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Custom "4 in 1" NES cart

Started by Walky, December 30, 2008, 08:06:34 pm

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Walky

December 30, 2008, 08:06:34 pm Last Edit: December 30, 2008, 10:08:35 pm by JC
I've just finished building my custom "4 in 1" cart, I put the following games on it:

-Contra , japanese version, fan-translated and renamed "Gryzor" (map and cutscenes not found in the US version)
-Super C
-Ninja Gaiden 2
-Ninja Gaiden 3. Almost used the japanese one (passwords!) but that would've let me without understanding the plot, so... US version it is!. Anyway, it is Ninja Gaiden... It's supposed to be challenging!







Each game is 128kB + 128kB in size (PRG + CHR), so I used two 4mbit (512 kByte) EPROMS (27c040) to hold all four games.
Game selection is made by dipswitches in a way similar to some multigame Atari 2600 pirate carts, by swapping the two highest EPROM adresses between high and low.

Never mind the label (the donor board was Super Mario Bros 3, but I had this case at hand). I'll design and print a proper label soon.

I built it just for fun, but it's still cool to be able to play these games without having to dig into my collection looking for each specific cart :D

Oh, and yes, I know it looks like a NWC wannabe  ;D

EDIT: Deleted the double post.  --JC

JC

That's pretty cool. Every once in a while I run into a Famicom cart that's got dip switches and a complex dip switch settings list showing you how to access each game. No clue why it took so long for piraters to figure out menu screens.

FamicomFreak

Ah that's so kewl. Can you make me one????
Retro Gaming Life  www.retrogaminglife.com

133MHz

Quote from: JC on December 31, 2008, 01:53:37 pm
No clue why it took so long for piraters to figure out menu screens.


They had to create their own mapper from scratch to implement a menu screen. And it had to be cheap.

NintendoKing

January 01, 2009, 03:35:22 pm #4 Last Edit: January 03, 2009, 05:49:16 pm by The Uninvited Gremlin
It does look like the switch on a NWC cart. Nice, you should make your own NWC cart in grey and print out a label that looks original to fool your friends but dont ever claim its real.


Theres the label for a official NWC Cart, I changed the Number to 0000.

Walky

January 04, 2009, 02:49:34 pm #5 Last Edit: January 04, 2009, 02:58:08 pm by Walky
Sorry for not replying before  ;D

If I could make a working NWC repro then I would, but I can't :(
It would be still cool to have a non-working NWC cart anyway, but I'd prefer to use that board and case for an eprom cart (I almost don't have any doubles).

¡Nice label! I'll keep it anyway if I eventually decide to make one, even if I cannot play it (I still hope to someday have enough info and experience to make a working one).

Quote from: FamicomFreak on December 31, 2008, 02:19:27 pm
Ah that's so kewl. Can you make me one????


I think I could make another one if I'm offered something interesting for a trade, because this one's for me (just finished Super C again 2 days ago :D).


satoshi_matrix

Pretty cool man. Would you consider writing up a tutorial on how to do this?

Walky

Quote from: satoshi_matrix on January 04, 2009, 06:51:40 pm
Pretty cool man. Would you consider writing up a tutorial on how to do this?


Thanks!

I'd like to write one eventually, but I'd like to make a few more multicarts before, until I feel I've perfected it enough to make a tutorial about it. In other words: if I'm gonna make a tutorial, I want it to be a really good one  ;D

NintendoKing

Quote from: Walky on January 04, 2009, 02:49:34 pm
Sorry for not replying before  ;D

If I could make a working NWC repro then I would, but I can't :(
It would be still cool to have a non-working NWC cart anyway, but I'd prefer to use that board and case for an eprom cart (I almost don't have any doubles).

¡Nice label! I'll keep it anyway if I eventually decide to make one, even if I cannot play it (I still hope to someday have enough info and experience to make a working one).

Quote from: FamicomFreak on December 31, 2008, 02:19:27 pm
Ah that's so kewl. Can you make me one????


I think I could make another one if I'm offered something interesting for a trade, because this one's for me (just finished Super C again 2 days ago :D).




Thats an official label, completely correct, except a number 0000 never existed.

Walky

Quote from: The Uninvited Gremlin on January 05, 2009, 07:19:36 am
Quote from: Walky on January 04, 2009, 02:49:34 pm
Sorry for not replying before  ;D

If I could make a working NWC repro then I would, but I can't :(
It would be still cool to have a non-working NWC cart anyway, but I'd prefer to use that board and case for an eprom cart (I almost don't have any doubles).

¡Nice label! I'll keep it anyway if I eventually decide to make one, even if I cannot play it (I still hope to someday have enough info and experience to make a working one).

Quote from: FamicomFreak on December 31, 2008, 02:19:27 pm
Ah that's so kewl. Can you make me one????


I think I could make another one if I'm offered something interesting for a trade, because this one's for me (just finished Super C again 2 days ago :D).




Thats an official label, completely correct, except a number 0000 never existed.


¿Are you 100% sure they started on 0001? Some people like to start with 0000; it's very unlikely, but who knows...

NintendoKing

Quote from: Walky on January 05, 2009, 07:27:31 am
Quote from: The Uninvited Gremlin on January 05, 2009, 07:19:36 am
Quote from: Walky on January 04, 2009, 02:49:34 pm
Sorry for not replying before  ;D

If I could make a working NWC repro then I would, but I can't :(
It would be still cool to have a non-working NWC cart anyway, but I'd prefer to use that board and case for an eprom cart (I almost don't have any doubles).

¡Nice label! I'll keep it anyway if I eventually decide to make one, even if I cannot play it (I still hope to someday have enough info and experience to make a working one).

Quote from: FamicomFreak on December 31, 2008, 02:19:27 pm
Ah that's so kewl. Can you make me one????


I think I could make another one if I'm offered something interesting for a trade, because this one's for me (just finished Super C again 2 days ago :D).




Thats an official label, completely correct, except a number 0000 never existed.


¿Are you 100% sure they started on 0001? Some people like to start with 0000; it's very unlikely, but who knows...


They didnt start with 0001 either, they just did random numbers for some reason.

Walky

I saw it some time ago in Kevin Horton's site (by far the most complete tech info about NWC that I've found so far); anyway, it's a beautiful board  :)

I would be REALLY nice to have the cart's schematics, or scans of the boards on both sides without the ICs (that would make it waaaay easier to make a repro), but that's very unlikely to happen :(

Maybe it'd be possible to reproduce the cart using only the info from KH as a reference (http://www.tripoint.org/kevtris/mappers/nes_custom/NES_EVENT.html) but it'd still be quite difficult to figure out everything anyway (probably not so much for someone more experienced than I).

BTW, do you by chance happen to have an image of the back of the board?. The front one you posted is really nice, and by having high quality images of both sides I think I might be able to get close to an schematic (the real problem is to figure out the traces under the ICs)

Walky

Quote from: The Uninvited Gremlin on January 05, 2009, 09:40:08 am
Well, maybe my friend will take his apart again and take a picture of the back for me to show you.

I will ask him sometime.



Thanks! It would be great to have hi-res images from different angles of the board!

NintendoKing

Quote from: Walky on January 05, 2009, 09:59:16 am
Quote from: The Uninvited Gremlin on January 05, 2009, 09:40:08 am
Well, maybe my friend will take his apart again and take a picture of the back for me to show you.

I will ask him sometime.



Thanks! It would be great to have hi-res images from different angles of the board!

I asked him and he said that tamporing with his NWC cart isnt good and that is not something he will continue doing.

Walky

Quote from: The Uninvited Gremlin on January 06, 2009, 03:17:16 pm
Quote from: Walky on January 05, 2009, 09:59:16 am
Quote from: The Uninvited Gremlin on January 05, 2009, 09:40:08 am
Well, maybe my friend will take his apart again and take a picture of the back for me to show you.

I will ask him sometime.



Thanks! It would be great to have hi-res images from different angles of the board!

I asked him and he said that tamporing with his NWC cart isnt good and that is not something he will continue doing.


I understand, it's not easy to mess with such a expensive and rare cart (even I would feel a little guilty opening it if I had one). Thank you anyway for asking him.  ;)