NESp with flashrom???

kingconga42 · Post by **kingconga42** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 12:57 pm

hi-
i'll be building an NESp out of a megajoyIII soon....
Has anyone been able to replace the rom chip (it's a black blob, isn't it?) with their own rom chip somehow? I was thinking of using a flashrom, or one of those "backup" units that plug into the cart port.
Does anyone know if this is possible? I'd love to be able to load my own ROMs....

-justin

soundwave · Post by **soundwave** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 1:23 pm

Its been mentioned before. You know asm?

peppers · Post by **peppers** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 2:24 pm

4 0 mapper games its EZ

Geebs61 · Post by **Geebs61** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 2:32 am

Yeah, you would be limited to only mapper 0 games.

Here is a list of games and mappers.

Other than that you'd have to have a mapper. How would that work? You have to write a mapper file to get it to work?

Niku-Sama · Post by **Niku-Sama** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 3:40 am

wow, over that list i only found one game over 1024k....i have an idea

kingconga42 · Post by **kingconga42** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 8:52 pm

damn, why are there so many memory maps for these things?
Are all 76 or so ROMS included on this megajoy NOAC of the same memory map type?
does no one make "backup copiers" for the NES?

Maybe i'm beter off getting a GBA, a flash card, and this:
http://www.pocketnes.org/faq.html

-justin

Post by **gannon** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 12:33 pm

If I remember right there are around 148 known mappers for the nes. I think only 7 of those are official though.

Alchemist · Post by **Alchemist** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 3:28 pm

kingconga42 wrote:damn, why are there so many memory maps for these things?
Are all 76 or so ROMS included on this megajoy NOAC of the same memory map type?
does no one make "backup copiers" for the NES?

1/ Because the NES can only address 64k of ROM memory usually (iirc). The mappers allow games to switch between multiple banks of memory without the NES knowing about it. There are other custom chips which wouldn't be supported by Superjoys, but I'm not going to get into that for now.
2/ I would have thought so, all the famiclones I've seen have had games which don't use mappers.
3/ Not really. There are some early Famicom backup devices, but they're pretty limited, since they've got no real mapper support. Same goes for building an EEPROM cart, you'll be stuck to mapperless games unless you've got the mapper hardware there. Kevin Horton is doing some very exciting work on recreating NES hardware on FPGA which would have wide mapper support, keep an eye on his site.

kingconga42 wrote:Maybe i'm beter off getting a GBA, a flash card, and this:
http://www.pocketnes.org/faq.html

-justin

You certainly are

One way of getting around the whole mapper restriction deal is to use real cartridges, of course...

peppers · Post by **peppers** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 7:38 pm

^ big deal buld 7 eeprom carts and you have all the offical mappers all you realy need done

Alchemist · Post by **Alchemist** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 4:37 am

How are you going to account for varying amounts and differing setups of CHR ROM? And anyway large numbers of comapanies used their own mappers with their own custom setup. It really isn't easy to make a backup device for NES, if it was it would have been done way back in the day.

kingconga42 · Post by **kingconga42** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 10:57 am

>>Are all 76 or so ROMS included on this megajoy NOAC of the same memory map type?
>all the famiclones I've seen have had games which don't use mappers.

Again, please pardon my NOOBness...
so there are games that DON'T use mappers? are these the 0 map type?

i just got a sh!tload of ROMs from bittorrent, and was hoping there was an easy way of being able to play them on a portable, especially all the hacked, homebrew, prototype, japanese, and other rare titles... maybe the GBA is the way to go, and i'll just make my little NESp with the NOAC, and MAYBE a cart port....

-justin

scherzo · Post by **scherzo** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 11:35 am

kingconga42 wrote:>>Are all 76 or so ROMS included on this megajoy NOAC of the same memory map type?
>all the famiclones I've seen have had games which don't use mappers.

Again, please pardon my NOOBness...
so there are games that DON'T use mappers? are these the 0 map type?

i just got a sh!tload of ROMs from bittorrent, and was hoping there was an easy way of being able to play them on a portable, especially all the hacked, homebrew, prototype, japanese, and other rare titles... maybe the GBA is the way to go, and i'll just make my little NESp with the NOAC, and MAYBE a cart port....

-justin

I'm pretty sure what is called Mapper 0 is effectively not a mapper at all. The game fits within the limits of the NES' addressing capabilities, which is 32K of PRG and 8K of CHR ROM/RAM, 2K of WRAM and 2K of VRAM. The memory mappers were designed to overcome these limits to allow for larger games with even enhanced features.

Check this site out to learn more about mappers: http://www.bripro.com/low/mappers/index.php

jgibson · Post by **jgibson** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 1:01 pm

kingconga42 wrote:>>Are all 76 or so ROMS included on this megajoy NOAC of the same memory map type?
>all the famiclones I've seen have had games which don't use mappers.

Again, please pardon my NOOBness...
so there are games that DON'T use mappers? are these the 0 map type?

i just got a sh!tload of ROMs from bittorrent, and was hoping there was an easy way of being able to play them on a portable, especially all the hacked, homebrew, prototype, japanese, and other rare titles... maybe the GBA is the way to go, and i'll just make my little NESp with the NOAC, and MAYBE a cart port....

-justin

If you wanna play your roms on a handheld device, why not buy a GP32. You can play all the NES, SNES, and Genesis rom you want on there.

peppers · Post by **peppers** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 2:58 pm

Alchemist wrote:How are you going to account for varying amounts and differing setups of CHR ROM? And anyway large numbers of comapanies used their own mappers with their own custom setup. It really isn't easy to make a backup device for NES, if it was it would have been done way back in the day.

socket with a few eeproms + a switch for the mirroring
I already done it with mapper 5 and no mapper cart

its true that a lot of companys came up with there own mappers bt the 7 offical= a but load of games

and it was done back in the day but onley smart people and smart peoples frends could because there was no real internet like today hell regular people would have a hard time just getting there hands on the eeproms you cant just pick them up in a store you have to order them before the internet would you know where to get them from I nkow I would not unless you an engineering student or something like it and not to mention eprom programers cost way more when you can just pick one up for like $30 dollers these days and you would have to dump your own carts

excusses the grammer im eating wile I type

Alchemist · Post by **Alchemist** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 6:05 am

peppers wrote:
Alchemist wrote:How are you going to account for varying amounts and differing setups of CHR ROM? And anyway large numbers of comapanies used their own mappers with their own custom setup. It really isn't easy to make a backup device for NES, if it was it would have been done way back in the day.
socket with a few eeproms + a switch for the mirroring
I already done it with mapper 5 and no mapper cart

Congrats, that's good skills.

and it was done back in the day but onley smart people and smart peoples frends could because there was no real internet like today hell regular people would have a hard time just getting there hands on the eeproms you cant just pick them up in a store you have to order them before the internet would you know where to get them from I nkow I would not unless you an engineering student or something like it and not to mention eprom programers cost way more when you can just pick one up for like $30 dollers these days

Sure... but my point stands: it's still difficult to make an easy-to-use famicom backup device of any kind, and next to none were made back in the day. Emulation is an easier, cheaper and more compatible route.

you would have to dump your own carts

Heh... one word: BBS... though admittedly they were a bit post-NES.