Possible dev kit

stuntpenguin007 · Post by **stuntpenguin007** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 1:05 am

My dk 64 game was flickering in audio and sound so I opened it up to clean it out and I noticed that the whole pcb was rather simple. I have an old internet card with a socket that would fit niceley into where the eeprom thing goes.

Then I could possibly get a reprogramable eeprom (please tell me what that chip is called so I can quit calling it an eeprom!!!) and another one of those internet cards, program the chip with linux under terminal... pop it in the socket ... and homebrew it up.

Yes I know n64 homebrew is almost impossible to learn but I just like building this kind of stuff.

I would have tested this out while I had the cartridge open but I am working towards 100% on the game and I don't want to ruin it.

Anyways I broke my bic pen screwdriver when puting it back together so I tried to make a new one for taking apart glover. but I ended up melting plastic in the screw hole so it is in a state of uselessness at the moment. I plan on drilling through the hole though.

I'll try socket it and get back to the forums but in the meanwhile could someone tell me what kind of (ugh) eeprom to use. I'll also post what kind of internet card I used if it works.

Neildo_64 · Post by **Neildo_64** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 2:16 am

Sorry to burst your bubble, but it's not that simple or these would be all over by now. I can't tell you exactly why but there are so many reasons that I wouldn't think I would need to.

stuntpenguin007 · Post by **stuntpenguin007** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 3:34 am

Thanks for the heads up.

If I were to find and program an Identicle epprom with the same glover file it would work right? I should probably just take your word and not waste my time... but if there were any documentation (other forum posts or schematics) to show me why I'm wrong that would be good.

don't get me wrong, I believe you, I just want to know why a little bit more in depth.

Since I went to the trouble of getting that socket, I mind as well install it when I have more desoldering braid. do those eeproms have heat limits I should know about?

Neildo_64 · Post by **Neildo_64** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 3:55 am

Well, I really don't know that much about the whole N64 dev scene, but there are a few different threads scattered around here that may be helpful. Like this one.

stuntpenguin007 · Post by **stuntpenguin007** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 6:32 pm

I opened dk64 to clean it and realized how simple it looked to I'm going to take glover and put a socket in it because I like dk64 too much to solder on it. I'm going to check if I have desolder braid somewhere because I used the last of it desoldering the socket off of something else.

If I have desoldering braid, I'll take off the glover eprom and put in a socket. Then If I havent fried the eprom with a soldering iron I should be able to put the same eprom in and it will load glover. I'll post pics once I get it socketed. Oh and look at these.

http://n64.icequake.net/mirror/tcsr2001 ... com/carts/
http://www.crazynation.org/N64/n64_cart_info.htm

Post by **marshallh** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 10:08 pm

Not gonna work. The address and data lines are multiplexed. You'll need some 74 series logic to buffer the address and latch it in.

The chips on the cartridge PCBs are mask ROMs - they have the decoding circuitry built in.

The other problem is finding a DIP flash ROM big enough (eeproms are hard to find much above 512k). You'll likely have to use a tsop44 NOR flash rom.

stuntpenguin007 · Post by **stuntpenguin007** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 12:38 am

well glover still works after the operation anyways :0
here are some pics

http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/ee34 ... 0_0274.jpg
http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/ee34 ... 0_0275.jpg
http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/ee34 ... 0_0277.jpg
http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/ee34 ... 0_0278.jpg

Thanks Marshallh whatever you said

did the trick, I'll just forget it.
Or will I???? Is there anything I can do with my socketed cartridge or is it going to end up in the junk drawer?

DSFARGEG · Post by **DSFARGEG** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 1:55 am

I highly doubt that all N64 carts look like that inside, but if enough of them do, you could build a socketed cart like that into a portable, then all you would have to do to change games is switch out the IC. I have no idea how many games would work with that cart though. If you do try more games, let us know.

Kyo · Post by **Kyo** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 2:03 am

ICs are sensible, this is a bad idea

DSFARGEG · Post by **DSFARGEG** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 2:11 am

Kyo wrote:ICs are sensible, this is abad idea

More sensible than what?

Kyo · Post by **Kyo** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 2:15 am

than rocks, cartridges and possibly books. I would like to remind you that they have lots of tiny legs which can be bent quite easily

DSFARGEG · Post by **DSFARGEG** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 2:31 am

Kyo wrote:than rocks, cartridges and possibly books. I would like to remind you that they have lots of tiny legs which can be bent quite easily

Yeah, that's true. I'm sure there's some case that they would fit in similar to the gameboy cartridge cases. Or you could stick the legs in foam.

stuntpenguin007 · Post by **stuntpenguin007** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 2:23 pm

I'm not quite sure what marshallh meant but if he was saying it would be impossibly to make this a dev kit because I would need to find an identicle eprom and an eprom writer... possibly I could take an eprom from another game and put it in.

I'll pick up a 3 dollar game sometime and try it out. On the topic of weather cartridges are identicle you could look at these cartridge scans for some clue.

http://n64.icequake.net/mirror/tcsr2001 ... com/carts/

Just on a random note, I was playing glover (my socketed game) and I pulled out the eprom in the middle of a level. nothing happened. I finished the level and the screen went black. This made me think of super mario 64 cartridge tilting when you pull up the cartridge on one side a little bit and mario becomes all deformed and has no limbs.

This basically says one of the other chips plays an important role in the game actually working or its eprom is a little different. if I'm not mistaken you pull up the right half of the cartridge and you get the awkward mario glitch. The eprom is on the left side (on glover anyways)

I'm not sure what the other two chips do but I'll look into it.

edit: one chip is a save chip and the other is a boot chip called a cic the different boot chips are

CIC-NUS-6101, CIC-NUS-6102, CIC-NUS-6103, CIC-NUS-6105, CIC-NUS-6106, CIC-NUS-7101, CIC-NUS-7103, CIC-NUS-7105, and presumably CIC-NUS-7106, and probably CIC-NUS-7102

The above is borrowed from yosai of the dextrose forums

stuntpenguin007 · Post by **stuntpenguin007** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 2:28 pm

edit: fixed thanks to kyo

can someone tell me why the post above this one is blank?
sorry to be off topic.

Kyo · Post by **Kyo** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 2:34 pm

stuntpenguin007 wrote:I'm not quite sure what marshallh meant but if he was saying it would be impossibly to make this a dev kit because I would need to find an identicle eprom and an eprom writer... possibly I could take an eprom from another game and put it in.

I'll pick up a 3 dollar game sometime and try it out. On the topic of weather cartridges are identicle you could look at these cartridge scans for some clue.
http://n64.icequake.net/mirror/tcsr2001 ... com/carts/

Just on a random note, I was playing glover (my socketed game) and I pulled out the eprom in the middle of a level. nothing happened. I finished the level and the screen went black. This made me think of super mario 64 cartridge tilting when you pull up the cartridge on one side a little bit and mario becomes all deformed and has no limbs.

This basically says one of the other chips plays an important role in the game actually working or its eprom is a little different. if I'm not mistaken you pull up the right half of the cartridge and you get the awkward mario glitch. The eprom is on the left side (on glover anyways)

I'm not sure what the other two chips do but I'll look into it.

fixed

the url tag was wrong, phpBB is retarded.