Cartridges for conversion

[Jamtex]

Someone recently asked me to buy a number of cartridges, a bunch of Sunsoft carts, Konami, Koei and other random carts all he asked was for a certain number of cheap cartridges from each lots. I got a number of them and asked him what he wanted them for and then he said that he was going to make conversion cartridges and to burn fan translations. The Sunsoft cartridges were going to be used to make Gimmick and the Koei carts were going to make an English Metal Slader glory.

I am always in two minds about conversion cartridges as they always remove cartridges from the wild, although I am not sure anyone would really miss Nobunaga no Yabou, L'Empereur, Sangokushi 2 or Barcode World to make english versions of games.

[Parodius Duh]

You mean Reproduction carts? never heard anyone call them conversions before, thats kind of cool. Anyway if its a bunch of crap games they will not be missed by anyone. Why have an unplayable pile of crap laying around when you can turn it into something great.....and whoever thinks just sunsoft games will work for Gimmick is in for a surprise. The only compatible donor is Dynamite Batman, there may be one other as well. And Im pretty sure Metal Slader has no English translated patch....


and I think it is very WRONG to make repros of Gimmick, seeing as how its a game that already exists. I feel that repros should only exist for Hacks, prototypes, translations, and the extremely obscure, like Metal Fighter. Repros of the Japanese Gimmick is just going to cause problems within the community.

Also, if this person thinks you can just take a Sunsoft, Konami or Koei cart/board, and stick any Sunsoft, Konami or Koei game on to said cartridge, they will be in for the surprise of their life when the repro doesnt work.

[Xious]

'Gimmick!' wouldn't honestly impair the market demand. Nobody in their right mind would do this to sell them, as making correct repros of it requires so much work that it becomes prohibitively expensive, unless your time is worthless. Once you wire an AY-8910 correctly, you'd need to charge as much as an original costs to make it worthwhile. 

The only genuine games that I honestly say make sense as reproductions, aside from those that are terribly rare, are translations.

[Jamtex]

Well I classify reproductions as carts converted specifically for sale or to pretend you have said game, and conversion carts as ones changed for specifically for your own use or to change language but without any doubt that it is anything but that.

I am pretty think he is going to make Gimmick for his own use. I did check and there does seem to be a number of Sunsoft games with the same FME-7 (Sunsoft 5x) mapper as gimmick so logically there is no reaason why these could not run Gimmick, he is going to whack on a AY-3-89xx / Yamaha Yamaha YMZ 284 chip on it for the extra sounds. The same with the other games, they specifically have MMC-5, MMC-3A and VRC-6 that he wants for some reason.

As I've seen some of his work, I don't doubt he will turn Barcode World to Gimmick. In terms of a technical exercise it is a fantastic concept.

[stealthlurker]

You mean Reproduction carts? never heard anyone call them conversions before, thats kind of cool.

In the NeoGeo world conversion is the common term for when you sacrifice (sac) one or more carts to make a rare/expensive game. Usually for AES/Home console NeoGeo games you sac 2 carts, the donor and target. Usually it's a sac on a MVS/Arcade cart donor to a sac AES/Home cart. This is done because the more expensive AES carts are far cheaper on MVS.

In terms of "reproductions", I've always considered that making it entirely from scratch without sacrificing anything.... ie using new/reproduction cases, pcbs, burned ROM chips etc.

and the extremely obscure, like Metal Fighter.

Speaking of Metal Fighter...  



http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/587448-metal-fighter/images

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[jpx72]

The only compatible donor is Dynamite Batman, there may be one other as well. And Im pretty sure Metal Slader has no English translated patch....

It's not the only donor that can be used, but as xious said, it's so much work, that it's not worth it. But if he doesn't want the extra audio....but in that case he could use the mapper hacked version.
Metal Slader Glory has no officialy announced patch yet (looking for that one for a long time now), but I guess there can be some hacking group that is alredy finishing that one. Maybe he's prepairing for that. To earn money from selling that. I hate that. It would be different if he doesn't destroy donor carts.

@stealthlurker - you know about some cheap MVS cartridges? I need some for my arcade cabinet, I have only two...

[stealthlurker]

@stealthlurker - you know about some cheap MVS cartridges? I need some for my arcade cabinet, I have only two...

When I say "cheap" that's relative... such as the MVS cart is $100, but the AES cart version is $600-700.

For example at one time Pulstar MVS carts were 80-100+, but the AES version runs you 600-800 depending on region & condition.

There are plenty of cheaper ($10-50)  games though.... Fatal Fury series, Samurai Showdown (1-4), KoF series...

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[Xious]

Well I classify reproductions as carts converted specifically for sale or to pretend you have said game, and conversion carts as ones changed for specifically for your own use or to change language but without any doubt that it is anything but that.

I am pretty think he is going to make Gimmick for his own use. I did check and there does seem to be a number of Sunsoft games with the same FME-7 (Sunsoft 5x) mapper as gimmick so logically there is no reaason why these could not run Gimmick, he is going to whack on a AY-3-89xx / Yamaha Yamaha YMZ 284 chip on it for the extra sounds. The same with the other games, they specifically have MMC-5, MMC-3A and VRC-6 that he wants for some reason.

As I've seen some of his work, I don't doubt he will turn Barcode World to Gimmick. In terms of a technical exercise it is a fantastic concept.

Sure, if you are making one for yourself in your spare tie. It's still not a fun process; I wish that the Gimmick Audio PCBs were still available, as I would like a couple to have on hand. I also dislike killing 'Barcode World' games, as they are actually not a common title. 

[Jamtex]

I hate killing carts but Barcode world ended up as 2 pound cartrdges and the cheapest of any of the other FME-7 cartridges i could find. In fact I had not seen any for ages then one shop had 3 of them.

Fun is a relative term, the guy that is buying them seems to do things for fun. I have seem some of his wire wrapped MSX computers he built   

I think he is going to use a 14 pin Yamaha soundchip so it can be put into the cartridge and take up the least space. Still look forward to seeing it, even if there is one less Barcode World game in the world.

[satoshi_matrix]

wait a minute, there's an English translation of Metal Slander Glory?!

[Parodius Duh]

wait a minute, there's an English translation of Metal Slander Glory?!

No, if there is it is not available yet.

[L___E___T]

I see nothing wrong with buying fami carts for repros, but it's sure not a good way to make money.  It'd be cheaper to byt a batch of powerpaks and load all the translations on for resale.