Transfer a rom to a BS-X memory pack

Hi guys!(and,who knows,maybe girls)

I've one question regarding the satellaview memory pack.
Do you know if there is a device with which you can transfer the data from your PC to the BS-X cassette?

I assume it's not possible,otherwise we would have seen a lot of F Zero 2,BS Zelda and so on on sale.But maybe someone has some clues about it...

Thanks!

 

you can use a tototek's flash card.... easier, really. i think nobody managed to do what you ask.

 

I don't think you'd see BS-Zelda because I don't believe you can play it offline like other games. Pretty sure it requires the St. Giga service to be broadcasting or something.

Plus I don't think the market for BS-X stuff is that big.

 

Yes indeed you can't play it offline.There are 3 differents BS Zelda and unfortunately the only one you can play offline is Zelda 3.
But you can play them through emulation.So I though that maybe,if you put the ROM in the BS-X pack,it would work.

Anyways,tototek seems to be the only solution yes,thanks for your answers!

 

It's possible, but with some knowledge. The flash chip in BS cartridge is NAND type, like common USB key or SSD drive. However it has no controler chip inside. The controler chip is bluit in BSX cartridge. I have made some experiments on BS flash cartridge. You need to know :

- Flash chip pinout (Googleling the PN and you probably fin datasheet easily)
- a USB key for his microcontroler
- Pinout of this microcontroler

At this stage, if you have well worked, you are able to read and write on BS cartridge like an USB Key but... In common formats (FAT, EXT, NTFS...). But I do not have enough skills to find format used by BS-X and I'am not able to develop a program for that.

But is theoretically possible.

 

bs F Zero 2 plays perfectly on tototek's flashcard.

 

Yes there is also the point that the BS-X games that will work, tend to run just as 8Mbit HiROM games anyway so you can just burn/flash them to a ROM and play. The BS-X hardware itself isn't needed or useful. Games like BS-Zelda have extensive hacks to make them playable without the BS-X hardware.

Nowdays all the BS-X hardware will do is let you run the game with the BSX Bios mapped in which isn't important at all in my opinion since you can patch all the function calls easily. And again most of the games don't need the BS-X at all as they are just 8Mbit HiROM games on a glorified Flash cartridge.

 

If that can help

 

Mind typing in the chip name? I'd be very surprised if it's NAND like Dr Wily thinks.

 

Here you go: http://www.datasheetcatalog.org/datasheet/Sharp/mXrwuvt.pdf

Also, it is without question possible to program these.
The problem is not rewriting the flash, but fixing the roms to work on the BS-X host adapter, which performs a variety of checks on the file. (Most of the available dumps on the net are bad or not useable as is)
It's doable, though.

 

The interface sure doesn't look like NAND. Anyways the card is memory mapped right? That's all that matters.

 

No way in hell it's NAND. They typically have 8-bit wide serial interfaces, plus bad blocks.

It's NOR. Parallel access, and no bad blocks. Due to the difference in the manufacturing process.

 

Hello everyone,

Thanks a lot for your answers!So the conclusion is that it's doable but difficult(for me I mean)since you would have to reprogram the dump in order to make it works on the BS-X cartridge...

It's a pity anyways!

 

What you would really need to do is more research, and talk to the people who invested so much time in dumping the BSX games and making them playable, as they will have direct dumps of the original code that was dumped.

Now that will take time to build up contacts and trsut, but if you are serious about doing this, then the time will be worth it, and by time we could be talking years of research here.

Anyway's, I spoke to some people in japan and Hong Kong about this, people involved in the backup business, of unlreleased commercial software for platforms like this. They said it would be possible to make a backup device to read too, and write to a bsx cartridge, and that it is rumoured to already have been done. The trouble is the BSX scene is a bit of a member's only area, and rightly so as they do not want ninty's lawyers breathing down their neck's.

My theory is once you have all the pinout's cracked, and the original dump's of the software, you would then convert the bsx cartridge into something that the flash chip could be removed and replaced(like a development cartridge, though I don't know if there was any commercial socket's for these chip#s made by Sharp for pcb's, so you would likely have to mke your own little pcb board, and then solder that onto the bsx cart with wires.) and then build a writer, like an eprom one for the pc, and write software for it to then write to the chip and then place the chip back on to the little bsx cart and do it like that. Now this would involve alot of time, patience and knowlege and some good soldering skills. Also I don't know whether this would work wither, as the chip seems specially made for the bsx cartridge, and getting replacement chip's might be different. Actually the more i think about this little theory, it's useless, but I just want to spark some intrest on this, and make someone come up with a proper solution.

Still that's just a theory, and it might not be feasible or pratical, so speaking to the bsx community would be better, as they might have software that can write to the device directly, using the nintendo cartridge interface, which woud make thing's a heluva lot easier.

 

There's a secret BSX community? That's sad. Anyways what you described isn't a theory, it's a very obvious reality. The memory paks are just common FlashROM. Even if you can't find the original Flash chips used anymore, you can spoof their ID code using logic or just remove any checks by software, really there's nothing to backing up or copying the paks, so it's obvious that nobody who can cares to.

A parallel port reader/writer would be composed of a mere counter, with the only expense being the BSX cart sacrificed for it's connector (but you can salvage the RAM which is nearly as valuable as a loose BSX cart).

 

Thanks a lot both of you for your answers!

I have to say I don't really have any knowledge in all these technicals issues.At the begininng,I just wanted to know if it was possible to do it because it's really difficult fo find all the BSX games,even on YAJ or in japanese shops.And also it would have been great to be able to play directly on the sfc to the games only playable online.

But in the end,all these answers are really interesting anyways!

Unfortunately I understand that it's really not an easy thing to do...

 

Not entirely true; I've spent over a grand on doing just this, and the BSX dumps are freely available from my homepage, http://eludevisibility.org/.

 

Dragon Ball Z - Super Butouden (Japan) (Sample) :love:


Hello,

When be going you to proposed the "Download Rom"??