The long and short of Famiclone controllers.

More often than not Famiclone controllers have exceedingly short leads, forcing users to sit close to the system. This hearkens back to the days of the Nintendo Famicom and its own short controller leads. But luckily, since most Famiclones use a standard DB9 connection for controller input, there is a cheap and easy way to quickly add length to any Famiclone controller.

The other day I was rummaging through a box of old video game controllers when I came across a Sega Genesis controller extension. At first I didn't think much of the simple wire, but later that afternoon I had pulled out one of my Famiclones and remembered just how short the controller leads are! It took me a few seconds to mentally fit everything together but soon after I was heading back to that box to dig out that extension cable.

The extension cable is a simple point-to-point pass through, so it can be used interchangeably with any system or controller using the DB9 connection. You simply plug your Famiclone, Sega Genesis, Master System or even Atari controllers into the one end of the cable and the other end goes into the system, its as simple as that. This particular cable adds an additional 10 feet to any given controller I use it with; while 10 feet may sound excessive its much better than the 12 inches most Famiclone controllers give you.

Shortly before publishing this article I checked to make sure I was being factual with everything said herein, and I didn't make a complete ass of myself merely running on assumption. I tested the extension cable on almost every Famiclone I own and only had issues when a cartridge was plugged into a handheld, such as my Super Joy, Power Joy and Vs. Maxx systems, player 2 functions seemed to work for built-in games on these units though. But the same issues did not occur when I used the extension cable on the exact same cartridge in an actual system with 2 controller ports, as opposed to built-in controller 1 and a single port for player 2.