I am curious as to how only 2 wires (perhaps 3 or 4) inside a N64 or Wii gamepad are able to send the many signals of the different inputs at once.
It used to be that for just one ON/OFF input, we needed two wires. So why does it not take dozens of wires for the many inputs on a modern gamepad?
Best Answer
So the Wii Joystick uses a Blue Tooth interface which is a little different than the N64 controller. As a result this answer deals more with the latter than the former.
The N64 controller uses a single transmission wire on which it encodes bits to send signals back to the N64 console. To accomplish this bits are encoded on that wire as follows:
This encoding can then be used to multiplex the connection and allow 32 bit communication. In the case of the N64 controller these bits are encoded thus:
With the remaining 16 bits being used for the Analog Joystick (providing 8 degrees of control).
More over, certain codes are transmitted for specialized function:
You can find more information in this vein here