Hi everyone reading this. Like many others I decided to take on repro-ing some of my favorite games just for the sure fun of it. I have done a fair amount of research and feel like I have a general understanding. I am just looking for any advice in some/all areas. I will list the steps from what i understand, any help clarifying things i may have overlooked would be a great help. for Star Ocean 1. Get game and remove chip. 2. Get the rom and remove header and split into a 4mb file. (mmmonkey uses a splitter that makes the 4mbit a single file. Midari from retrohacker.info uses swapbin from SnesRomUtil that removes header and make four 1mbit files) are both the same? and if so has anyone used swapbin and had it work? 3. program a 29L3211 eprom with the 4mbit file or 4x 1mbit files. using GQ-4X with an adapator i.e ADP-054 16 Bit EPROM 40/42 pin ZIF adapter V3 for Willem 4. install chip save leg 1, 23 and 33 as they get 3.3v through the use of a regulator. put 100 nf cap on volt regulator. and that should be it summed up. some of my questions. using the splitter i got from a link on mmmonkey's site it splits the file into a CHUNK001 file, where as the SnesRomUtil swapbin make 4 .bin files. will both files write to the eprom like that? someone commented that the bad checksum in Star Ocean did not need to be fixed for it to work. Sorry for the lack of knowledge in almost everything and thanks to numerous sources that helped me understand the small amount I do thus far.
I could have done better, though I was just so excited to give it a try for the first time. It will be a nice add to my collection. The hair dryer is because I found the TV I am using outside in the rain. (got to love military people for throwing good stuff away)
I'm actually keen to give this a go myself once uni is over, as I can't justify paying the prices you see on eBay for repros of unreleased games.
I would definitely give it a go. I bought the game for like 350 yen and the overall cost was about 10 dollars for everything I needed. This is also my first time doing any soldering on a circuit board and with watching videos from youtube on drag solder etc it really was not that hard. As you can tell im not a pro though I just needed it to work. It was more for the experience of doing it more than anything else. if you are interested I used this and its pretty much the only sites you need to get going. http://www.mmmonkey.co.uk/cheaper-super-mario-rpg-cartridge/ http://retrohacker.info/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=20
Yes if you wanted to do this solely by yourself the hardware is pricey. By that I mean the GQ-4x with the adapter. The rest is pretty cheap as in game, soldering supplies, eprom and other small components. Bad_Ad84 maybe able to help you with some stuff if you ask. I learned how to rip the rom etc just for personal knowledge.
I planned to begin with NES reproduction as it seems they are no to hard to do and I also found this nice detailed tutorial for it. http://callanbrown.com/index.php/basic-nes-reproduction
I'm sorry for bumping this thread (I'll open mine if it's a problem), but I'm trying to make the same mod, and I have a black screen . My board seems good so I'm guessing there's something wrong with my binnaries. here what I've done: - got the translated rom - got the checksum right with ucon64 - (tried to split the correct rom with "File Splitter", having 2 chunk files. Unfortunately, my GQ-4X kept falling the verif) - So I split into multiple files of 1Mo+ remove header with snesROMUtil + swap bin - copied the 4 first file into a single on with the command "Copy /B file1.bin+file2.bin+file3.bin+file4.bin final.bin" - burnt the bin file, and had a verif successful. Did I make something wrong? (yes, the original cart was working) EDIT: Ho, I saw a post of Bad_AD84 on the MCUMall forum about the ADP-019. I'm gonna try to add a 100nf capa between pin 23 and 32. EDIT 2: I lowered the 2.2k resistor on the ADP-019 to 1.2k + added a 100nf capa. Seems fine now, I'll retry to solder the rom tomorrow.
Ok I gave up. I must be dumb or something. I've tried 3 times and it's a No. I'm still having a black screen. Now my board is a mess (3 dead traces). The rom is playing nicely on Higan and Snes9X. There's no header on my SFC file. I've tried: - Start from the SFC file, correct the checksum with ucon64, split with "File Splitter" like mmmonkey then burn the 1rst 4Mo chunk, - Start from the SFC file, correct the checksum with ucon64, split with "snesromutil" with the command "swap bin", this making 6*1Mo bin files, then: a) copied the 4 first files into a single one with the command "Copy /B file1.bin+file2.bin+file3.bin+file4.bin final.bin" b) use GQ USB Prog to combine files a) and b) are giving the same file, and are different from the original SFC file from at some point (so I supposed these are not correct) The 4mo chunk and the a/b are not the same file (and identical to the SFC file except the size/cut at 4mo). The chips seems to be correctly soldered (even the dead traces, wrapped with kynar) I have 3.3v on the chip on pin 23, 33 and 1. There's a 100nf capa on the regulator. So any ideas? EDIT OMG IT WORKS!!!!!!!!!!
Details and pictures so anyone else who has similar issues knows what you did, congrats on your first repro.
Ok here's the ugly thing: 5 dead traces. That b*tch made me sweat. So, this was a combination of multiple factors: - First, the ADP-019 for the GQ-4X has to be modify: The small 2.2k resistor has to be reduced. By chance, I had a spare 1.2K resistance. Also, Bad_Ad84 posted on the MCUmall's forum that adding a 100nf capa between VCC and GND as close as possible from the socket. I don't know if this is good, but from that point the verficiation of programmed chips went whitout error. So I could use the image from chunk file, with correct checksum and splited with "File Splitter" like mmmonkey.
Upgrade from that GQ-4X, I had the GQ-3X and had the adapters for it and I could never get it to verify the tsop chips until I used a home made adapter and their adapters I paid alot for didn't work. I upgraded to a better universal programmer since then and have had little to no issues.
Well the GQ-4X is brand new so I think I'll keep it until I've totally mastered the art of burning chips and move on when my needs will be enought to get something else. Right now for making reproduction, burning bios/pic it's more than enought. As long the adapters are working.
I had a few issues with a black screen as well. It wasn't till I took a closer look at the contact points closer. The ripping and burning of the file is pretty straight forward. Looking at the picture I would take a closer look at the soldering. I completed 4 games now and all of them had some small solder issue or lifted leg or something to that extent. I would say again try again.
Hi sorry for the late response. My problem was the chips was not correctly programmed because the adapter ADP-19 for my programmer GQ-4X has to be modified. I destoyed a lot of traces because of the multiple reheat/resolder. Since then it works perfrectly. I've also bought a SMD reworking station and now I can chain those kind of repro easly: (there's also a Secret of Mana 2 + Super CIC key on the top right)
