Nintendo 64 Rom swap

@ TriMesh.
the images you linked are pretty much like the quality of prates i have!
....
the ngb cartridge has the blob chips and the gbc cartridge is a better build, with a battery too!
will post images of pirate pcb's at a later date on another thread! :friendly_wink:

 

Hmm. I was trying to find more about this D19515 labeled Chip but so far I failed. It just looks unfamiliar.
So far I had seen some screenshot of CIC clones. Such as maany HK Cards with desoldered old nintendo junk. Some of them looked like ripped out of broken SNES themself and got resoldered into the Card to operate in client mode. Wierd additional parts soldered all over the board, wrong connected C1 randomizer and so on.

But this one catched my attention. I looks kinda... "clean" - Do anyone knows more?

 

Does anyone have any kind of reliable information about how Nintendo 64 reads ROM chips?? As far as I could read it sends address in 2x 16bit portions and latches it. Well judging by information I have found I'm not exactly sure about that, rather than sending it in 16bit portions it seems like lower address portion is sent in 15bit portion and AD0 is skipped for whatever reason. I have no idea which source of information is correct:
http://web.archive.org/web/20040701140601/gamesys.sourceforge.net/files/MyCart.pdf
https://web.archive.org/web/2011112...zynation.org/N64/n64_cart_info.htm#PIF Pinout:

And here's the official patent description from Nintendo but as I can see it describes the protocol of 8MB cartridge and nothing else:
http://www.google.com/patents/US6394905?hl=pl&dq=6394905+table+3
So that's about everything I could find basically.

Also, how exactly do ALEL and ALEH pins react?? Do they latch addresses on the rising/falling edge of the clock or while clock is either LOW or HIGH state?? Also, I know when /RD strobe gets from LOW to HIGH state the address latch gets incremented automatically but does it affect only first 8 bits or the entire 32 bit (or 25??) address bus??

 

Converter for Altera MAX CPLD from N64 maskrom to EEPROM (27C322)
https://github.com/JumpCallPop/N64toEEPROM

 

Krikzz is the maker of the Everdrives, a range of flash cartridges for various consoles, so that you put your game roms on an SD card, plug the SD card into an Everdrive (which is inside a normal cartridge case), plug the Everdrive into your console, turn on the console, and you get an onscreen menu, listing all of the games on the Everdrive, and you choose a game, and the console loads and plays it (the console thinks that the Everdrive is a genuine game cartridge).

The Everdrive for the N64 is called the Everdrive 64, and runs 99% of all N64 games, including saving to the SD card for games that normally save to their cartridge. It allows you to play all regions of N64 games, as long as your TV can show the image, and allows you to play game hacks and third party mods and stuff, and also the 64DD games. It's fantastic, but you might want to look at the 64Drive, as some people prefer that.

For more details, see:

http://micro-64.com/features/everdrive64.shtml

and for a list of the few incompatible games (including some working/hacks versions of the non-working games, i.e. Banjo Tooie, and Jet Force Gemini don't work, but there are hacked versions that do), go to:

http://krikzz.com/forum/index.php?topic=147.0

and the official Everdrive 64 forums is at:

http://krikzz.com/forum/index.php?board=4.0

A flash cartridge transforms your N64, as you can store all of your games on one SD card, you can play game hacks and all region games (check your TV first, if this is important to you), and you can back up/restore your controller paks (game save memory devices that plug into the joypad) to the SD card too, plus the Everdrive 64 can simulate a Gameshark cheat device. It's a brilliant addon for the N64.

 

Sure but this topic is more about swapping mask ROM in N64, not about describing Everdrive for it.

Cool, this sure will come in handy!! But since I am completely new to programming CPLDs I have very basic questions: will this work for Xilinx XC9572XL?? What software is the best to code/design CPLD chips?? Is Xilinx ISE Design Software good and enough for that?? Please for reply. Many thanks in advance!!

 

i would download ise webpack, create a new project, select the xc9572xl and pray that 72 macrocells are enough for this vhdl implementation. ^^
if it fits, you may want to read the pin description in the datasheet before assigning them randomly. ^^
http://www.xilinx.com/products/design-tools/ise-design-suite/ise-webpack.html

the max II cplds have 192 - 1700 macrocells for comparison.

 

Hey, I just figured out there is a memory that supports burst read mode and can latch addresses at the same time, so perhaps I can use it on Nintendo 64?? After all I believe I still need some extra CPLD to handle stuff but should be simpler. What do you think about that??
http://www.datasheets360.com/pdf/-6854746115370328913


Many thanks in advance!!

 

As the owner of two copies of Wonder Project J2 I'm very excited to see some development on this. I was hoping it was going to be something simple enough to do with a PIC programmer tied to a FlashROM and an OSHPark PCB or something but that sounds increasingly unlikely now that we are talking about expensive higher performance CLPDs.

 

marshallh of the 64Drive is a far more learned individual when it comes to understanding the N64. I reference you not just the 64Drive but the UltraHDMI.