Holy Mother, I'm Earthbound!

Myrddin

Well I installed the flash chip into the Mother 2 cart, low & behold it worked. Mother 2 in all its English glory {Also known as Eartbound in its localized form}

Desoldered the first mask rom, Solder in the adaptor & flash rom, make two slight changes to the wiring of the cart by removing pins on the adapter board {rather than cutting cart traces} & wiring them to alternate points.











Sorted! I know what my Xmas day game is gonna be this year

CiDeRmAn

I shall prebook the next one!

Retr0gamer

I hope you enjoy playing one of the best games ever made!

Myrddin

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I hope you enjoy playing one of the best games ever made!

I playtested it for about 15 mins so far, & I just know by the dialogue, music, controls etc I'm gonna love it!

the groutch

Sparks43

Meh its no VideoPac or Boulder Dash:D

CiDeRmAn

This could get you all sorts of attention Enternow!
Better buy Mother 2 quick before the price gets driven up!

o1s1n

Nice work man!!!!!

/Runs to ebay to buy Mother 2.

How'd you flash the rom? do you have an eeprom writer?

Myrddin

o1s1n wrote: »

How'd you flash the rom? do you have an eeprom writer?

The site that offers the tsop adapter & flash chip offer a rom burning service for 50 cent or something. So i obtained what I wanted in rom form, removed the header, fixed the checksum etc etc & emailed it to them to burn for me

Myrddin

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

This could get you all sorts of attention Enternow!

Ah I'm very mindful of repro's & the carry on around them, thats why I'll only ever do this to a real Mother 2 cart. I'll not be converting any other games into Earthbounds, only like for like {JP to English}

Clocktower is next on my list :cool:

CosmicSmash

Great news, this is on the way over at the moment. It may need your attention.;)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/400337436459?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Myrddin

Monkeykube wrote: »

Great news, this is on the way over at the moment. It may need your attention.;)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/400337436459?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Ooh, nice! Decent price for it too!

CosmicSmash

It's slightly lower than what it usually sells for and the seller done a good deal on combined shipping, I'm still on the lookout for Mother though:(

Retr0gamer

Make sure fan translations run on the proper hardware first. Many are optimised for emulators so can have timing problems on real hardware.

CiDeRmAn

What's for tea Mother? Pins again!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1l-HHuZNnFc

Myrddin

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Make sure fan translations run on the proper hardware first. Many are optimised for emulators so can have timing problems on real hardware.

Thats where bsnes comes in handy

OwaynOTT

Interesting fact 457:
Enternow rocks!

The Last Bandit

Good job

Steve X2

Myrddin

OwaynOTT wrote: »

Interesting fact 457:
Enternow rocks!

The Last Bandit wrote: »

Good job

Cheers men, though its really mmmonkeys work. Its not as if I sat with cart schematics & a white board and figured it all out

o1s1n

Just so you guys know, if you want to pick up mother 2 - get it from Hit-japan and don't pay the buy it now price.

I offered them $27 dollars which was well below the BIN (I think it was 36) and they accepted

Myrddin

o1s1n wrote: »

Just so you guys know, if you want to pick up mother 2 - get it from Hit-japan and don't pay the buy it now price.

I offered them $27 dollars which was well below the BIN (I think it was 36) and they accepted

Yeah I got my mint CIB one for $30 plus $9 postage by way of making an offer.

If anyone is looking to do this, or have it done, you'll need to order one of these too - http://www.buyicnow.com/vp.php?pd=2503 They're out of stock at the minute but I expect they'll have more in soon.

Myrddin

Oh & don't forget to add the rom burning service to your basket, you'll need to email them the rom too. It needs to be headerless, & be exactly 3145728 bytes {Earthbound}

Jack burton

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/MOTHER-II-2-SFC-SUPER-FAMICOM-CIB-JAPAN-IMPORT-/300819439416?pt=FR_Jeux_Vid%C3%A9o&hash=item460a3c5f38

I'll order the rest of the stuff whenever its back in stock

o1s1n

And suddenly the price of Mother 2 began to increase...

It's The Tower all over again :pac:

Jack burton

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrQ2pKMwQC4

CiDeRmAn

http://www.buyicnow.com/fincat.php?cat=983

Will this do?
It's in stock and they say it's fully compatible.

Myrddin

Jack burton wrote: »

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/MOTHER-II-2-SFC-SUPER-FAMICOM-CIB-JAPAN-IMPORT-/300819439416?pt=FR_Jeux_Vid%C3%A9o&hash=item460a3c5f38

I'll order the rest of the stuff whenever its back in stock

Pretty impressive price for it man, lovely GET!

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

http://www.buyicnow.com/fincat.php?cat=983

Will this do?
It's in stock and they say it's fully compatible.

If they say its compatible then it should be fine, though I must stress, if it doesn't work it won't be my fault

Those chips come from Hong Kong & take a while to get here, so you may do all the reading up on Earthbound as you can

Mother 2 cart sales to Ireland have spiked it seems

Myrddin

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

http://www.buyicnow.com/fincat.php?cat=983

Will this do?
It's in stock and they say it's fully compatible.

Also, DO NOT FORGET TO ADD THE ROM BURNING SERVICE TO YOUR CART & SEND THEM THE ROM, OR THE CHIP WILL ARRIVE BLANK

Myrddin

Here's the finished article. You can see in the bottom right, is the tsop adapter. This is where the original MASK type rom was before.



I'll keep the original ROM in the cart box too, for the sake of completion.



And thats that, the closest thing you'll get to a boxed Earthbound for much less than your monthly wage!

CosmicSmash

That looks a nice tidy job. Have to look for a copy myself;)

The Last Bandit

Fake.

Myrddin

The Last Bandit wrote: »

Fake.

Oh noes...I better get my $30 back!

o1s1n

Feckin class, cheers for a look at the inside - was wondering what it looked like.

Are there any solder points underneath that adapter or is it literally those wires you've connected?

By the way, not replace that CR2032 battery while you were in there? Would really suck ass if it died on you half way through the game after going to all that effort

Myrddin

o1s1n wrote: »

Feckin class, cheers for a look at the inside - was wondering what it looked like.

Are there any solder points underneath that adapter or is it literally those wires you've connected?

By the way, not replace that CR2032 battery while you were in there? Would really suck ass if it died on you half way through the game after going to all that effort

Yep each leg, all 34 in fact, have to be soldered in topside AND underside...as traces can run to both. The wires go from pads where I have removed the pins in order to avoid cutting traces on the cart...this way the cart can remain untouched barring the swapped chip. I could drop the original chip back in & it will still work, whereas if you go cutting traces on the cart, its kinda screwed.

Re the battery, I will for sure but I've none of those fancy holders you had, so I'll wait & do all the carts in one go Its easy to open up the cart & change it though, as I will do before starting a game!

o1s1n

Ahhhh right! For a moment there I thought you were after finding a way to avoid soldering every single leg by using those wires on the top - was going to say you could bang a load of them out in minutes

So you're going to put those battery holders in too? Nice one. They really are a great solution - lots of folk seem to think you can't use them as they don't know those little half sized ones exist.

Steve X2

Is it possible to replace the volatile memory that the battery backs up with a non volatile one?
Or is it integrated into another chip that's non replaceable?

The Last Bandit

Steve SI wrote: »

Is it possible to replace the volatile memory that the battery backs up with a non volatile one?
Or is it integrated into another chip that's non replaceable?

It's a seperate chip, the large 28pin one under the battery is the SRAM, should be possible to replace if there is a timing compatible non-volatile device available.
Not sure if it worth the hassle apart from an interesting engineer exercise.

Myrddin

Steve SI wrote: »

Is it possible to replace the volatile memory that the battery backs up with a non volatile one?
Or is it integrated into another chip that's non replaceable?

You could yeah, but as Last Bandit said already, its practically not worth the hassle. Sonic 3 uses an FRAM chip to store savegames, & even that loses its ability to save as o1s1n will attest to, you've to replace the whole chip in that case. Pita

Steve X2

Well, It would be nice to not have worry about replacing the battery every 5-10 years on important carts. Non Volatile memory doesn't last forever but I'd say it's better than the battery backup on the cart.

o1s1n

With those battery holders, popping a new battery in is quick enough that it's not a hassle at all anymore. If the idea of changing batteries annoys you, then soldering a holder into all your carts is definitely a good option.

Combine that with a Retrode and theoretically you should be able to back up all your save files too.

Steve X2

o1s1n wrote: »

With those battery holders, popping a new battery in is quick enough that it's not a hassle at all anymore. If the idea of changing batteries annoys you, then soldering a holder into all your carts is definitely a good option.

Combine that with a Retrode and theoretically you should be able to back up all your save files too.

Ah yes, I actually have a Retrode (Retrode 2 I think, the newer one)

Myrddin

They really are dead handy those battery clips. Open cart, remove old battery, clip in new one, close cart

Steve X2

EnterNow wrote: »

They really are dead handy those battery clips. Open cart, remove old battery, clip in new one, close cart

How long does the volatile chip hold the data when you pop out the battery?

Myrddin

Steve SI wrote: »

How long does the volatile chip hold the data when you pop out the battery?

Not too sure, but given how easily its done when those clips are installed, I'd say there's plenty of time to make the changeover

Retr0gamer

Steve SI wrote: »

How long does the volatile chip hold the data when you pop out the battery?

It can be measured in nanoseconds. There's no capacitors so nothing there to hold the charge. Once the battery is removed the chip loses charge and the ram data is lost.

TBH I've never encountered even a NES game with a battery that needs to be replaced. The only problems are consoles themselves. The Saturns battery goes after about 2 years and needs to be replaced so backing up on a 4 in 1 cart every so often is essential. The CDi, well that's another kettle of bull**** altogether.

o1s1n

Can you put a save back onto a cart with a Retrode? I've never tried it with my one.

If you could, then while changing a battery just copy it off the cart and then back on again.

I've come across many carts with dead batteries. Snes Mario games are bad for it. As is ALTTP. For some reason Zelda on the NES seems to last forever - my original still works.

Those same battery holders fit in Megadrive cart cases too.

Andrew76

o1s1n wrote: »

Can you put a save back onto a cart with a Retrode? I've never tried it with my one.

If you could, then while changing a battery just copy it off the cart and then back on again.

I've come across many carts with dead batteries. Snes Mario games are bad for it. As is ALTTP. For some reason Zelda on the NES seems to last forever - my original still works.

Those same battery holders fit in Megadrive cart cases too.

Actually tested mine last night, still has the save game data in there, as did Yoshi's Island and a few others. Not that it matters as they'll soon appear in an Adverts ad. :pac:

CiDeRmAn

Would this method work for Super Mario RPG?
It is cheap as chips in it's japanese incarnation but look for the US game and it gets mighty expensive!

Myrddin

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Would this method work for Super Mario RPG?
It is cheap as chips in it's japanese incarnation but look for the US game and it gets mighty expensive!

It would indeed

Retr0gamer

Could I put a Link to the Past rom in a Rise of the Robots cart or would that piece of irony be too much for this universe to handle and create a space time continuum?