Hi guys,

I hope i landed correct in the forum to ask this question, yeah, i am a newbie!
I have seen some great videos of John Riggs on how to repro using the NES cartridges, they are really fiun to watch and excellent, it shows the guy is passionate just like i believe we all are :-)
My question is this, i have a original japanese famicom console with a growing nr of japanese cartridges, i want to reprogram these same cartridges with the english language if possible as then i do not need the pin-converter and honestly i like the way the jap cartridges look with the artwork and all.
So just for clarity, what i would like to do is use the original japanese cartridges of the original 8 bit famicom console to patch the same game in english, so f.i . The jap. game "Akumajou special dracula kun" jap cart, to the same game, same cart , but with the english translation patch on it ( swapping eeeproms and the likes like John does for the UK/american NES cart version.)

If anyone can point me to a good resource that would be awesome!

thanks and hope to hear from someone paasionate about the 8 bit crazyness !

 

First, I'd start by finding a copy of the rom online. You have the original crtridge, there's nothing that says you need to get the rom off that specific cartridge. If you can find it online, download it. It's just eaier.

In terms of hacking the rom, one way to do it would be to open the rom with a hex editor. Often, you can see the text there and you could probably just change it there. One caveat though, is that the length of the trnslation will need to be very close to the original text. Once you have the rom hacked, the rest is just like putting any hacked rom on a cartridge.

Full disclosure; I've never actually done a full translation myself, but have changed a handful of text in a hacked megaman rom. Good luck!

Please abbreviate Japan as JP or JPN to avoid using a racial slur. Thank you.

You'd need to get an EPROM programmer/burner. (not cheap) And, hopefully have some soldering skills.

Alternatively, there are several people who do this. You could contact them, and pay them to do it for you.

I always thought an EEPROM programmer was pretty cheap. Is it possible to use an old computer motherboard with socketed BIOS to flash an EEPROM?

Kid Dracula is easy to make, the new EPROMs just drop in without any rewiring

Hi everyone!

Great to see so many guys still into the 8bit crazyness :-)
Me personally, i am one of those techs who still enjoys to play these as well.
I am a tech so soldering/desoldering is a breeze for me, i ordered a eeprom programmer and eraser and i am anxious to get started on kid Dracula.

@Cheesmeister: That's understood! From now on i will refer to the japanese carts as JP, i have nothing but respect for the japanese no worries :-)


@Mr Pete, you seems to say it is do-able, then i want to get into it, for me , its important to keep the original JP cart for the translation, so , you are saying there is no need to rewire for the JP cart edition of Kid dracula then?
that sounds like great news to me.
if found this translation on romhacking.net:

http://www.romhacking.net/transla...

its an english translation patch that downloads as an "IPS file".

I am trying to piece together what i need to do this, so far i found some info like this:
slot: vrc4
pcb: KONAMI-VRC-4
vrc4-pin3: PRG A3
vrc4-pin4: PRG A2

I assume if i take that IPS file into the program FAMIROM it will split it into CHR and PRG ?
But i seems to need the ROM file of the game to apply this to right?

I feel i still need to read-up a lot on this

Edit:

I found the JP ROM of my Dracula Kid game on emu paradise, it's a (japan).nes file.
Ok, that's one step less if guess

I'm not real fresh on all this stuff, so bear with me...

The .ips file is basically a patch to apply to the original rom (.nes file). There's a program called lunar ips, or something to that effect that you need to run to apply that patch. You'll get a new rom file from that process. that new rom file is what you need to split into CHR and PRG files, which you'll (most likely) then need to pad depending on the size of the eeprom chips you're using. From there, burn the chips and pop them into a cart.

 

Thanks Labelwhore ,i love that name!!  

yeah that "padding" you mention is also something i am not familiar with.
I just opened the JP Cart of Akumajou special boku Dracula kun

But what has me stomped now is i do not know what eprom chip i should use as the JP carts do not mention much on the board itself like the NES carts do , is there an easy way of finding this out?

From the cartridge i can see the label PCB352396

One chip (the top one) is the Konami VRC4
The 2 other beneath that are also Konami:
RC847JOOP 9114 E ( on the left of the board)
RC847JOOC 003BK 9114 Z30 (on the right)

i am assuming the one on the right is the one i need to change but i am not sure.
I hear bootgod's site had really great data on this but it is down.

Edit:

I discovered the "Famirom" program
I loaded the english patched JP version of the ROM from Vice v1.04 into it.
It says the mapper is 23 (that seems to correspond with what i had found on other sites)
Mirroring Horizontal
and for both PRG and CHR size it says 128KB (1mb)
Board VRC2b, VRC4e ( i found that this PCB 352396 should be VCR4e so that seems correct too)
It says the target EPROM types for both PRG and CHR are 27C010 (128K) (does the program auto-select the correct EPROM?)

So, if i get this correctly, if i then go ahead and spit this ENG translated JP ROM and then program the PRG and CHR to an 27C010 EPROM each and solder these in place, it should work?

Sorry for all these questions!

I assumed you probably already had some EPROMs. I usually buy a bunch in bulk that are larger than what a game will usually take. That's when you need to pad the PRG and CHR files. Let's say for example you had 27C020 EPROMs on hand but your game needs 27C010s. In that case you can use the copy command in a dos shell to double the size of the PRG and CHR files like this:

copy c:/pathto/originalCHRfile.CHR+c:/pathto/originalCHRfile.CHR c:/pathto/newCHRfile.CHR

Basically, you don't want any empty space on the EPROMs or the game may not work.

As far as which chip goes where, I believe the boards are labeled, maybe under the original chips. It's been a while since I've opened a cart though.


...and thanks for the compliment, the name has a few different meanings to me, but I use it to as a psudonym to release my crappy music. lol

Guys,

I did some more digging but i believe there is some rewiring needed when using the 27C010,020 or040 EPROMS with the JP cart of Akumajou special boku dracula kun.

If i am correct for either of these types of EPROMS (for both PRG and CHR) i need to :

Bend pins 1,2,24,30,31 and 32 on the EPROM
then :

Connect PIN 2 EPROM to hole 22 on PCB

Connect PIN 24 EPROM to GND (like pin 14 on PCB)

Connect PIN 32 EPROM to hole 28 on PCB (VCC)

Leave pin 30 and 31 EPROM disconnected (floating or just cut them off)

I now understand what the padding means which i would need to use when using the 27C020 or 40 for this one,the 27C010 should be good as it's 128KB ( 1mbit )

Please correct me if i am wrong as i will attempt this conversion of the JP language to ENG on my own original JP famicom Cart of this game ! This is for the PCB 352396 (with Konami VCR4 with 2 times 128KB (PRG and CHR)

That looks right for that game.

famirom defaults to the smallest eproms usable according to the rom size. If you choose a larger size, it will pad out the files as needed.

thanks Lincoln!

Al i have to do now i wait for my eprom to arrive :-) , ones the nes file (translated one) is split using famirom program, can i use the PRG and CHR this produces to burn/program the EPROM as they are ?
I mean to say that no further modifications to the CHR and PRG file are necessary before burning them to EPROM ?

yes, they'll be ready to go.

famirom supports ips now so you can drag the rom then the ips file onto the program and it'll do the patching too

Ok that's great news , all that is left is wait for the parts now ;-)
Thanks again lincoln !