EMSpy Program
This program can read controller data from an input display device (or my adapter), and show the controller information on the screen (see below).
This is an alternative to NintendoSpy, and can be used with the same skins. It currently supports NES, SNES, N64 and GameCube controllers.
EMSpy in use with N64 controller
How to use
EMSpy is a standalone executable. To use EMSpy, simply extract the EMSpy program into the same directory as the "skins" directory, and run the program. (The same as you would with NintendoSpy)
EMSpy should theoretically work with any skins and input display hardware that NintendoSpy works with.
Why?
Sometimes NintendoSpy can have an issue known as "flickering" or "blinking". The idea behind EMSpy was to eliminate this.
My understanding is, this flickering issue can actually come from 2 places:
- Software issue: The hardware sends the correct data, but the software "corrupts" the received data
- Hardware issue: The hardware misdetects the controller data and sends this to the software
EMSpy was an attempt to eliminate the issues caused by problem 1. If you still have flickering issues with EMSpy, and are not using my adapter, it's possible that your device is sending the wrong data sometimes (problem 2). Unfortunately, this is impossible to "fix" on the software side, as we can't retrieve the lost data.
Note that whilst the software can't "fix" these bad packets if the device is already sending bad data, it should be possible to detect and discard these packets to eliminate all flickering entirely. I'm still looking into this, so look out for future updates.
In addition to fixing these issues, there are some other features of EMSpy:
- Fast 60Hz maximum refresh rate (will be less for games where the controller is polled less frequently)
- Automatic reconnect is attempted if device gets disconnected
- Your settings are automatically saved, and loaded next time you start the program
- There is a version compiled for Linux
- If using a V2 adapter, you can also view and navigate the menu