Joybus Protocol

The Joybus Protocol is a proprietary, non-standard, serial protocol by which the N64's Peripheral Interface (as well as the GameCube and Game Boy Advance) communicates with controllers, controller accessories (Controller Pak, Rumble Pak, etc.), keyboards, mice, game cartridges, and other devices plugged into the console.

Operation

The protocol utilizes four types of bits: Zero, One, the Console Stop Bit, and the Controller Stop Bit. Zero, One, and the Controller Stop Bits are 4μs long, while the Console Stop Bit is 3μs. Communication is always initiated by the console, by sending an 8 bit (one byte) command to the device plugged in (not necessarily always a standard controller). A Console Stop Bit will usually follow after this command byte unless there is more data.

The controller or device will read this command and any extra data, and then respond appropriately. For example, when the console wishes to write to a Controller Pak, it will send 0x03, followed by a 2 byte address, 32 bytes of data, and then the stop bit.

The default state of the data pin is HIGH. If the connected device isn't in the process of sending a signal, it should not default to sending a HIGH signal (either set to LOW for reading, high-impedance, or disconnect). Wrongly setting the pin HIGH may disrupt the console and will prevent intermediate devices from reading any console signals.

Command List

Because all commands are exactly 8 bits long, there can be a total of 256 commands. However, only about 16 are known for the N64, and a few more for GameCube and Game Boy Advance. Games also have the ability to define custom commands with or without extra data, but official controllers or devices will not understand them.

Command	Description	Console	Devices	Tx Bytes	Rx Bytes
0xFF	Reset & Info	N64, GC, GBA	All	1	3
0x00	Info	N64, GC, GBA	All	1	3
0x01	Controller State	N64	Controller, Mouse	1	4
0x02	Read Controller Accessory	N64	Transfer, Controller, Bio Sensor, and Rumble Paks	3	33
0x03	Write Controller Accessory	N64	Transfer, Controller, Bio Sensor, and Rumble Paks	35	1
0x04	Read EEPROM	N64	Cartridge	?	?
0x05	Write EEPROM	N64	Cartridge	?	?
0x06	Read RTC(1) Status	N64	64DD, Animal Forest	?	?
0x07	Read RTC(1) Block	N64	64DD, Animal Forest	?	?
0x08	Write RTC(1) Block	N64	64DD, Animal Forest	?	?
0x09-0x0D	Unknown	N64	VRU	?	?
0x0E	Reserved			?	?
0x0F	Unknown			?	?
0x10	Reserved			?	?
0x11	Reserved			?	?
0x12	Reserved			?	?
0x13(2)	Read Keypress	N64	Randnet Keyboard	2	7
0x14(2)	Read GBA	GC, GBA	GBA	3	33
0x15(2)	Write GBA	GC, GBA	GBA	35	1
0x16-0x2F	Unknown			?	?
0x30	Force Feedback	GC	Steering Wheel	?	?
0x31-0x3F	Unknown			?	?
0x40	Short Poll	GC	Controller	?	8
0x41	Read Origin	GC	Controller	?	?
0x42	Calibrate	GC	Controller	?	?
0x43	Long Poll	GC	Controller	3	10
0x44-0x53	Unknown			?	?
0x54	Poll	GC	Keyboard	?	?
0x55-0xFE	Unknown			?	?

⁽¹⁾ Real Time Clock
⁽²⁾ Requires verification, might be offset by one.

Command Details

0xFF - Reset / Info

While identical to 0x00 in what data is returned to the console, if a device has an intended reset function, it should be performed when this command is sent. The N64 controller for example will reset the internal position of its analog stick to (0, 0), essentially recalibrating it. Other devices may have similar functionality, or none at all, but either way they should still send back the same data as if the 0x00 command was sent.

0x00 - Info

This command requests information about the device. The N64 a 2-byte identifier and 1 byte of extra data.

Identifier	Console	Device
0x0500	N64	Controller
0x0500	N64	Dancepad
0x0001	N64	VRU
0x0200	N64	Mouse
0x0002	N64	Randnet Keyboard
0x2004(1)	N64	Densha de Go
0x0004	GBA	Game Boy Advance
0x0900(1)	GC	Controller
0x8800(1)	GC	Receiver
0x8B10(1)	GC	Wavebird
0x0800(1)	GC	Steering Wheel
0x0802(1)	GC	Keyboard
0x0808(1)	GC	Dance Mat

⁽¹⁾ Requires verification yet.

0x01 - Controller State

The response for this command is always the same length of 4 bytes (32 bits), but the data it represents will change depending on the type of controller device. A Controller Stop Bit is always included after the response bytes. Note that in the following waveform diagrams, any LOW bit should send a Zero Bit as described in the operation section above. Do not hold the line LOW constantly.

Standard Controller

The most common is the standard N64 controller. In which case, the data is the current state of the inputs from the controller: the 14 buttons, the current position of the analog stick, and the reset (RST) bit. The default state of buttons and RST is Zero. If a button is pressed, it becomes One. If LT, RT, and Start are pressed, RST is One, Start becomes Zero, and the analog stick's position is reset to (0, 0). Each axis of the analog stick is a Two's Complement byte, giving a decimal value ranging from -128 to +127, even though a standard controller may not reach the full range due to physical limitations. The bit order from left to right, of the response data, is as follows:

Mouse

The mouse follows a similar format to the standard controller. However, it only uses the A and B buttons, and the x/y axis bytes represent the relative position of the mouse.

Checksums

There are two different checksums used in some of the official commands. The first is an 8 bit CRC, and the other uses eleven different XOR values based on the position of each set bit. While the former is used for large chunks of data, the latter is used to check the 11 bit address for where that data is written to or read from. These checksums are used to ensure data integrity. The address checksum, which is 5 bits long, is always a part of the communication sent from the console to the device, just after the 11 bit address.

Data CRC

The 8 bit CRC known to be used in the controller accessory read/write commands, and the GBA read/write commands. It uses a standard CRC8 function, with a seed (initial value) of 0x00, and 0x85 for the polynomial. A CRC polynomial is a mathematical way to say that a particular number is used as a mask, or to be applied to the working CRC byte using an XOR operation. The mathematical form can be expressed as $x^{7}+x^{2}+x^{0}$.

In every known case, the connected device is always the side which generates this CRC. For read commands, it reads 32 bytes of data from a particular address, calculates the CRC, and sends all 32 bytes plus the CRC byte back to the console. For write commands, it calculates the CRC from the 32 bytes sent by the console, sends the CRC byte back, and performs the write operation. The order in which it does this may differ for different devices. For write commands, the device has a window of approx 62.5 microseconds after the console stop bit, to begin sending the CRC byte.

Address Checksum

When the console wishes to read data from, or write data to, a particular address on the connected device, it will send the top 11 bits of a 16 bit address, plus a 5 bit checksum. This means these operations must be done in 32 byte chunks, as the lower 5 bits of the address are assumed to be 0, to make room for the checksum. By definition, this checksum is not a CRC, because it doesn't use a cyclic code (as in, there is no bit shifting used), and the XOR value is not constant.

The 5 bit checksum is calculated using the following table. The working checksum is initially set to zero. For each bit of the 11 address bits, starting at the upper-most bit, if the bit is set (is 1), then XOR the corresponding byte to the working checksum. If the bit is clear (is 0), do nothing and move onto the next bit.

15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5
0x01	0x1A	0x0D	0x1C	0x0E	0x07	0x19	0x16	0x0B	0x1F	0x15

If the resulting checksum matches the one provided by the console, the address is valid.

The process as pseudocode:

for bits 15 -> 5
    if the bit is set
        xor the checksum with the corresponding value in the above table