JUMP Interface Information

In a nutshell, the JUMP Interface is a simple interface you can build which lets you connect up to 5 console game controllers from your old Nintendo or Super Nintendo to the parallel port of your computer. It uses common modular connectors which will allow you to quickly change joysticks on your computer and will still work with your console.  Hence the acronym for Joystick Unit Multi-Port Interface, or JUMP Interface for short...or JUMPI for even shorter (yeah, it wasn't one of my better acronym-ing days...).

Plans for converting old console controllers into PC gamepads have been on the internet for a while. I modified a controller and loved having the feel of a SNES controller for some of my windows games. The biggest problem with these designs though was that they were not flexible at all. You had to hard-wire the parallel port interface to the end of the joystick cable. This meant that once you decided which joystick(s) you wanted to use, you soldered everything and that was that. I saw plans that used a modular connector but they still weren't what I was looking for. I quickly realized that using the existing wiring setup and drivers which are available on the internet, I could build a small interface box which would let me plug in any NES/SNES controller (after modification of course) and I could switch them out so I could use the flat gamepad on side-scrolling games and the joystick on fighting games. And thus, after a trip to RadioShack and a rough prototype, the JUMPI came into existence.

Plans for the JUMP Interface are freely available on this site. Check the Specifications Page for details. The interface is very simple and inexpensive to build. If you use crimping connectors, then there is almost no soldering required.

If you find anything on this site useful for any project you're working on (or just for fooling around) I'd love to hear about it. Just send mail to JUMP@dreamcliff.com.

Check out the FAQ to answer some of the most common questions about JUMPI.