Snes Cart Conversion

This prob won't be of much interest to the regulars here, really only retro enthusiasts. However, if your aware of a Snes game called Earthbound, your probably aware of how much it costs:



Its a fairly expensive cart & has a cult following that ensures the value is high. It also happens to be lauded as one of the greatest games ever made. However, there's now an easy way of getting your hands on it so to speak. The game in its native Japanese region is called Mother 2, & is effectively the exact same game only in Japanese. Its also, much, much cheaper. I got my completely boxed & mint copy for about €35.

However, being a text heavy game, the language barrier is a deal breaker...or at least was. You can now have a tiny flash chip programmed with the Earthbound rom file, & have this flash chip fitted on a TSOP adapter board which so happens to fit exactly where the Maskrom normally goes. In effect, you can buy a Mother 2 cart, buy the flash & adapter kit, replace the Maskrom chip of the original Jap cart with this new one & voila, the US version of the game runs on the Jap cart.

Its a reproduction really, but the difference is your still buying a legit cart, your not killing one cart to make another as its that same game thats gonna be running off it, & its a damn sight easier to spend €40 than it is over €250! Here's an example of how its done...

Mother 2 Jap cart & Earthbound rom flashed to chip with TSOP adapter



Cart opened, ready to proceed with removing the Maskrom on the pcb



Desoldering in progress





Eventually after all pins have been desoldered, the Maskrom can be removed



I remove the pins on the TSOP adapter, rather then cutting traces on the cart. This way the cart is left original, & can be restored back to a Mother 2. Plus, its just a neater way of doing it



TSOP Adapter then fits into place



The pins come through on the solder side, these have to be trimmed later on to ensure that the cart fits back together properly.



All soldered up...





Pins snipped, the cart then goes back together perfectly



So at that stage its time to take the cart up to the games room to test it. Pop it into the Snes & whadyano....