PS22MS

This project aims to create an driver for the DualShock 2 (PS2 controller) for the Tectoy Sega Master System console.

The console has 132 games and simple communication with the controller.

On the other hand, the DualShock 2 has a slightly more complex communication, as the microcontroller inside uses the SPI interface to communicate with the PS2.

The project consists of two parts: the communicator for the MS and the PS2 interpreter.

MS Communicator

A DB9 connector is used to conenct the controller and the Master System and the buttons works in a simple PULL_UP resistor system.

The Master System's controller was initially designed to work with 2 buttons + 4 directions, which used 6 pins in the DB9 connector. Other version with 6 buttons + 4 directions + START button was released years later.

The version being parsed in this repo is the 6 button's version.

Since the DB9 has only 9 pins, where 1 of them is for GND and. So it has a total of 8 pins available. One for the RESET(the reset is connected to the GND when X, Y, Z are pressed simultaneously). 4 of them for the directions, 1 for A/B because these are shared, 1 for the START button and one for the C button.

Below there is a table of the PINOUT

Pin	Console Signal	Controller Mapping	Behavior
1	UP	D-Pad Up	Connected to GND when pressed
2	DOWN	D-Pad Down	Connected to GND when pressed
3	LEFT	D-Pad Left	Connected to GND when pressed
4	RIGHT	D-Pad Right	Connected to GND when pressed
5	RESET	X + Y + Z combination	All three buttons must be pressed simultaneously
6	Button 1 / TL	A and B buttons	A and B share the same input
7	PAUSE	START button	Triggers the console's Pause/Start function
8	GND	Ground / Common	Common return for all buttons
9	Button 2 / TR	C button	Second action button

Setup

This project uses PlatformIo as tool for building and communicating with the device. Check platformio.ini file for the device configuration used in this project.

Install

Install platformio core if you do not have it by following the instructions on Installation guide

Arch Linux

For Arch Linux users, you can install with:

sudo pacman -S platformio-core platformio-core-udev

Then reload the udev rules:

sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
sudo udevadm trigger

Build

If you are using clangd or another LSP, generate the compilation database by running:

pio run -t compiledb

This creates the compile_commands.json file used by the language server.

Upload

Uploading the code to the board is simple, you just need to figure out which is your board's serial port, then upload to it.

To see the available ports, run:

pio device list

Then upload using:

pio run -t upload --upload-port <device-port>