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Invisible rework (almost)

Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2016 4:30 pm
by Fisher
This is my first repro done from an original NES game.
So, I took some special care... :)
I used some 80 pin IDE cable's wire, routed under the IC.
This is the final result, almost invisible rework:
Far view
Far view
Upper view
Upper view
Back view
Back view
The original game was a copy of Win, Lose or Draw.
Now it's Bionic Commando, with the uncensor patch applied.
The game was sooo skinky that I thought it was stored under a corpse!! :shock:
I had to disassemble and wash the case many times to make the strong odour run away.

Re: Invisible rework (almost)

Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2016 2:16 am
by lidnariq
Impressively done!

Now I'm wondering what "game" AMIBIOS would be ;)

Re: Invisible rework (almost)

Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2016 5:20 am
by tepples
Especially if it has a POST screen.

Re: Invisible rework (almost)

Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2016 6:34 am
by Fisher
Thanks!!
I still have many, many, many other things to learn, it's just a small start.
Thanks to you guys, I now have a little more knowledge!! :beer:
I'm just trying to avoid the infamous rat's nest I've been building latelly, but sometimes it's just not possible.

Maybe the game would be a cheap Michael Jackson's Moonwalker knockoff...
The lyrics of Smooth Criminal would sing: "AMIBIOS are you OK?" or just AMI for short... :P

Nice POST screen, Tepples!!
Ever tought of doing some NES PC stuff??
I guess not much would be possible... most things are already done with these famiclones.
Maybe a Megadrive would be a better "PC"??
Or not, because even a PS2 running Linux is not that great... :-(

Wish the POST screen was seem on the donor board that had the bios slaughtered to do this: a M810!!
The manufacturer here is known as PC Cheetos!!
It even gave me some white hair strands...
Guess I'm just getting old... should won the lottery soon and get retired! :lol:

Re: Invisible rework (almost)

Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2016 8:57 am
by tepples
Fisher wrote:Nice POST screen, Tepples!!
Ever tought of doing some NES PC stuff??
Yes, but first I'd need tpw_rules to finish the PS/2 keyboard and mouse to NES adapter project that he started several years ago. If you know someone else interested in an MCU project, go ahead and start a new topic about it.
Maybe a Megadrive would be a better "PC"??
Someone ported Mac OS 7 to it, with the Sega CD emulating a SCSI CD and the 32X doing the frame buffer.

Re: Invisible rework (almost)

Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2016 9:38 am
by tokumaru
tepples wrote:Someone ported Mac OS 7 to it, with the Sega CD emulating a SCSI CD and the 32X doing the frame buffer.
Is this any more real than his NES DVD Player that could run Sonic 2?

Re: Invisible rework (almost)

Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2016 1:56 pm
by Fisher
Well... that OSX stuff seems fake, unfortunatelly :-(

I've played Cityville on a PS2 running Linux a couple of years ago.
It's being used as a dumb terminal connected on a PC, nothing speciall.
This thing saved me a trip to my older work once or twice...
I ssh'ed there and fixed a small proxy problem, from the PS2. 8-)

I think the network driver does not use DMA.
The video acceleration seems next to nonexistent too.
But cool!! For a year 2000, circa 300Mhz machine with 32MB of RAM running Linux that's fine.
I just wish the video and network driver were a bit more optimised. :cry:
tepples wrote:Yes, but first I'd need tpw_rules to finish the PS/2 keyboard and mouse to NES adapter project
Well, I've found some interesting thing about using a keyboard to NES.
Maybe that could be usefull...
I really like MCU's projects!
Unfortunatelly, for now they're just a little out of my reach. :cry:

Re: Invisible rework (almost)

Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2016 7:38 pm
by Fisher
Well...
Looks like I just talked too soon...
The game has a problem, and a very weird one! :cry:

Before assembling, I just played up to stage 2.
Today I got some free time and was going to try to finish it.
The game started to lock. Seems random to me.

Tried the Game genie on it, if I press start and wait, the title screen starts to appear and the game locks.
If power cycle and press start twice, the title skips the animation and shows up, but when I try to start the game I get a black screen.

I tried the Holy Diver Batman using a piggyback memory and it ran fine, no errors detected.
Made some continuity test on the reworked and suspicious connections and found it to be OK.

Have someone else tried this patch on real hardware before?
I think my problem can be even the patch or a defective flash.
Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

Re: Invisible rework (almost)

Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2017 5:19 pm
by Fisher
A little "epilogue" on this case:

Being very upset, I flashed Metroid on this FlashROM, added the SRAM I removed from the board I was using here, and had fun with it.

A few days ago, I just couldn't sleep... :x
So, looking for something to do while I was asleep, I flashed the same file on a PLCC32 Flash and soldered it on the same board.
Yes!! That's a big waste of time!! But I had nothing to do, and wasn't on the mood to read or write something...
So I prefered to do something manual and boring!!
20170429_153521.jpg
Guess what?
I was able to play the game from the begining to end!! :o
I just can't belive it!!
The mapper that was incomplete just worked while the original one didn't.
Or, I had mis-soldered something on the original board. But would all this bug be related to something mis-soldered??

I'll just find a case, put it in and call it a day!! :beer:

Re: Invisible rework (almost)

Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2017 11:53 pm
by Sumez
Wow, that is a very clean work! I'm really impressed.

While I'd love to be happy for you, that kind of stuff just worries me. Bootlegs (sorry, "Repros") are running rampant on eBay, and are getting harder and harder to spot. :( I'd love to see people producing these reproductions to be more up front and transparent about it. Usually the people making them are fair and honest when selling them, but then someone decides to resell them for the same price as the original game. Just look at what happened to those German PC Engine reproductions of Sapphire and Space Fantasy Zone before the guy decided to put his brand on them to stop people abusing his work.

At least you aren't just putting a clean copy of an existing ROM on there, but I know a lot of people do.

Re: Invisible rework (almost)

Posted: Mon May 01, 2017 1:16 am
by lidnariq
Imports to and exports from Brazil are so penalized that it's effectively an entirely disjoint market. It wouldn't make economic sense for Fisher to do so...

Re: Invisible rework (almost)

Posted: Mon May 01, 2017 2:07 am
by Sumez
I'm sorry if my post was in bad taste, I was probably a bit too quick to post it, and I'm not accusing Fisher of anything, it's just a subject that gets me worked up >_>
The problem is not the people creating the bootlegs, but the people who are selling them, posing them as genuine products. And eBay which allows selling them.

Re: Invisible rework (almost)

Posted: Mon May 01, 2017 11:26 am
by Fisher
Hey Sumez, I don't find your comment to be of bad taste, neither offensive.
In fact, I felt it was true and sincere.

Lidnariq's right...
To produce something here and export is complicated.
Importing things is most of the time prohibitive. :x

I know many people are doing loads of money with bootlegs/repros, but the ones I do are just for my amusement and fun (and for my kids too :D ).
I usually try to do something different, be it on the program that is in the ROM or the label.
Here are some examples:
After Burner / Rush 'n Attack
After Burner / Rush 'n Attack
Guardian Legend / Nija Gaiden
Guardian Legend / Nija Gaiden
Ducktales / Turtles + Double Dragon / Castlevania II
Ducktales / Turtles + Double Dragon / Castlevania II
Although in some labels the printer was not very kind to me. :cry:

I don't intend to sell or trade any of them, at least while I'm still alive (according to statistics, I have around 30 more years of life).
I also tried to find the ROM for Journey to Sillius Anarchy Edition to make my own cartridge.
The creator unfortunately didn't agree with the idea, wich is a option I respect and didn't bug him/her any more.
For now they're about 120. Many are originals, but most are reproductions, pirates/bootlegs or fixed ones.
This is kind of a hobby for me, with the nice pay off that I can play the real games on the real thing :).
I also use old and discarded parts most of the time, since buying most of these parts are difficult or expensive right here where I live (in fact, you may have noticed that in the location field there's coordinates to a point very near of my house. Feel free to take a look at my city on Googlemaps).

I'm also trying to learn this very beautiful and intricate science of micro electronics.
And in this forum, I've learned a lot of things!
I really have a lot to thank for the people here! :beer: