Reproduction Carts Thread

We kind of hijacked someone elses thread so lets have a formal thread dedicated to the making of and showing of your repro work.


In addition lets consolidate information about 'how' to produce repros, I know we have some members with much more knowledge than I have (I only really do NES, my understanding is Genesis can have chips dropped in 1:1 depending on donor size used) and it would be nice if we banded together to just have one source of information.


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Nintendo Entertainment System / Famicom
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A good source of info for figuring out compatible donors is Bootgod's NesCartDb
http://bootgod.dyndns.org:7777/


This listing is from http://nesdev.com/NES EPROM Conversions.txt, some parts are considered outdated. Amendments have been noted in bold


Using EPROMs in place of NES Mask ROMS:


27CXXX series EPROMs,
27C64, 27C128, 27C256, 27C512, 27C010, 27C020, 27C040
27c101 can be used but you must bridge Pin31 to a 5v source, generally Pin32 will work.
Note that these chips may not work for CHR roms due to access speed


NROM (mapper 0):
No modifications nessesary


CNROM (mapper 3):
No modifications nessesary


UNROM (mapper 2):
Bend up pins 1, 2, 24 and 31
Solder pin 2 to hole 22 (A16) Board Hole 22 will be under Pin 24 if using 27c010+
Solder pin 24 to GND (OE)
Recommended to bend Pin 32 up and connect it to Pin 30 (5v)
If using 27c010 or larger chips, the chip will overhang the PCB


SNROM (mapper 1):
Bend up pins 1, 2, 24, 30 and 31 (or cut tracks 2, 24 and 30)
Solder pin 2 to hole 24 (A16)
Solder pin 24 to GND (OE)
Solder pin 30 to hole 1 (A17) ONLY NECESSARY IF USING 27C020 or 27C040


SNROM -> SVROM Conversion (mapper 1):
Bend up pins 1, 2, 24, 30, and 31 (or cut tracks 2, 24, 30 and 31)
Solder pin 2 to hole 24 (A16)
Solder pin 24 to GND (OE)
Solder pin 30 to hole 1 ONLY NECESSARY IF USING 27C020 or 27C040


Cut track from MMC1 pin 11 to WRAM pin 20
Solder pin 31 to pin 11 of MMC1 chip (A18)
Solder pin 20 of WRAM to Ground (CE (E1) or CHR /A13)


SLROM (mapper 1):
PRG socket:
Bend up pins 1, 2, 24, 30 and 31 (or cut tracks)
Solder pin 2 to hole 24 (A16)
Solder pin 24 to GND (OE)
Solder pin 30 to hole 1 (A17) ONLY NECESSARY IF USING 27C020 or 27C040

CHR socket:
Bend up pins 1, 2, 22, 24, 30 and 31 (or cut tracks)
Solder pin 2 to hole 24 (A16)
Solder pin 22 to hole 31 (CE or CHR /A13)
Solder pin 24 to hole 2 (OE or CHR /RD)


TKROM & TSROM & TLROM (mapper 4):
PRG socket:
Bend up pins 1, 2, 24, 30 and 31 (or cut tracks 2, 24, 30 and 31)
Solder pin 2 to hole 24 (A16)
Solder pin 24 to GND (OE)
Solder pin 30 to hole 1 (A17) ONLY NECESSARY IF USING 27C020 or 27C040
Solder pin 31 to hole 2 (A18)

CHR socket:
Bend up pins 1, 2, 22, 24, 30, 31 (or cut tracks 2, 22, 24 and 30)
Solder pin 2 to hole 24 (A16)
Solder pin 22 to hole 31 (CE or CHR /A13)
Solder pin 24 to hole 2 (OE or CHR /RD)
Solder pin 30 to hole 1 (A17) ONLY NECESSARY IF USING 27C020 or 27C040



TKROM -> TNROM conversion (mapper 4):
PRG socket:
Bend up pins 1, 2, 24, 30 and 31 (or cut tracks 2, 24, 30 and 31)
Solder pin 2 to hole 24 (A16)
Solder pin 24 to GND (OE)
Solder pin 30 to hole 1 (A17) ONLY NECESSARY IF USING 27C020 or 27C040
Solder pin 31 to hole 2 (A18)
CHR RAM conversion:
Seat the RAM chip 2 pins back (pin 1 of RAM is pin 3 of socket)
cut track to hole 3, 22, 24, 28 and 29
Solder pin 1 to hole 30 (+5V)
Solder pin 20 to hole 31 (CE or CHR /A13)
Solder pin 22 to hole 2 (OE or CHR /RD)
Solder pin 26 to hole 28 (+5V or RESET)
Solder pin 27 to NES pin 56 (CHR /WR), you will probably need to glue in the missing tab on the PC board that goes into the NES, I used a thin piece of metal and super glued it, then sanded it with fine sand paper


UNROM -> AOROM conversion (mapper 7):
Bend up pins 1, 2, 24, 30 and 31
remove '32 chip
cut track to pin 6 of '161
Solder pin 2 to pin 13 of '161 (A16)
Solder pin 18 to pin 6 of '161 (D4)
Solder pin 24 to GND (OE)
Solder pin 30 to pin 12 or '161 (A17)
Bridge gap between pins 10 and 11 where '32 was (A14)
Bridge gap between pins 3 and 13 where '32 was (A15)
remove solder gap for either V or H
Solder NES pin 22 (CIRAM A10) to pin 11 of '161


Much of the wiring is based purely on chip type as the larger EPROMs don't match 1:1 with the Mask Roms. The general rewiring will work in most non-listed board types as well (ie. HVC-FKROM).

When choosing donors you may find that some have an extra chip (ie. TLROM vs TSROM), which is an extra 8kb of memory used by the PRG. My understanding is that having the extra chip will not affect a repro that does not use that chip (ie. a TLROM game should work on TSROM) as the PRG will simply bypass it without use, but this will not work in reverse obviously.


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Super Nintendo Entertainment System / Famicom
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Sega Genesis
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Nintendo Gameboy
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please contribute additional information below and this post will be amended, also feel free to add photos of your ongoing work / post labels / etc.

 

I know the question has been asked umpteen times, but is there a decent, cheap programmer available? I hear people recommending Willems for lower budget, but then also see talk of people completely unable to get them to work. I don't mind too much it taking a few tries for a success burn over paying at least double for a more reliable one.

 

There are a few different type of willems.

The GQ-4X is properly USB based and isnt the same as the cheap para ones. I had one of those for quite awhile before upgrading to a professional programmer.

 

I'm especially interested in doing Sega repros. Also people often used flash base products as well right?

 

I use a Top853 programmer, it's sufficient for the repros I do and is pretty cheap on ebay.

edit: this one is from the same seller I used, $35.99 free shipping

http://www.ebay.com/itm/TOP853-USB-...081?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2570285bc9

 

It depends on the type of repro you're doing. I have not done Genesis repros, but afaik, they are 1:1 drop-in if you use the proper EPROM, depending on the size of the rom in the original board

 

Aside from the random few bugs I've had (it can't identify some PICs but writes to them just fine and the software has issues verifying some PICs as well but they work fine?) I love my GQ-4X. What is it you sport Bad_Ad84?

There probably should be sub notes for some reproductions as well such as the FF2 translation patch commonly used has a bug the fading text that doesn't happen on most emulators. There is a patch to fix this. Mario Adventure(?) is a hack for SMB3 that also has some problems on real hardware. There is a patch that supposedly fixes the main problem of getting it to boot but it also seems to need later revisions of the MMC3 chip to properly function. Simply replacing SMB3's PRG mask rom with an appropriately patched and burnt EPROM doesn't work as I found out.

More or less. You need to byteswap the ROM before burning it and if the ROM is above a certain size (I don't know what exactly but 2mb/16mbit files qualify) you'll need to attach external wires to connect A18, A19, A20 IIRC. Might be A17-19 but don't ever take my word for anything and please confirm before you play around. You don't need to do nearly as much extra work to a Genesis cart as you do NES or SNES.

 

http://www.dataman.com/featured/dataman-48pro-universal-isp-programmer.html

(+20% VAT btw)

PIC issue with the GQ-4X is a software bug and can/will eventually be fixed. Id suggest posting on the forum or emailing the support address - otherwise it will never get fixed.

 

I can vouch for the Top853, derekb recommended to me as well, and so far I haven't had any issues. The software is pretty straightforward as well.

Some relevant things to maybe add:

Make TNROM without adding extra pin (you will still need to add a battery, but this will last longer):
http://www.nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=22&threadid=81242

SNES: make StarFox 2 reproduction:
http://snesdev.romhack.de/sf2.htm

UNROM to UOROM:
http://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=9215

 

If you only want to program low end eproms, its not a bad deal. but it doesnt look like it supports much else.

 

It's pretty basic, and definitely not a professional unit, but for less than $40, it gets the job done. Perfect for a hobbyist, or someone just testing out the waters. It's also USB powered, so no need to look for a computer that has a serial port.

I do wish it supported ST EPROMs. Those seem to be the most common, and the cheapest. But besides that, I'm a happy camper.

 

It doesnt support many pic or atmel MCU's - so its not very good for a hobbyist IMO, as most want to program those. Its only good for making repros or anything that involves small eproms.

If that is your only goal - then its a good buy. But personally id pay the little extra.

 

this isn't for selling just discussion on creating your own

yeah, the Top853 is not for an all-in-one solution, but for basic eprom burning it gets the job done on a budget + an enclosure

 

I don't think guides are the best idea. All relevant information is out there already. All you need is the pinout. All these bend this pin, solder this pin, etc is totally unnecessary. Just have the MaskROM pinout and if you cannot figure out what to do, then should they really be doing this? It isn't rocket science. Sadly because of "how-to" guides you have alot of people trying to make big money selling bootlegs. Ex: Earthbound SNES bootlegs are seen on eBay now. Someone posted here recently about paying $130 or something like that for a loose Earthbound cartridge and when they received it they discovered it was a bootleg. Just a thought.

 

guess I can see your point on that, upto assembler

 

this is a great theme for people who want to do for their use. But sadly there are a lot out there creating repros for the common market, especially on ebay. I haven't tried to do a repro yet but I want to for the games like devil world, getsu fuma den, etc. I have the famicom version but I want the translated version of getsu fuma in a cart.

 

Mine are either:

1) Sold labeless - potentially troublesome
2) A game that anyone with 5 seconds of time can tell it is either a hack or an unreleased title and thus couldn't be anything but a reproduction
3) Has the word "reproduction" on the label if it is a released game modified (such as Mega Man Wily Wars for the Genesis with region protection removed)

I've contemplated buying cheap Japanese SFC carts (such as FF6) and slapping in a piece of flash with a retranslation on it. Kinda hard to confuse a Japanese SFC cart with the original Japanese labels sporting a game that is not only in English but has statements about who translated it and the real McCoy. I'm sure someone would, however.

 

Selling it with a label on is no different than selling it blank. Who ever buys your reasonably priced repro can just remove the sticker and then resell it.

 

yeah I agree with Bad_Ad84, its not that hard to just go print your own replacement label