Wily & Light no Rockboard translation to NES cart

Niku-Sama

First off i'd like to say, first time poster, long time lurker. i hail from DP, been there comming up on 10 years soon.

Any way as the title suggest I wanted to make my own RockBoard cart, using Dr.Cossak's translated rom, on the nes. I've never done such a thing but I am no stranger to electronics, I usually just repair. I've got plenty of tools, the basics such at a DMM and adjustable temp soldering irons to some less basic things as an o-scope, arduino stuff and desoldering items (manual not vaccum sadly) so i think i am covered there, kind of a werid intoduction but i tinker and fix stuff time to time, and i havent started at a new message board in a long time.

any way heres the famicom cart in the NES DB

http://bootgod.dyndns.org:7777/profile.php?id=4517

i do own a famicom copy of this cart too by the way. it was a pain to get.

any way judging from its layout, 3 chip; 1 MASK, 1 8kb of SRAM and 1 the MM3C mapper. to go to the nes i would need a similar lay out. it of course would be 4 chip; 1 CIC, 1 MASK, 1 8kb SRAM and MM3C mapper. MegaMan 4 seems like it would be the easy way out its exactly what i would need to do the swap, change out the MASK and be done but that kind of seems like a waste of a good game. i kinda wanted to use a crappy game and give it new life as something else that may or may not suck as much so thats where i am at a loss.

when using a game that uses mappers do i have to get one thats MMC3C or could i use a game that was MMC3A or MMC3B? basicly whats the difference between A B or C? were they adding features or were they manufacturing revisions that just improved the overall design of the chip as they went on to cut costs or something?

another thing i was wondering about is on other carts that have 2 mask roms in both U1 and U2 spots can i replace both, one with a new rom on a 32 pin dip and the other with the 28 pin dip sram? oi this is a hard think to ask indirectly...say for instance i use Super Spike V'Ball http://bootgod.dyndns.org:7777/profile.php?id=731 can i replace both of those chips, since they are both 128kb mask roms, with one 256k mask (32pin) and one 8kb sram (28 pin)?

krankcolc

I don't know the technical aspects of it, but I do know you can use something cheaper than MM4. I had one made for me a couple years ago and he only charged me $5 more than a usual repro. Good luck in your quest. It's a pretty fun game.

Niku-Sama

so I take it since you say you didn't know the technical aspect of it you wouldn't happen to remember the game used as a donor cart by chance?

last night after I posted this I sourced some sony 8kb SRAM was a little faster at 100 or 120ns but minimum quantity was 60 pieces, it was cheap, about 10 cents a chip but I don't know how often I am going to need 8kb 28pin dip sram chips in the future, they are getting harder to find though...i'll keep looking, if I can find a place that has other ICs I want for other projects and 1117 VRMs for the tv I would like to repair that would be best

Lincoln

You can use a superspike v'ball (or any other TL/TS/TKROM cart) an early SMB2 and replace the chr rom with a ram chip. You will have to jumper some pins to get the connections right, but it's doable. This is actually how we do Final Fantasy 3 on a NES cart, minus the battery circuit. In this case I'd actually recommend starting with a TSROM cart like Bo Jackson  SMB2 wiith a full set of pins on the cart edge.  It has a wram chip that you will not need for your project, so you can pull it and use it as chr-ram.



Here are the instructions for the chr-ram (simplified from original FF3 instructions):



set pin 1 in hole 3

pin 20 (/CE1) -> hole 31

pin 22 (/OE) -> hole 2

pin 26 (CE2) -> hole 32 (5v)

pin 27 (R/W) -> cart edge 56



pin 56 is a dummy that's not connected to anything, so you'll have to jumper the wire right to the pin and probably trim the plastic on the shell to allow room for the wire.



The early run SMB2 carts are the only NES MMC3 carts with pin 56. You can use any other TxROM board but you'll have to add that pin somehow, and that usually is ugly.

here's the FF3 thread for reference: http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=22&threadid=81242



and for quick reference a 256K eprom in the prg slot would be

pin 1 up

pin 2 (a16) -> hole 24

pin 24 (/OE) -> GND (hole/pin 16 usually);

pin 30 (a17) -> hole 1





MMC3A/B/B(s)/C rarely make a difference. There are only a couple extensive hacks that are picky afaik.

Niku-Sama

sweet thanks for the info.

any suggestions on programmers?

I was checking one out on ebay, Chinese special for about $55 U.S. for the unit plus some adapters to use different format eproms. the main unit it self was able to handle up to 40 pin dip and it covered a wide array of different chips and manufacturers

speaking of chips I am waiting on a quote for the 8k sram, if they are cheap enough I don't mind buying in bulk but at the same time I don't want several hundred. I e-mailed the place that has 60 on hand and like I said before it was about 10 cents a chip, we'll see if they still have em I guess. I also as a kid kept a TON of old ceramic windowed eproms. just because I thought they were cool when I was younger. so far none of them are big enough but hopefully i'll find a good one

Lincoln

I use a top853. It only supports 8-bit 32 pin chips and you need win xp to operate it, but it's super easy to use. That effectively covers NES games and a good chunk of SNES games. If you need something more robust, I think everyone gets a GQ-4X. That will likely be my purchase when it's time to upgrade.