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Keyboard Reverse-Engineering

This version was saved 14 years, 4 months ago View current version     Page history
Saved by Noah Vawter
on November 3, 2009 at 1:57:33 pm
 

 

 

This is the code read read the keyboard on the Famicom.  SUBOR may have a similar keyboard.  This information is based on information from the emubase website.

 

 

 Controllers - Keyboard

Keyboard with 72 Keys, and tape read/write port, connected to 15-pin Famicom Expansion port. Used by Famicom BASIC. Also, the Study and Game 32-in-1 and Education 18-in-1 cartridges use an identical protocol, but with different keyboard matrix.

 

Keyboard Access Pseudo Code

 

  [4016h]=05h:WAIT(16clks)                   ;reset (force row 0)
  FOR i=0 TO 8                               ;loop 9 rows
    [4016h]=04h:WAIT(56clks)                 ;request LSB of NEXT row
    Row[i]=(([4017h] SHR 1) AND 0Fh)         ;read LSB
    [4016h]=06h:WAIT(56clks)                 ;request MSB of SAME row
    Row[i]=(([4017h] SHL 3) AND F0h)+Row[i]  ;read MSB
  NEXT                                       ;loop next

Column 0-7 are then in Bit0-7 of each row. Bits are 0=Pressed, 1=Released (unlike for most other NES/Famicom controllers, which are 1=Pressed).

When reading more than 9 rows, the 10th read (row 9) returns garbage data, and then starts over at row 0.

 

Famicom Keyboard Matrix

 

  Row   Bit0   Bit1   Bit2   Bit3   Bit4   Bit5   Bit6   Bit7

  0     F8     RETURN [      ]      KANA   R-SHFT \(Yen) STOP

  1     F7     @      :      ;      _      /      -      ^

  2     F6     O      L      K      .      ,      P      0

  3     F5     I      U      J      M      N      9      8

  4     F4     Y      G      H      B      V      7      6

  5     F3     T      R      D      F      C      5      4

  6     F2     W      S      A      X      Z      E      3

  7     F1     ESC    Q      CTRL   L-SHFT GRPH   1      2

  8     CLR    UP     RIGHT  LEFT   DOWN   SPACE  DEL    INS

 

Famicom Keyboard Layout

   ________________________________________________

  |    F1  F2  F3  F4  F5  F6  F7  F8              |

  |    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - ^ \ STOP              |

  | ESC Q W E R T Y U I O P @ [ ENTER  CLR INS DEL |

  | CTRL A S D F G H J K L ; : ] KANA      UP      |

  | SHIFT Z X C V B N M , . / _ SHIFT  LEFT  RIGHT |

  |______GRPH____SPACE____________________DOWN_____|

 

32-in-1 Study and Game / Education Keyboard Matrix

  Row   Bit0   Bit1   Bit2   Bit3   Bit4   Bit5   Bit6   Bit7   0     4      G      F      C      F2     E      5      V   1     2      D      S      END    F1     W      3      X   2     INS    BS     PGDN   RIGHT  F8     PGUP   ESC    HOME
  3     9      I      L      ,      F5     O      0      .
  4     ]      ENTER  UP     LEFT   F7     [      \      DOWN
  5     Q      CAPS   Z      Pa     ESC    A      1      CTRL
  6     7      Y      K      M      F4     U      8      J
  7     -      ;      '      /      F6     P      =      SHIFT
  8     T      H      N      SPACE  F3     R      6      B

 

The 32-in-1 menu also checks Bit4 in Row 9, if that bit is zero then it does additionally read row 0Ah..0Ch. Aside from the menu, most or all games in the 32-in-1 cartridge don't seem to use that extra rows though.

 

32-in-1 Study and Game Keyboard Layout (as shown in Typing School I)

   ____________________________________________________________

  | ESC F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 F8 F9 F10 F11 F12 Pa. Br  Nu  Re. |

  | ~  1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   0   -   +  BS  HOME |

  | TAB Q   W   E   R   T   Y   U   I   O   P   [   ]   \  END |

  | CAPS A   S   D   F   G   H   J   K   L   ;   '  ENTER PGUP |

  | SHIFT Z   X   C   V   B   N   M   ,   .   /  SHIFT UP PGDN |

  |_###_CTRL_ALT_##_[______SPACE______]_ALT_INS_DEL_LT_DN_RIGH_|

 

Keyboard I/O Signals

  OUT.0      Keyboard Strobe/Reset  (0=Normal, 1=Initialize)

  OUT.1      Keyboard Clock         (0=LSB, 1=MSB) (1-to-0=Next Row)

  OUT.2      Tape Output?           (Should be 1 when accessing Keyboard)

  PORT0-1    Tape Input

  PORT1-4..1 Keyboard Input Bit3..0 (either MSB or LSB of current row)

 

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