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Holy Mother, I'm Earthbound!
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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
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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! 0 -
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.0 -
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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
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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) 0 -
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Join Date:Posts: 50004
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.
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that said €20 for the jap game shipped, €15 for the chip and €25 for the work, I can buy a cart only US copy for €55 or so....
Well if someone is willing to desolder all 34 legs of a maskrom, solder in all 34 legs of a new chip both top & bottom {102 legs effectively} & the rest of the cart wiring for less than €25, you'll be onto a winner & more power to them...I love modding etc, but it has to be worthwhile at the end of the day.
The way I see it is, I done the homework on it, I learned the process, I took the gamble on trying it out, I'll have to stand over a broken cart if traces etc get lifted, I'll be driving around meeting people, driving to meet them again to return it etc... so I think the price is fair enough for in or around an hours work to do it properly.
I can understand if its too rich for some folks, but honestly, I'm not pushing this as a service...someone either wants me to do it or not, I'm fine either way 0 -
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I'll be driving around meeting people, driving to meet them again to return it etc
Oh so you're offering a door to door service now? Excellent! You can pick me up a takeaway on the way too
€25 is a very fair price for all of the soldering work...I'd be charging more if I was doing it.
It's the type of service you'd only really need for crazy expensive English games which have a cheap Jap version. (Earthbound being the prime example) or else games which don't have an English release at all.
If it's for a game which has an English translation and you can get it for 50 and below then there's no point.0 -
Unless you're talking about reproing a different standard cart into a Wily Wars.
Which is something I would imagine Enternow would point blank refuse as he has morals :pac:
Your spot on, damn morals. As I said, I'm happy enough to do a regional repro...but changing one game into another doesn't interest me. I get pretty p1ssed off seeing fakes on ebay, I'd never contribute to that 0 -
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It's the type of service you'd only really need for crazy expensive English games which have a cheap Jap version. (Earthbound being the prime example) or else games which don't have an English release at all.
If it's for a game which has an English translation and you can get it for 50 and below then there's no point.
Door to door no, but I always find myself having to meet at local landmarks etc as nobody knows the area
Spot on. I originally looked at doing this because of a game that go no release here, Clocktower. Only then did I branch out to Earthbound, because of the maddening price it commands. So the sweet spot is really for JP games that are fan translated, other than that, its not really worth doing0
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