I have an official SNES controller for the Switch, use it to play Mario Maker 2 and some of the SNES games there. It works great and stuff, but I want to use it on my PC for when I want to play SMW hacks on an emulator. With some prior searching I've found that it's possible to connect it via Bluetooth, but I don't have any Bluetooth hardware connected to my PC, nor do I own any.
With the cable that came with the controller itself, I'm able to hook it up to my PC, and it does recognize it as a device, but none of the buttons do anything. I suspect that I would need some sort of specialized driver to install to make the PC recognize the device as a controller, but I haven't been able to find anything of the sort.
Without having to buy Bluetooth hardware, is it possible to get this controller to work on a PC? I am able to purchase some but I would rather not, since last I worked with Bluetooth it was difficult.End of this message.
As long your PC recognizes it as a device, you should be able to go to your emulator, open the remap inputs window, and then begin pressing the corresponding buttons on your controller.
No, I can't. I already said nothing happens when I press a button on the controller. The device labels itself as "SNES Controller" so I know it is recognized in some capacity. But I need to install a driver to actually get my PC to treat it as a controller for the buttons to do something, which as far as I know, such driver does not exist.End of this message.
Originally posted by Luigi_Fan
I already said nothing happens when I press a button on the controller.
It was unclear to me whether you knew to map inputs in an emulator. Perhaps it would be easier to get specific help if you could provide details about the controller and which emulator you're trying to use it with.
Out of the box, there's nothing you can do. Unfortunately neither the Switch SNES Controller's, nor the Switch Pro Controller's default PC driver are compatible with USB. They will be recognized as devices, but no button input will go through.
Fortunately, third-party alternatives seem to exist. Here is one I found that explicitly claims to be compatible with the SNES Controller.
Aside from these third-party drivers, buying dedicated hardware (like a Bluetooth dongle or an 8BitDo adapter) is your only option. Altough I don't even think anything besides raw Bluetooth supports the SNES Controller yet. Personally, I have a Mayflash adapter, and while it works with the Pro Controller, it does not work with the SNES Controller at this time. Therefore, I think trying out that custom driver is currently your best bet.Feel free to visit my website/blog - it's updated rarely, but it looks pretty cool!
Originally posted by quietmason
Perhaps it would be easier to get specific help if you could provide details about the controller and which emulator you're trying to use it with.
The emulator of my choice is higan... Like I said before this controller is the official Nintendo brand made which can be viewed for purchase here, but at the time of this post they're out of stock.
Originally posted by RPG Hacker
Fortunately, third-party alternatives seem to exist. Here is one I found that explicitly claims to be compatible with the SNES Controller.
OK, this seems to work to a point. I'm able to get it to recognize inputs now and I can play some PC games with it, but it goes crazy when I try to use it with higan - When I try to configure the inputs it instantly inputs something that shows up as 0 1 2 3 4 etc. Then when I actually launch a game it immediately inputs a direction... Or whatever it can input with what I give it in the input configuration. I don't know why this happens, but it's working in some capacity now at the very least. I may need to switch emulators if I wish to use this controller if for whatever reason higan won't cooperate with it...End of this message.
I'm not sure myself, but I think this may just be one of the weird things Switch controllers do when connected to a PC. Steam actually includes its own USB driver for the Switch Pro Controller, and I remember that when I tried to use it, it worked perfectly fine inside games on Steam, however, when trying to start any game outside of Steam, the controller would actually send random input signals constantly, making it impossible to play them. This means I had to disconnect the controller whenever playing games outside of Steam (at least while Steam was running). I can imagine this being a problem not exclusive to Steam, but rather tied to the Pro Controller itself, and if so, I can also imagine it extending to the SNES Controller as well.Feel free to visit my website/blog - it's updated rarely, but it looks pretty cool!
I have a SNES Classic, and I use a Wii to USB adapter to just use the controllers from there on my PC. I played Persona4 Using a SNES controller, it even displays accurate buttons prompts in-game. It also works with my normal Classic controller pro for the Wii, so I can use that for games that require sticks.
However, if you just don't want to bother with adapter nonsense, consider just buying an 8bitdo controller for your PC? I don't own one, but I've heard they're pretty good. If you want a more SNES-like one, they even sell them without the sticks.
I would personally prefer either of these options over trying to fiddle with getting any of my switch controllers on PC using bluetooth
These adapters can be pretty convenient, because they add XInput capabilities to the controllers (meaning they will work in nearly any PC game). However, connecting the controllers via Bluetooth isn't actually all that difficult. It's done via just a few clicks and doesn't require any special drivers or hardware (aside from a Bluetooth dongle).
Personally, I prefer the adapter option, mainly because I found the default Bluetooth connection to be rather unstable. I always had to be ridiculously close to the dongle to get a stable connection. That could just be the dongle's fault, though. I also love the convenienece of having XInput, since a lot of games have really poor DirectInput support. Although on the other hand, some games actually support dedicated Switch controller graphics and mappings when connecting a Pro Controller via raw Bluetooth, so there's that. We definitely do that in our games. Using an adapter prevents you from getting those, as your controller will simply be recognized as an Xbox controller.Feel free to visit my website/blog - it's updated rarely, but it looks pretty cool!
My SNES Controller 4 the switch works on my pc i linked it via bluetooth ...