Ok, I'm going into the final stretch of my game...
What are my options for making a cartridge?
-probably won't use donor
-probably won't use a flash cart
-also, MMC3
Can someone explain this to me like I was 5. Thanks in advance.
(I've seen John Riggs solder a new ROM into a donor cart on YouTube, btw).
Here's options:
http://www.infiniteneslives.com/nessupplies.php#MMC3If you want to solder yourself there's:
http://www.retrostage.net/nes_MMC3_boards.htmI use the kazzo dumper for burning roms; which infiniteNESlives also provides. It's really simple. Through the gui, i first use an eraser file (provided in the software package), click test just to be sure, then select my .bin (do not include ines header when assembling your bins), select the proper filesize in the GUI. One click and a few seconds later, it's done.
http://www.infiniteneslives.com/kazzo.php
I've only soldered a few things, ever.
Let's say I don't want to solder some ROM chips. What are my options?
Would recommend talking to Infiniteneslives then. It's the easiest avenue.
infiniteneslives' boards are pre-built, and the ROM is flash memory that can be programmed right on the board; there is no soldering for you to do.
infiniteneslives would probably even flash the ROM for you (dunno if it would cost extra), but if you need to do development and tests etc. you should get a kazzo to flash/reflash it as needed.
Though, there are other options. RetroUSB certainly has the ability to make MMC3 boards, but they don't publicly sell that stuff anymore. They might be willing to partner with you to build carts (though so might infiniteneslives).
There might be others around that are prepared for this kind of thing, too (piko interactive, memblers, etc.)
If you want to do it all yourself... could go through all the details involved, but basically unless you're going to make at least hundreds it's probably not going to be cost effective for you.