N64 Test Cartridge Development PROTOTYPE

Hey Guys,

Well,
I'm sure many of you...at one time or another, have seen a picture of the very Rare "N64 Test Cartridge"
as the one shown below: (NESWORLD website.)





Well, I recently acquired something that I believe is pretty Frekin Rare.
What I obtained is the Development "Prototype" version of this N64 Test Cartridge.

Now there are people that do have these, I'm not the only one.... and I've seen some Videos on YouTube of them....but I have not been able to find many Photos of it.... or any of the internal PCB anywhere online.

So I decided to take a bunch of photos of the one I have, and share them with you here.
Let you all have a sneak peak.


N64 Test Cartridge PROTOTYPE:






HI RES.... (Notice the Top interface connector)











Notice that each FLASH chip has it's own JUMPER.
(Programming Enable most likely...I haven't checked the SHARP Flash Datasheets to be sure.)










Anyhow,
A pretty cool little Prototype Unit and thought you all might get a Kick out of checking out some Photos.

I'm planning on hooking up my Logic Analyzer to the TOP Interface connector and seeing what type of Data is being routed there. Potentially just the Flash chips DATABUS and controller pins. A couple of sites have mentioned there is a JTAG interface there for the Altera memory controller. There are traces visible to the CPLD, so that's quite possible.

Gona have to check it out!
Fun Stuff!

Cheers! Folks,
-Gerry

 

Wow, very cool!

 

They had to do something with all those spare Virtual Boy edge connectors.

 

Nice man! Actually, I have seen the Rev-A cartridge. It was on ebay not too long ago for around $1000. Don't know who bought it.

 

Ohh! The one of the regular N64 Test Cartridge?....yes...I did see that one on eBay also.

I wonder if there are different revisions of the Prototype Dev cart version though?......like the larger Prototype cartridge that I've shown here?

I hope others that do have one, could post some photos.

It would be interesting to see the PCBA differences. A different Altera CPLD chip perhaps?

-Gerry

 

Does anyone know what the Japanese writing on the cartridge label translates to in English ?

EDIT: Gilgamesh pointed this out: コントローラ (controller)

Cheers!
-Gerry

 

So I took a moment to check into the possibility of there being a JTAG interface routed to the TOP connector of this Prototype version.... However, I then realized that this cartridge has the original Altera EPM7128 CPLD.

This early release of the Altera MAX7000 family of logic devices, did not provide a dedicated JTAG port for ISP programming. This was only later supported with models such as the "EPM7128S".

The "S" suffix indicated JTAG support.

EPM = Altera MAX Family signiture.
7128 = Device Type (Macro cell Count =128)
S = JTAG Support.
Q = Quad Flat Pack
C = Commercial Grade.
100 = Pin count



These older EPM7128 model of CPLD's required a special Altera programming unit called the "Altera MPU" or
(Master Programming Unit) to program their Logic design onto the CPLD device. However, you could also use certain Universal Programmers that supported Altera brand devices. These special U-programmers were the higher end systems and most of them costs thousands of Dollars to purchase.
They were not cheap. (Hence the desire for JTAG supported devices.)


Shown here below are some Datasheet specs from the Altera MAX Databooks released in the 90's.
As you can see... the later release of the EPM7128S logic device, a dedicated JTAG Interface was provided for ISP programming.





The Initial Release of the EPM7128
(NO JTAG SUPPORT)



So for this particular Prototype, with the fact it is populated with the "EPM7218"..... there is no JTAG interface to be used.

My guess is that the routed I/O ports from the CPLD to the TOP connector, are most likely used for a UART of some sort, that is Implemented within the CPLD logic design. I'll eventually run some Logic scans on the TOP connector and see what I find.

Digital JaZZ!!
Fun Stuff!

-Gerry

 

I just noticed that @Jackhead has a similar type of Dev Cart..... posted back in 2013:
https://assemblergames.com/threads/jackheads-n64-dev-collection.47728/

As you can see His cart is an earlier model from 1995. The model I have is dated 1996.



@Jackhead
If you read this.....do you think you can post some photos of your Dev carts PCBA ?
I would be very curious to see the hardware differences.

Also is the Test Menu the same as the Photos I posted for my unit?

Cheers!
-Gerry

 

Hey... I believe I own that cart now and it contains Famista 64
... I'll see if I can dig it out and make some pictures

http://nesworld.com/prototype-details.php?system=n64&data=150

 

Hi @nesworld,

That's interesting how you mention that these were potentially programmed using a VirtualBoy writer.

Do you have a link showing this particular writer hardware?

-Gerry

 

Great find @Gerry_MAN, and thank you for the pics
Does this cart contain the standard N64 Test Cartridge menu/options, or just the Controller Checker portion?
Also curious if you have tried to dump it at all? I only ask because as far as I know all attempts to dump the standard N64 Test Cartridges have failed, but since your prototype version looks similar to dev carts which are dumpable I thought it might be interesting to try.

 

Hi Link83,
My version only has the Controller checker portion.

Yeah, I've been meaning to do that.
Just so many other priorities on the "To do" list.

-Gerry