N64 Test Center Cartridge

Ahh, that's a godo point - I didn't know that. How much would a V64 Jr. cost and where can I get one? I'm going to have a decent bonus rolling in this September, so I can probably afford one.

 

Got mines for 60 pounds (256 mbits).
But I think you can dump carts with a game shark as well? And those go for like 10 bucks (euros) on ebay.

 

I'm sure you can dump a lot of cartridges with a Gameshark. The Nintendo 64 Test Cartridge is not one of them. I've already tried.

 

Eww. .

Hm. Tricky.
Does it boot up with the Doctor V64 under the N64? Or does it black screen?

 

Don't give the board a JTAG header, there's absolutely nothing you could do with the fusemap, all you can hope for is possibly devaluing the item.

Also I REALLY think you can dump the program ROM with a Game Shark unless there's a hardware conflict, both the Game Shark and V64 Jr dump the exact same way through the N64 itself, so there isn't anything it can't dump. Stand alone backup units like V64 just seem to have problems with bus protocol, I don't think the ROM has to be "unlocked", there's no way that could be enforced and there'd be no reason either.

 

What if the Test Cart executes from an internal RAM?
As in, "streams" the commands to the N64 on demand. Would make sense, you can't rely on the DRAM because it could be faulty / damaged. Thus, you use a PIC (or a FPGA or whatever would work) to act as a proxy and as the N64 "pilot".¨*But*
that would mean the only way for the N64 to communicate with the test cart would be through the CART interrupt. Does it make sense?

@Moog : Im pretty sure it is, but could you check if the cart has the CART interrupt pin mapped?

EDIT : @Calpis : RIGHT! TIMINGS! Domain 2 has different timings! Doc V64 has also I suppose. Noone said the Test cart has "standard" timings (that is, the standard 8 bytes of the usual ROM).

 

Some of it made sense.. even if it streamed data, the N64 would read it from normal address space, and it wouldn't matter where the memory is physically located.

On DRAM you lost me.. what DRAM? And where is the "pilot" you're thinking about located? I really doubt the FPGA contains a uC core.

To a ROM timing doesn't matter, so I don't think V64 (or Z64) use anything close to N64 timing at all, or even the same control signal protocol which is the problem. Maybe the V64 reads the cart as all 00s because it's sampling at a bad time like the rising edge of /RD without using a transparent latch, yet it works with mask ROMs, just not the counter implementation in flash carts... it's something like that.

Also for the V64 to correctly detect the cart size, it has to be able to read the data to determine mirroring, so it must come up with 64M as the default smallest game size (or the cart would dump as 1 byte).

 

Typo : meant RDRAM, sorry xD.
The "pilot" is what i would call the Altera chip (because it's an altera, isn't it moog ? ), in light of my considerations.

Exactly! That's why I think Moog wouldn't have the same problems dumping the cart with a v64jr. May be faster / cheaper than sending the stuff to the other side of the world..
Although surely only as half as funny

 

Again, I've tried dumping it with a Gameshark. It won't boot up when it's plugged into a Gameshark.

The combinations of things that I've tried:

Test Cartridge -> N64 -> Diagnostics start up fine, cartridge is not broken
Test Cartridge -> Doctor V64 -> No red light, unsuccessful read (open bus)
Test Cartridge -> Gameshark -> Red light, won't boot
Working cartridge -> Gameshark -> Hold the 'Reset' button on the N64 -> Swap on another working cartridge -> Release 'Reset' button -> New cartridge works fine
Working cartridge -> Gameshark -> Hold the 'Reset' button on the N64 -> Swap on the Test Cartridge -> Screen goes black as soon as the cartridge is on
Test Cartridge -> N64 on top of Doctor V64 -> Turn on N64 -> Hit the Play button to break into the Doctor V64's menu -> Dump cartridge -> No red light, unsuccessful read (garbage)

Basically, it's not going to get dumped until I send it off to Guru to have its flash ROMs desoldered, dumped, resoldered, and sent back to me. The $250 that I paid for the cartridge is not so great that I would be unwilling to risk it inadvertantly being destroyed in the process of dumping it as long as there's a reasonable chance the dump is successful, and the fact that Guru would be dumping it makes that chance as near to 100% as possible. I disagree with potentially devaluing other peoples' cartridges, though, so rest assured that I would do my best to not spread the ROM around.

 

*faints* 250 bucks? xD
Reminds me of the old times when I used to spend shitload of cash on N64 stuff

 

any news on this?

 

I wish. Up until a couple weeks ago I was busy as hell at work, and it hasn't been until the past few days that I've been able to get back into the swing of things as far as N64-related stuff goes. I'll see if I can get it shipped off to .au once I get paid this Thursday.