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User Guide

This section covers everything an end user needs to play games with original-hardware controllers on MiSTer-DB9.

Pages

  • installation.md — Which files to download, where to put them on the SD card, and the boot sequence to expect.
  • osd-menu.md — Activating the "UserIO Joystick" option, navigating the OSD with the controller (Start+C / A / B), and player-count selection.
  • define-db9-buttons.md — Remapping which physical button does what, saved per core/per controller type (the DB9 equivalent of USB "Define buttons").
  • pro-key.md — What db9pro.key is, where it lives, what it unlocks, and how to renew an expired key.
  • pinout-reference.md — Complete pinout for the DE10-Nano USER_IO connector mapped to DB9 / SNAC8 / FPGA pins.
  • troubleshooting.md — Symptoms of the known hardware/software interactions and how to recognise them.
  • controllers/ — One page per supported controller family. Pinout, button order, special notes, and Genesis-pad button mappings for cores that don't have a native pad.

What you need to get started

  1. A DE10-Nano running MiSTer FPGA.
  2. A wiring adapter that brings out the USER_IO pins to a DB9 (Mega Drive style), DB15 (Antonio Villena splitter style), or Saturn-style connector. Adapter design is hardware — not covered in this repo.
  3. The MiSTer-DB9 MiSTer binary and menu.rbf (replace the upstream ones — see installation.md).
  4. For Saturn support only: a valid db9pro.key file at /media/fat/db9pro.key. DB9MD, DB15, SNAC8, and the MT32-pi anti-contention gate work without a key.

What this fork does NOT change

  • USB controllers continue to work exactly as on stock MiSTer.
  • Cores keep their stock USB-mapped joystick code; the DB controller is muxed in only when the user explicitly selects it in the OSD.
  • No firmware on the controller side. Mega Drive / Saturn / Neo Geo pads talk their native protocol; the FPGA decodes it directly.