Hello, first time poster here.
First some background info: (skip if you want)
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Some time after the new year I got a sudden urge to play older games on real hardware. Emulation didn't feel right, even with real USB controllers. I went down to the basement and located my NES and SNES, still in working condition, though the plastic had yellowed quite a bit on the both of them unfortunately. What's freaky is I got the NES front-loader in 1990 and have never changed the connector, it's been packed up in the basement for at least 5 years and every game I've tried has booted up on the first try.
I also didn't like the way the games looked on modern LCD screens, so I managed to find me a Sony Trinitron 36" WEGA for cheap, retro games look absolutely stunning on this thing! Such a beast to get into the house though, probably around 100 kilos, thank god my apartment is on the first floor.
I then stumbled upon some information about writing roms to cartridges. So I ordered 2x EEPROMs (AT28C256), a GQ-4X programmer, Hakko 808 desoldering gun (this thing is awesome) and some other stuff to get going. I plan to print out custom labels and even boxes in the future to store the games on my gaming shelf.
So the first project was to put a certain nes homebrew on cartridge. I found this document a great reference to know which game I could "sacrifice" and settled for Balloon Fight.
Desoldered the original mask roms for PRG and CHR, programmed my own EEPROMs and soldered four wires and tested it out. And it worked! Plays great and I've played it for hours a day already..
--
Now, for my second project and the questions that I have. I was browsing around on romhacking.net and found a really fun hack of Super Mario Bros called Super Mario Unlimited. The only problem is, the original SMB is NROM at 32k PRG / 8k CHR and after patching it's a 128 KByte PRG (8 banks x 16 KB). I can't put this back on an NROM pcb, am I right? So basically I just need to know which type of cart I need to use to put the rom back on.
I also just found out about the INL-ROM pcb that can be ordered and I'd be very interested in using that if possible. Can I use the INL-ROM for this purpose, and again which mapper board should I order in that case? I don't care for EPROMs since I don't want to have to use UV eraser. So using AT29C010 EEPROMs with my GQ-4X would be more convenient.
So, is it possible to use AT29C010 EEPROMs with INL-ROM? Which mapper type INL board would I need? The original smb rom uses nrom but the prg-rom is now 128k instead of 32k so I don't think I'll be able to use nrom? Using the EEPROM described, how would I wire it up? Or can I just solder it in without the need of rewiring the pins?
Sorry if I'm asking dumb questions, I'm quite new to this whole thing.
Thank you in advance.
First some background info: (skip if you want)
--
Some time after the new year I got a sudden urge to play older games on real hardware. Emulation didn't feel right, even with real USB controllers. I went down to the basement and located my NES and SNES, still in working condition, though the plastic had yellowed quite a bit on the both of them unfortunately. What's freaky is I got the NES front-loader in 1990 and have never changed the connector, it's been packed up in the basement for at least 5 years and every game I've tried has booted up on the first try.
I also didn't like the way the games looked on modern LCD screens, so I managed to find me a Sony Trinitron 36" WEGA for cheap, retro games look absolutely stunning on this thing! Such a beast to get into the house though, probably around 100 kilos, thank god my apartment is on the first floor.
I then stumbled upon some information about writing roms to cartridges. So I ordered 2x EEPROMs (AT28C256), a GQ-4X programmer, Hakko 808 desoldering gun (this thing is awesome) and some other stuff to get going. I plan to print out custom labels and even boxes in the future to store the games on my gaming shelf.
So the first project was to put a certain nes homebrew on cartridge. I found this document a great reference to know which game I could "sacrifice" and settled for Balloon Fight.
Desoldered the original mask roms for PRG and CHR, programmed my own EEPROMs and soldered four wires and tested it out. And it worked! Plays great and I've played it for hours a day already..
--
Now, for my second project and the questions that I have. I was browsing around on romhacking.net and found a really fun hack of Super Mario Bros called Super Mario Unlimited. The only problem is, the original SMB is NROM at 32k PRG / 8k CHR and after patching it's a 128 KByte PRG (8 banks x 16 KB). I can't put this back on an NROM pcb, am I right? So basically I just need to know which type of cart I need to use to put the rom back on.
I also just found out about the INL-ROM pcb that can be ordered and I'd be very interested in using that if possible. Can I use the INL-ROM for this purpose, and again which mapper board should I order in that case? I don't care for EPROMs since I don't want to have to use UV eraser. So using AT29C010 EEPROMs with my GQ-4X would be more convenient.
So, is it possible to use AT29C010 EEPROMs with INL-ROM? Which mapper type INL board would I need? The original smb rom uses nrom but the prg-rom is now 128k instead of 32k so I don't think I'll be able to use nrom? Using the EEPROM described, how would I wire it up? Or can I just solder it in without the need of rewiring the pins?
Sorry if I'm asking dumb questions, I'm quite new to this whole thing.
Thank you in advance.