http://www.yntproject.net/U64Board/u64.rar Here you have a high-res scan of the *broken* U64 board I own. The filesize is aprox 52 MB. NOTE : this has been posted for the sake of interest that surrounds those "mysterious" boards. Not to support piracy. So as ever : Mods feel free to remove, move, kill, suppress, etc.
Thank you so much for these pictures Kammedo :icon_bigg If Assembler could add any scans of his alpha boards etc it would be very interesting to compare them all and see the development process :nod: Its also interesting to note that the lockout chip is marked 'PIF-NUS Z' - if it is region free (and we could copy it) we may be able to make a region free N64 console!
Uhm. Tell me more about that. I have never been that much into CIC's (on the hardware side, that is) so I need a bit more detail. Also, please note that there are two pins soldered together on the board. This could actually lead somewhere!
Assuming the code is compatible right out of the box. I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo took the time to do a code check or something just as spiteful to prevent anyone from ever doing anything like that. Always seemed like the type to cover all their bases just out of spite rather than protection of IP.
Well, there is a mod that allows an N64 to use both PIF-NUS chips and switch between them to play PAL and NTSC games. The original site where the mod was hosted is gone, but you can read the text in this thread:- http://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?topic=1180.0 more here:- http://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?topic=1523.0 and theres even more about it in this thread, where one person has gone even further and added the Cartridge lockout chips aswell!:- http://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?topic=2531.0 The problem is you need both a PAL and NTSC N64 PIF-NUS chip in the first place to do it - and since you have to buy both a PAL and NTSC N64 it becomes abit redundant! Also, you need to use five switches (or a relay) in order to change the region. However, if this 'PIF-NUS Z' chip is region free, we could possibly copy the code from the chip (Would need somebody with knowlege on how to do this sort of thing) and then copy the code onto a normal PIF-NUS chip (Which are still readily available from chip suppliers in Hong Kong) Or some sort of similar replacement chip - and then use that instead. This way we would only need the one chip and there would be no-more switches ;-) A truely universal N64! This mod would be similar to the Mega CD Multi-Bios mod shown here:- http://arakon.dyndns.org/tutorial/bios.html This is all just guess work at the moment, but it would be nice if it could be done :icon_bigg I also noticed that two legs were soldered together on the PIF-NUS on your board - any idea why this was done? It was obviously done by somebody after the board had been produced/made...I wonder why they did it?
Hm. Made a small research, seems like the board had only NTSC - PIF's on them. This means that PAL games would still be playable on U64 boards, but there could be some issues with the audio (as in not playing at all for an example). Also, the PAL mod required to made the board PAL / MPAL compatible involves changing a quarz oscillator, and some minor changes in the base circuitry. Im still not sure this will help with the CIC being region-free or not, but the heck, now you know about it .
I have read about the quartz oscillator needing to be changed in order to swithc between 50 and 60hz - but so far it has not been proven to work as expected. Heres a link traslated from German:- http://world.altavista.com/babelfish/trurl_pagecontent?lp=de_en&trurl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.project-casemod.de%2fmodules%2farticles%2farticle.php%3fid%3d8 Do you have anymore information on what 'changes' need to be made to the U64 in order to play PAL games? (In particular what needed to be changed on the 'base circuitry') Is it in the U64 documentation? It could help make the 50/60hz mod possible. The 'using two PIF-NUS chips mod' works well for quite alot of people who havent changed the crystal or the base cicuitry at all. Apparently it works well and just means that some games 'timings' or 'sync' may be off. The PIF-NUS is a much more important factor in the teritory lockout because if you have the wrong PIF chip you cant even get the game to load! If the 'PIF-NUS Z' on the U64 is capable of loading PAL games aswell as NTSC it cant be the same as a normal NTSC PIF chip, because an NTSC PIF will not load PAL games at all, even with the crystal changed etc.
Yep. Do a Windows Search for PAL on the manuals and you'll find it. Wait wait wait - now you are confusing that. First, we have the video output of the N64, which can be either PAL or NTSC (or MPAL but who cares about that anyway). Now, if we mod a PAL N64 to get a NTSC output, we need to replace the oscillator. The System get's the information about the kind of output from the PIF at boot. This means that a NTSC PIF can still work with a PAL output, but the sound will be screwed (see my previous post), as long as all the software checks are fine, meaning : a) A-Key / Value pair have to be ok b) checksum of the game has to be ok (on first MB). If those conditions are fullfilled, you can run PAL games even on NTSC machines, meaning its a matter of boot code if you are able to or not, not only of CIC. Long story short, if you develop a PAL game on the u64 board but use a NTSC boot code, I am pretty confident the game will boot up
I tried for an hour using Google and Windows Search and every possible combination I could think of, and couldnt find anything :-( (except an old thread were you were looking to buy the documents) On your other points I bow down to your superior knowledge! ...All I know is that some people have used both PIF's to make a region free N64 that plays 'almost' all games (Although some with a few problems) They didnt change the crystal or anything else. I dont know why it worked but it apparently did :shrug: (have seen quite a few pictures) Perhaps it was because they did the mod on an NTSC N64 - is it the possible the PIF 'downclocks' the crystal 'speed'? (Just guessing here!)
xD not on here, on the manuals of the SDK What i know (from the patents): The PIF / CIC work on a protocol known as "Challenge / Response" : The PIF asks the game CIC for the A-Code ("Challenge") and supplies it to the N64. The N64 uses an algorithm from the IPL2 code to compute a value ("Response") which if not correct, prevents the game from booting. The IPL2 code comes from the PIF (read on). Now, *PAL games have boot code PAL + CIC PAL. *NTSC games have boot code NTSC + CIC NTSC. if we had two PIF's we would in theory have both PAL and NTSC versions of the IPL2, which would mean we could switch them (depending on the game being PAL or NTSC) to get the correct "Response" starting from the "Challenge" value the game CIC supplies . This means that there is a PAL version of the IPL2 and a NTSC version. I never had the chance to take a closer look at that, but I think it would be an intresting point.
Sorry, didnt make myself very clear - I did search on Google and Windows Search - not on here! I just happened to come across a thread on another forum from years ago where someone called 'kammedo' wanted development documents - I just assumed that would have been you? Ah, I think I understand - so does the IPL2 on this Ultra 64 board work with both NTSC and PAL CIC's?
Both correct. Also, there is *no* CIC on the u64 board. This is something that deserves a check in my opinion.
Interesting. So does the 'PIF-NUS Z' not 'challenge' for a CIC chip at all? It would be very surprising if it doesnt, as that could have left the door open to piracy during the N64's lifetime. Its certainly worthy of further investigation.
Yes, that is what I was thinking too. It's definitely worth of taking a look! And I will in the next days.
I just wondered if there had been any development/news on the 'PIF-NUS Z' chip? Does it challenge for a CIC? I found something slightly interesting, there was an arcade board which used the N64 architecture called the Aleck64. Apparently it also has a PIF-NUS (Although I believe it is just the same as an NTSC N64's PIF-NUS) The interesting thing is that the contents have been 'read':- http://www.mameworld.net/gurudumps/decap/index.html Now, what I was wondering is, if this PIF-NUS Z doesnt challenge for a CIC chip, and someone with a PIF-NUS Z went through the same process of 'decapping', could we then create a replacement PIF-NUS using a SOP28 Flashrom that could then be used to make a 'region free' N64?
You forget that the PIF also handles all SI communications (controller polling, memory pak IO, and EEPROM management). The PIF is a microcontroller that does have a small ROM, but by itself that doesn't help much.
It's useless. N64 is able to switch TV standard automatically like PSX or DC. The TV stadard is coded in game code, not hard coded on motherboard like Saturn. A 60hz game on PAL console produce a 60Hz NTSC image.
I posted a collection of datasheets about the U64 board chips I found at home. Mind you, it's totally unmanaged and incomplete. And probably even stinks. http://www.yntproject.net/index.php?section=docs There.
