Comment 7 for bug 819774

ia32-libs-dev missing in Ubuntu. You should replace ia32-libs-dev on ia32-libs and add lib32stdc++6 in build-depends.

I think you should look at this ppa: https://launchpad.net/~smaxein/+archive/ppa

znses build on ubuntu natty. (amd64 and i386).

http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/pool/main/z/zsnes/zsnes_1.510+bz2-1.debian.tar.gz

control file in Debian:

Build-Depends:
 debhelper (>= 8),
 nasm,
 libsdl1.2-dev (>= 1.2.2-3.1),
 sharutils,
 libpng12-dev | libpng-dev,
 autotools-dev,
 zlib1g-dev [i386] | lib32z1-dev [amd64],
 libao-dev [i386],
 dpkg-dev (>= 1.13.2),
 gcc-multilib [amd64],
 g++-multilib [amd64],
 ia32-libs-dev [amd64]
Standards-Version: 3.9.1
Vcs-Git: git://git.debian.org/pkg-games/zsnes.git
Vcs-Browser: http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-games/zsnes.git

Package: zsnes
Architecture: i386 amd64
Depends: ${shlibs:Depends}, ${misc:Depends}

In ppa control file:

https://launchpad.net/~smaxein/+archive/ppa/+files/zsnes_1.510%2Bbz2-2%7Eppa6.debian.tar.gz

Build-Depends:
 debhelper (>= 8),
 nasm,
 libsdl1.2-dev (>= 1.2.2-3.1),
 sharutils,
 libpng12-dev | libpng-dev,
 autotools-dev,
 zlib1g-dev [i386] | lib32z1-dev [amd64],
 libao-dev [i386],
 dpkg-dev (>= 1.13.2),
 gcc-multilib [amd64],
 g++-multilib [amd64],
 ia32-libs [amd64],
 lib32stdc++6 [amd64],
 quilt
Standards-Version: 3.9.1
Vcs-Git: git://git.debian.org/pkg-games/zsnes.git
Vcs-Browser: http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-games/zsnes.git

Package: zsnes
Architecture: i386 amd64
Depends: ${shlibs:Depends}, ${misc:Depends}

Also exist patch:

0009-hat-events.patch:

Index: zsnes-git/src/linux/sdllink.c
===================================================================
--- zsnes-git.orig/src/linux/sdllink.c 2011-01-27 16:39:27.543274001 +0100
+++ zsnes-git/src/linux/sdllink.c 2011-01-28 12:50:05.743614935 +0100
@@ -307,6 +307,8 @@
           case SDL_HAT_UP:
             pressed[offset + 3] = 1;
             pressed[offset + 2] = 0;
+ pressed[offset + 1] = 0;
+ pressed[offset + 0] = 0;
             break;
           case SDL_HAT_RIGHTUP:
             pressed[offset] = 1;
@@ -317,6 +319,8 @@
           case SDL_HAT_RIGHT:
             pressed[offset] = 1;
             pressed[offset + 1] = 0;
+ pressed[offset + 2] = 0;
+ pressed[offset + 3] = 0;
             break;
           case SDL_HAT_RIGHTDOWN:
             pressed[offset] = 1;
@@ -326,6 +330,8 @@
             break;
           case SDL_HAT_DOWN:
             pressed[offset + 2] = 1;
+ pressed[offset + 0] = 0;
+ pressed[offset + 1] = 0;
             pressed[offset + 3] = 0;
             break;
           case SDL_HAT_LEFTDOWN:
@@ -337,6 +343,8 @@
           case SDL_HAT_LEFT:
             pressed[offset + 1] = 1;
             pressed[offset] = 0;
+ pressed[offset + 2] = 0;
+ pressed[offset + 3] = 0;
             break;
           case SDL_HAT_LEFTUP:
             pressed[offset + 1] = 1;