetroArch joypad autoconfigs)Then choose the "Configure joystick/controller for use with RetroArch" optionFollow the on-screen prompts to press the buttons when prompted.If you make a mistake, just run it again, it happily overwrites the file it needs to.
If you have installed other bluetooth programs, perhaps to support a PS3 controller, you may find there are conflicts and the above steps produce an error when you try to pair. One way around this is to uninstall the sixad program with:sudo apt purge sixad
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