Hi guys,
I've been given a copy of Crystalis in a God Slayer cart - it works fine on the title/intro screens, but then the CHR data is all messed up in the game after you enter your name. A famiclone gave better results (you can get in to the first town) , but some tiles were still wrong, as well as the colours.
Anyone have any idea what's going on? I could provide pics of the PCB if that would help.
(http://s21.postimg.org/i9hs3qiz7/IMG_20151201_113608206.jpg) (http://postimg.org/image/i9hs3qiz7/)
Edit: Clarified some details
Definetely looks like CHR ROM was soldered bad.
Pictures of PCB helps.
OK, hopefully the pictures are clear enough...
(http://s23.postimg.org/r94s9asav/IMG_20151203_223742752.jpg) (http://postimg.org/image/r94s9asav/)
(http://s23.postimg.org/gl11agibr/IMG_20151203_223717555_HDR.jpg) (http://postimg.org/image/gl11agibr/)
This is a chinese pirate cartridge. Most likely to work on a NOAC NES only. I have the same cart with another game that isn't booting. Will check mine, too. Probably just a few traces that need to be changed. Will let you know, if there's anything new.
Quote from: xIceMan on December 03, 2015, 03:46:53 pm
This is a chinese pirate cartridge. Most likely to work on a NOAC NES only. I have the same cart with another game that isn't booting. Will check mine, too. Probably just a few traces that need to be changed. Will let you know, if there's anything new.
Thanks!
I did try it on a Subor (NOAC) clone - it makes it further in to the game, but it's still glitched and some tiles seem to be using the wrong palette. The PCB is quite thick, I wonder if it's causing connection problems?
Thickness isn't a problem here but rather how CHR is wired. I'm pretty sure that /OE and /CE were mixed or it includes some kind of magic to work. :(
I take it the glob top is the pirate MMC3? I wonder if that is to blame, I know Crystalis uses mapper IRQs pretty heavily to swap CHR banks. Have you ever seen a pirate version of God Slayer/Crystalis before? It seems strange they'd sell it when it doesn't work, unless someone tested it as far as the title screen and just assumed it'd be fine :)
Yea, mine's MMC3 at least. They do have to work somehow but I haven't had the time to check any further yet. Definetely will do tomorrow!
Post Merge: December 05, 2015, 03:04:57 am
Checked the pinout and it's confusing.
PRG A13/A14 and /CE went into the glob top.
CHR /CE was connected to cart #17.
It will most likely require some rewiring at all but no guarantee that it will work better afterwards. :(
I might try dropping the chips in to a cheap MMC3 donor cart... I'd quite like to have this working, I love Crystalis :)
Thanks for looking in to it!
Good luck, if you do!
Quote from: xIceMan on December 06, 2015, 04:26:18 am
Good luck, if you do!
Thanks!
I think this should be a suitable board:
http://bootgod.dyndns.org:7777/profile.php?id=3528
Yeah, TKROM should work for it.
Just keep in mind to solder CHR and PRG accordingly:
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)
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)
Thank you for the pinout, it matches the one I have :)
Looking at the board I have, the chips are mounted the other way - should I put them in the donor "upside-down"?
Huh? Pictures of your donor would help. Usually ANY TKROM board's ICs are mounted with Pin 1 to the right.
Why would you need to put them upside down? o_O
The donor's on Bootgod's site linked to above. Here it is:
http://bootgod.dyndns.org:7777/imagegen.php?ImageID=9089&width=525
The orientation of the chips is different on my pirate cart:
http://postimg.org/image/r94s9asav/
The chips from the pirate are to be desoldered.
Left should be PRG and right should be CHR but you should probably check that with a multimeter.
Pin 1 is always where the little notch in shape of a half moon on top is located at.
So yes, you have to rotate them by 180 degress and have them face right on the NES board.
OK, cool. Yes, left chip on the pirate is PRG (020), the CHR is a 010. PRG/CHR = 256KB/128KB.