Controller reading code

This page contains example code for reading the NES controller.

See also: Controller reading

Controller Reading Code

Basic Example

This is a tutorial example of the bare minimum needed to read the controller. It will explain the basic principles in detail, but once understood, you may wish to continue to the Standard Read example that follows, as a more complete and ready-to-use code example.

This code describes an efficient method of reading the standard controller using ca65 syntax.

The result byte buttons should be placed in zero page to save a cycle each time through the loop.

; we reserve one byte for storing the data that is read from controller
.zeropage
buttons .res 1

When reading from JOYPAD* what is read might be different from $01/$00 for various reasons. (See Controller reading.) In this code the only concern is bit 0 read from JOYPAD*..

JOYPAD1 = $4016
JOYPAD2 = $4017

This is the end result that will be stored in buttons. 1 if the button was pressed, 0 otherwise.

bit	7	6	5	4	3	2	1	0
button	A	B	Select	Start	Up	Down	Left	Right

This subroutine takes 132 cycles to execute but ignores the Famicom expansion controller. Many controller reading subroutines use the X or Y register to count 8 times through the loop. But this one uses a more clever ring counter technique: $01 is loaded into the result first, and once eight bits are shifted in, the 1 bit will be shifted out, terminating the loop.

; At the same time that we strobe bit 0, we initialize the ring counter
; so we're hitting two birds with one stone here
readjoy:
    lda #$01
    ; While the strobe bit is set, buttons will be continuously reloaded.
    ; This means that reading from JOYPAD1 will only return the state of the
    ; first button: button A.
    sta JOYPAD1
    sta buttons
    lsr a        ; now A is 0
    ; By storing 0 into JOYPAD1, the strobe bit is cleared and the reloading stops.
    ; This allows all 8 buttons (newly reloaded) to be read from JOYPAD1.
    sta JOYPAD1
loop:
    lda JOYPAD1
    lsr a        ; bit 0 -> Carry
    rol buttons  ; Carry -> bit 0; bit 7 -> Carry
    bcc loop
    rts

Continue to the next example for a more complete read routine that handles both controllers and the standard Famicom expansion controllers.

Standard Read for 2 Controllers and Famicom

Adding support for controllers on the Famicom's DA15 expansion port and for player 2's controller is straightforward. Something similar to the following routine is used in most Famicom games. Even though the expansion port is unused on the NES, the unconnected bit will read as 0, so this solution works safely with both Famicom and NES hardware.

.zeropage
buttons: .res 2     ; space for 2 reads

.code
readjoyx2:
    ldx #$00
    jsr readjoyx    ; X=0: read controller 1
    inx
    ; fall through to readjoyx below, X=1: read controller 2

readjoyx:           ; X register = 0 for controller 1, 1 for controller 2
    lda #$01
    sta JOYPAD1
    sta buttons, x
    lsr a
    sta JOYPAD1
loop:
    lda JOYPAD1, x
    and #%00000011  ; ignore bits other than controller
    cmp #$01        ; Set carry if and only if nonzero
    rol buttons, x  ; Carry -> bit 0; but 7 -> Carry
    bcc loop
    rts

If playing DPCM samples, there is an additional reread step to prevent errors (see below).

Note that the and to ignore bits is not optional, as the upper bits of JOYPAD1 read are not guaranteed to be 1 or 0.

Alternative 2 Controllers Read

Alternatively, we could combine both controller reads into 1 loop with a single strobe, though this routine is not safe to use with DPCM samples playing (see below).

.zeropage
buttons: .res 2

.code
readjoy2:
    lda #$01
    sta JOYPAD1
    sta buttons+1 ; player 2's buttons double as a ring counter
    lsr a
    sta JOYPAD1
loop:
    lda JOYPAD1
    and #%00000011
    cmp #$01
    rol buttons+0
    lda JOYPAD2
    and #%00000011
    cmp #$01
    rol buttons+1
    bcc loop
    rts

DPCM Safety using Repeated Reads

If your code is intended to be used with APU DMC playback, this code will need to be altered. The NES occasionally glitches the controller port twice in a row if sample playback is enabled, and games using samples need to work around this. The most common technique, as seen in Super Mario Bros. 3 and other games, will read each controller twice, but in the event of a mismatch it will keep re-reading the controller until two results in a row are the same.

readjoy2_safe:
    ldx #$00
    jsr readjoyx_safe  ; X=0: safe read controller 1
    inx
    ; fall through to readjoyx_safe, X=1: safe read controller 2

readjoyx_safe:
    jsr readjoyx
reread:
    lda buttons, x
    pha
    jsr readjoyx
    pla
    cmp buttons, x
    bne reread
    rts

Note that the time between the start of one read and the end of the next read must be less than the length of the fastest DMC fetch period (432 cycles). For this reason, it is normal to read controllers one at a time with this method, rather than attempting both at once. (Note: readjoy2 above takes too long to be suitable.) Gimmick! has such a bug resulting from trying to read both at once.

Most often a controller will be read 2 times, and 3 or 4 in the case of a DPCM corruption, or the player pressing a button during the read. With the assistance of tools, a malicious controller input could change the buttons on every read, holding it in this reread loop indefinitely, but this is generally not an important edge case to account for.

DPCM Safety using OAM DMA

Because halts for DPCM fetches normally only occur on an put cycles, it is possible to get glitch-free controller reads by timing all $4016 and $4017 reads to fall on get cycles. This is made possible by the behavior of OAM DMA: the first cycle after an OAM DMA is normally guaranteed to be a get cycle. This is a relatively new technique and is not supported by some emulators. In the following example code, the controller1 and controller2 labels must be in zeropage for the timing to work.

This solution might be ideal, using fewer cycles than doing repeated reads, and taking a consistent amount of time. It can also be adapted for DPCM-conflict free reading of controllers that require a longer report like four player adapters, or the SNES mouse (see notes below).

However, unlike the other solutions above, it can't be executed at any time. Instead it must be integrated into your NMI routine to coincide with your sprite OAM DMA once per frame.

    lda #OAM
    sta $4014          ; ------ OAM DMA ------
    ldx #1             ; get put          <- strobe code must take an odd number of cycles total
    stx buttons+0      ; get put get      <- buttons must be in the zeropage
    stx $4016          ; put get put get
    dex                ; put get
    stx $4016          ; put get put get
loop:
    lda $4017          ; put get put GET  <- loop code must take an even number of cycles total
    and #3             ; put get
    cmp #1             ; put get
    rol buttons+1, x   ; put get put get put get (X = 0; waste 1 cycle and 0 bytes for alignment)
    lda $4016          ; put get put GET
    and #3             ; put get
    cmp #1             ; put get
    rol buttons+0      ; put get put get put
    bcc loop           ; get put [get]    <- this branch must not be allowed to cross a page

Note that this example routine only reads two 8-bit controllers and does not take enough time to span more than one DPCM fetch. Routines longer than this must contend with two additional constraints:

• When DMC DMA is delayed by an odd number of cycles, it takes 3 cycles instead of 4, changing the cycle parity. If extending this function to read more bits, care must be taken so that all CPU write cycles are aligned. Instructions with a single write cycle must align the write to avoid conflict with the DPCM fetch, and double-write instructions like ROL need to align both writes so that the DPCM fetch falls on the first write. If an interrupt can occur during the routine, it must be aligned so the fetch can only fall on the second of the three automatic stack writes.
• When DMC DMA occurs near the end of OAM DMA, it only steals 1 or 3 cycles, inverting the cycle parity. Every DMC period after that, a misaligned DPCM fetch will occur. Care must be taken to ensure this does not land on a joypad read.

See DMA for detailed information on DMA timing.

Other Useful Operations

Button Flags

It is helpful to define the buttons as a series of bit flags:

BUTTON_A      = 1 << 7
BUTTON_B      = 1 << 6
BUTTON_SELECT = 1 << 5
BUTTON_START  = 1 << 4
BUTTON_UP     = 1 << 3
BUTTON_DOWN   = 1 << 2
BUTTON_LEFT   = 1 << 1
BUTTON_RIGHT  = 1 << 0

And then buttons can be checked as follows:

    lda buttons
    and #BUTTON_A | BUTTON_B
    beq notPressingAorB
    ; Handle presses.
notPressingAorB:

Calculating Presses and Releases

To calculate newly pressed and newly released buttons by comparing against the last frame's buttons:

    ; newly pressed buttons: not held last frame, and held now
    lda last_frame_buttons, x
    eor #%11111111
    and buttons, x
    sta pressed_buttons, x

    ; newly released buttons: not held now, and held last frame
    lda buttons, x
    eor #%11111111
    and last_frame_buttons, x
    sta released_buttons, x

Directional Safety

Opposing directions (Up+Down and Left+Right) are possible on non-standard controllers, or even on a worn out standard one. Both directions can be tested for at the same time in an efficient bitwise operation:

    lda buttons, x
    and #%00001010    ; Compare Up and Left...
    lsr a
    and buttons, x    ; to Down and Right
    beq not_opposing
        ; Use previous frame's directions
        lda buttons, x
        eor last_frame_buttons, x
        and #%11110000
        eor last_frame_buttons, x
        sta buttons, x
    not_opposing:

Diagonal directions can also be detected at the same time as opposing ones, by testing if more than 1 directional bit is set. This could be used as part of a 4-way joystick style control scheme:

    lda buttons, x
    and #%00001111    ; If A & (A - 1) is nonzero, A has more than one bit set
    beq not_diagonal
    sec
    sbc #1
    and buttons, x
    beq not_diagonal
        ; Use previous frame's directions
        lda buttons, x
        eor last_frame_buttons, x
        and #%11110000
        eor last_frame_buttons, x
        sta buttons, x
    not_diagonal:

As an example, the code above rejects the detected cases by using the direction bits from the previous frame, but depending on the situation another response might be more appropriate (e.g. cancel just the opposing bits, or clear all directions).

External Examples

• Forum post: Blargg's DMC-fortified controller read routine
• Forum post: Rahsennor's OAM-synchronized controller read
• Forum post: Drag's bitwise DMC-safe controller reading
• pads.s: pinobatch's NROM-template controller read routine