Need help with a weird pirate Famicom cart

Started by Nyaasu, March 14, 2012, 07:41:05 pm

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Nyaasu

Hey guys, I'm new, so if this belongs somewhere else...I'm sorry. xD

I got this odd little cart:

...at the thrift store today.  I thought it was a bootleg N64 game at first because of the shape of it, but after it didn't fit there, I popped it in my Famicom, and it worked.  ...But I can't get past the title screen, which makes me sad, because I was all pumped and ready for some awesome bootleggy goodness.

I went to the internet for some help, but all I found was this site:
http://jpx72.detailne.sk/index_ff.htm
...But it only shows similar games by the same company (which have the same title screen: http://jpx72.detailne.sk/stuff_files/fc/carts_pirate_files/18in1_glk/18in1_screen.jpg )

Does anyone know of this set of pirate games, and how to make them work?
Maybe I need a "Famiclone" kind of system with a different controller?
Mine is an official Nintendo Famicom, with some modding so it works on a N.American TV.

Thanks for looking! :D

133MHz

That one seems to be intended for a keyboard Famiclone so it most likely requires a mouse or the arrow keys on the keyboard to navigate the menus and selecting the games.
The ones I have are backwards compatible with a standard Famicom or clone with a basic controller but sometimes they show weird effects like the mouse pointer moving on its own but still controllable.

If you can't seem to do anything with the standard controller then it probably requires a keyboard or mouse that an "Educational Computer" Famiclone would provide .

Nyaasu

Ahhh, that makes a lot of sense, thank you.

So, do you think I'd be able to make it work with the standard Famicom keyboard accessory?  I don't have one currently, but I'd totally be interested in getting one. xD  I don't have any official games that would work with it right now though.

manuel

By the way that site you found is the site of one of our members.  :)

Nyaasu

xD  Awesome.  It's the only place I could find with any evidence of a cart like this.

manuel

He's a great guy, maybe you can write him a pm (jpx72) and ask him what he knows. Or wait until he sees this thread.

Nyaasu

Thanks for the info, I just PM'd him. :D

...I like this forum already. xD

manuel


jpx72

Oh hi! It's me :D
AAAnyway as 133MHz said, the cartridge needs special keyboard famiclone to run. The screen you've posted from my webpage is from a cartridge that was a part of my pursuit to dump some of my pirates. But sadly, I have lost it in the process. Cartridge no longer works (some background). Other similar cartridges on my web are only similar in case and label artwork, their menu is quite different and they require special famiclone mouse (I have only one famiclone for these - PIC). There is a project of attaching SNES mouse to NES, and there is also a game for it homebrewed already LINK. But I doubt it will work exactly as the mouse on the chinese famiclone. I have all the parts needed to build this project, but no time now to test these. I haven't even tested the "keyboard" cartridges with my newly aquired Family Basic keyboard.

But back to your cartridge - if you do have THIS screen on start, then I suspect it to be exactly as mine was, so you only need the keyboard to run, no mouse. But you can try to "simulate" some of the key strokes by pushing various combinations on I and II. controller of your Fmaicom, maybe you'll get past the title screen to the menu (mine had some 8 games or so...if I remember right).

I'm in a hurry so sorry if I missed something during typing this, and of course, Welcome to the forums!

ericj

From my experience, the keyboard carts (I have 6 or 7 of them) won't work with the Family Basic keyboard, just the clones.

Nyaasu

Quote from: ericj on March 15, 2012, 09:53:43 am
From my experience, the keyboard carts (I have 6 or 7 of them) won't work with the Family Basic keyboard, just the clones.


Okay, thanks for the info!
I do have one "clone" system, called a "Famulator", which I got in Japan, but it has no keyboard.  I'm guessing I'd need a clone that comes standard with the keyboard to get this thing to work, huh?

Post Merge: March 15, 2012, 10:06:13 am

Wow, that's a lot of info, thank you! x3
I'll try different button combos and see what happens.  If I get anything to work, I'll let you know!
I'd want to have a Famicom keyboard anyway, so I might get one and see what happens.  Even if it doesn't work (the reply under yours says it might not!), I wouldn't mind the investment made.

What a weird thing to find at a thrift store....really. xD

jpx72

Hard to say what is the difference, the protocol used to interface keyboard may be different...
Anyway I should say it's the golden age of NES homebrew, new software with amazing capabilities pops up pretty often and from what I've seen on Nesdev, there are many projects in preparation as we speak. Somebody will make a use for the keyboard, maybe for some text adventure like in the old DOS days, or maybe a network IRC client ;D that's the near future, I think. It will be interesting for use with PowerPak, for searching through the list of games, game genie or similar.
There is also the volunteer organisation around the cheap keyboard famiclone computer for the third world countries (forgot the name), Tonev may be able to tell us more. They already translated the whole keyboard manual.

Parodius Duh

cool! I had no idea that there were games that can only be played with the famiclone keyboard!

petik1

Here's an example of a keyboard famiclone: