SNES controller turns Android phone into a gaming machine

If you want an Android phone with physical buttons for gaming, you can opt to purchase a phone with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard or a Sony Ericsson Xperia Play. But if you like your current Android phone and you feel that there isn’t a need to replace it, there’s always a DIY solution to the problem – introducing the SNES Android phone.

A hobbyist, Bruno Soares, who wanted to enhance his gaming performance on his HTC Desire HD decided to take things into this own hands and came up with a DIY hack that involves an SNES controller, an Arduino processor, a Bluetooth radio to send commands to the phone, and a self-written custom driver to put the pieces together.

Now he can play his favorite SNES games (with the help of an emulator) the way they were meant to be played: with an SNES controller. This DIY project shouldn’t be too hard if you’ve had some experience doing such mods before, and if you’re interested in giving it a shot, head over to Bruno Soares’ blog where he lists out all the steps he took.

Super Nintendo on Android with original controller from Bruno Soares on Vimeo.

George Wong
Categories: Cellphones, Gaming
Tags: Android, controller, DYI, Hacking, Mod, snes