Edit: This does not seem to be a VT03 after all; it's starting to seem like part of the VTxxx series
Hey! I've never done any NES development before, but I have done a fair amount of hardware modding, and I have a quick question.
I got this Famiclone 200-in-1 arcade machine thing from WalMart:
I meant to take it apart and put a Raspberry Pi in it, but I got a bit sidetracked by the hardware. A ton of research without prior famiclone knowledge and some hardmodding later, it turns out this thing is a VT03-based famiclone. The 200-in-1 multicart ROM is stored in a little Winbond W25Q64FV flash memory chip, which I've managed to dump with the help of a Raspberry Pi and FlashROM. The resulting image does indeed run properly in a VT03 emulator.
My next test (and here's where my question comes in) was to write a different ROM to it. FlashROM won't write anything that's not exactly 8388608 bytes, so I opted for a dump of the same 200-in-1 multicart that was dumped from a different console; this time a Plug-n-Play, instead of something with a built in screen. I was able to successfully flash the ROM to the famiclone's memory, and it did indeed boot - but the screen didn't even turn on. Audio did work, however. This makes me think that the original multicart ROM that it came with actually initialized the screen as part of the startup process, but the image from the other clone didn't need to do this as it outputted to a TV like a typical famiclone instead. Mainly, what I'm curious about is this:
Would it somehow be possible to write a normal NES game (or more likely another VT03 game) to this thing's memory - along with whatever initializes the screen added onto it - and play that on the unit?
EDIT: Not sure what the rules here on are sharing dumps, but here's a dump of the Famiclone's flash memory: http://www.mediafire.com/file/bagaeliela8t86a/DreamGEAR%20My%20Arcade%20Retro%20Machine%20%28200%20in%201%29.rar
Hey! I've never done any NES development before, but I have done a fair amount of hardware modding, and I have a quick question.
I got this Famiclone 200-in-1 arcade machine thing from WalMart:
I meant to take it apart and put a Raspberry Pi in it, but I got a bit sidetracked by the hardware. A ton of research without prior famiclone knowledge and some hardmodding later, it turns out this thing is a VT03-based famiclone. The 200-in-1 multicart ROM is stored in a little Winbond W25Q64FV flash memory chip, which I've managed to dump with the help of a Raspberry Pi and FlashROM. The resulting image does indeed run properly in a VT03 emulator.
My next test (and here's where my question comes in) was to write a different ROM to it. FlashROM won't write anything that's not exactly 8388608 bytes, so I opted for a dump of the same 200-in-1 multicart that was dumped from a different console; this time a Plug-n-Play, instead of something with a built in screen. I was able to successfully flash the ROM to the famiclone's memory, and it did indeed boot - but the screen didn't even turn on. Audio did work, however. This makes me think that the original multicart ROM that it came with actually initialized the screen as part of the startup process, but the image from the other clone didn't need to do this as it outputted to a TV like a typical famiclone instead. Mainly, what I'm curious about is this:
Would it somehow be possible to write a normal NES game (or more likely another VT03 game) to this thing's memory - along with whatever initializes the screen added onto it - and play that on the unit?
EDIT: Not sure what the rules here on are sharing dumps, but here's a dump of the Famiclone's flash memory: http://www.mediafire.com/file/bagaeliela8t86a/DreamGEAR%20My%20Arcade%20Retro%20Machine%20%28200%20in%201%29.rar