Making SNES Carts...?

[Lord_Magus]

Hi all, this is my first post  

I have just started looking into the wonderful world of console modding, and would like to know if its possible to produce a custom SNES cart.
For example, could I somehow find the information needed to re-create the hardware of a cartridge, flash a translated ROM of Secret of Mana 2 onto it and play it on a PAL system?

Thanks in advance for any replies.

[benzaldehyde]

You know, someone did this EXACT same project. He flashed some ROMS and wired them into an Illusion of Time cartridge to get a PAL Secret of Mana 2 cart. He even printed the label on photo paper to make it look legit. I'll have to dig up the link, though. However, feel free to search some yourself.

[-Gearguy-aka-Martin-]

OMG! o_0
Magus is that REALLY YOU?!!!! :blink:
Incase your wondering what I'm talking about.. is that you X0VOID0X?

[DarthCloud]

http://snesdev.romhack.de/

there all you want!

[Lord_Magus]

Thanks for the info guys(gals?), I'll get working on it as soon as possible!  

From a quick look on the page though, I see it requires you to use a pre-made cartridge, such as Illusion of Gaia\Time in the SoM2 example, from which you basically change the EPROM. Maybe I'm asking for way too much, but would it be possible to find the actual hardware parts needed to construct\put together the rest of the cartridge from scratch? Or would that require more work than its worth?

...and -Gearguy-aka-Martin-, I have no idea what you're talking about!  

[DarthCloud]

You need a cartridge because you need the lockout chip and the mad1!!

Also it's more easy with a all ready made pcb and also with the plastic case .

[-martin-]

oh ok... I thought you were someone else there for a min  

[name]

I checked snesdev. Will this work with American carts?

[DarthCloud]

Yes it's the same thing, just use an US Game as base for the new cart you want.

[Computolio]

It looks hell of nasty. Piggybacking all those 1MB chips can't be good for stability or longevity.

[viletim!]

Computolio,
Why do you say that? As long as don't want to erase them again this is a really convenient way to make big rom chips.

[FM-77]

How come he isn't using bigger ROM chips? Like a single 32Mbit chip instead of several smaller chips? Is it harder or are the chips too expensive/hard to find?

[DarthCloud]

http://nintendoallstars.w.interia.pl/romlab/tsop2snes.htm

You could use 4mbyte Flash rom using the info on this page, unfortunatly TSOP40 need an adapter for you eprom writer.

The only manucfacturer a found selling that for a resonable price is http://www.sivava.com/

And for multiple eprom, how do you think bigger eprom are made? it's multiple eprom intoo the same silicium chip

8 small rom is the same thing as one big rom, the only thing that can be a problem is power and unless your are using a portable system is not a problem.

[viletim!]

DarthCloud,
Programming it's the easy bit (stick the adaptor thing into the programmer). Tried soldering one of them?

Seldane,
I've never heard of an eprom bigger that 16 mega bit and I wouldn't know where to get one of those if I wanted one...

[DarthCloud]

Programming it's the easy bit (stick the adaptor thing into the programmer). Tried soldering one of them?

Not for snes cart but I replaced the NAND flash in one of my official nintendo GameCube memory card 1019 by a bigger one.

Now I have 2043 block of data that not gonna be erased like with those big third party cheap memory card .

Soldering a tsop40 is easy, delsoldering one is a real challenge!!!!