Is there a way to mod the NES to somehow support CDS?

Discuss hardware-related topics, such as development cartridges, CopyNES, PowerPak, EPROMs, or whatever.

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NeoTorpor
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Is there a way to mod the NES to somehow support CDS?

Post by NeoTorpor »

I know it sound like a crazy idea but, after reading about Super Nes CD and the third party CD hardware for the N64, is "viable" to mod a NES console to read CDs, dvds, blurays? I mean i know the everdrive already does something similiar but it's juts a pipe dream. But in real life a CD "mod" could save tons of money. I didn't knew where to post this question but think it fits here.
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rainwarrior
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Re: Is there a way to mod the NES to somehow support CDS?

Post by rainwarrior »

NeoTorpor wrote:in real life a CD "mod" could save tons of money
No, I don't think it could save any money, really. Like you said in your post, flash carts can more or less already do this, and flash is more cost effective to use than CDs. (i.e. the cost of building an interface to a CD drive, and/or maintaining that drive, etc., with flash being reusable I think that cost is a lot more important than something like cost per GB of storage media.)

An interesting thing that Super Russian Roulette did was use a serial flash memory that can be fed directly to the DPCM sample unit to play very long musical samples (in crummy NES DPCM quality).
lidnariq
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Re: Is there a way to mod the NES to somehow support CDS?

Post by lidnariq »

NeoTorpor wrote:I know it sound like a crazy idea but, after reading about Super Nes CD and the third party CD hardware for the N64, is "viable" to mod a NES console to read CDs, dvds, blurays? I mean i know the everdrive already does something similiar but it's juts a pipe dream. But in real life a CD "mod" could save tons of money. I didn't knew where to post this question but think it fits here.
This has approximately already happened.

The PowerPak uses CompactFlash. CompactFlash can operate like a IDE hard drive. The difference between an IDE hard drive and an IDE optical drive is fairly minor.

The real problem now is that optical drives are drastically more expensive than NAND Flash like SD cards. And it looks like you can't easily get IDE optical drives anymore.
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NeoTorpor
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Re: Is there a way to mod the NES to somehow support CDS?

Post by NeoTorpor »

@rainwarrior: I saw the game's video, totally funny as hell. Anyway, thanks for your reply, i didn't knew the cost versus optimization.

@lidnariq: I had the idea that optical drivers where cheap. The flash cartridges are more awesome than i thought. Thanks.

Now it's time to wait until the NES flash cartridges work with 100% of the games.

O.o
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Re: Is there a way to mod the NES to somehow support CDS?

Post by nesrocks »

A NES CD mod would be something that the media would talk about for sure. There is that going for it.
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NeoTorpor
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Re: Is there a way to mod the NES to somehow support CDS?

Post by NeoTorpor »

nesrocks wrote:A NES CD mod would be something that the media would talk about for sure. There is that going for it.
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calima
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Re: Is there a way to mod the NES to somehow support CDS?

Post by calima »

Flashcarts only work with 99,9% of the games, what a shame :lol:
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dougeff
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Re: Is there a way to mod the NES to somehow support CDS?

Post by dougeff »

I didn't own a CD till the 90s. Maybe 94.

Funnier, would be to mod a NES to play a vinyl record, and output audio through a added speaker.

Or to wire one of those old Apple II tape drives, to stream data to the audio.

Here's a picture of a tape drive.
https://apple2history.org/history/ah03/
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Re: Is there a way to mod the NES to somehow support CDS?

Post by tepples »

If anything, a tape drive that uses actual tape (instead of the physically flat yet logically tape-like QD media of the Famicom Disk System) would bring a new meaning to when grandmothers used to call Game Paks "Nintendo tapes". Compare Wacky Packages "Stupid Moron Bros. 2" and "Sega tapes" in Homestar Runner.
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NeoTorpor
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Re: Is there a way to mod the NES to somehow support CDS?

Post by NeoTorpor »

calima wrote:Flashcarts only work with 99,9% of the games, what a shame :lol:
Well it can't play chinese bootlegs, Harvest Moon NES and Princess Maker Nes.
dougeff wrote:I didn't own a CD till the 90s. Maybe 94.

Funnier, would be to mod a NES to play a vinyl record, and output audio through a added speaker.

Or to wire one of those old Apple II tape drives, to stream data to the audio.

Here's a picture of a tape drive.
https://apple2history.org/history/ah03/
Ahh please don't give me more kick ass ideas. It could also support laser discs.
tepples wrote:If anything, a tape drive that uses actual tape (instead of the physically flat yet logically tape-like QD media of the Famicom Disk System) would bring a new meaning to when grandmothers used to call Game Paks "Nintendo tapes". Compare Wacky Packages "Stupid Moron Bros. 2" and "Sega tapes" in Homestar Runner.
Nes tapes. Hmm a mod that can read tapes, vinyl records, laser discs, dvd, vcd, cds, bluray.
yaros wrote:NROM
Sounds like a good idea. Sadly i don't know much about electronics.
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lidnariq
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Re: Is there a way to mod the NES to somehow support CDS?

Post by lidnariq »

dougeff wrote:Or to wire one of those old Apple II tape drives, to stream data to the audio.
Japan got that device.
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Fisher
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Re: Is there a way to mod the NES to somehow support CDS?

Post by Fisher »

I think the opposite is already done, a DVD player that plays NES games.
I saw a satellite receiver that plays NES games too, but I couldn't find a video of it. :-(
An NES CD drive would be a great mod to do!
Unfortunatelly a bit expensive...
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Re: Is there a way to mod the NES to somehow support CDS?

Post by nesrocks »

Why would it be expensive? Couldn't it be done with a spare cd or dvd drive? We have tons of those doing nothing nowadays, so they are basically trash.
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Re: Is there a way to mod the NES to somehow support CDS?

Post by lidnariq »

1- You certainly could dig up an old still-working PATA CDROM drive, and hook it up something similar to the XTIDE board. HOWEVER. You cannot buy new PATA CDROMs, and SATA support is horrifyingly harder. If you really want to hook up legacy devices to other legacy devices ... I dunno, VHS seems like a better choice to me.

2- You also could do something like the the Codemasters CD, which used some encoding similar to the various methods used for storing digital data on audiocassette.
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Fisher
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Re: Is there a way to mod the NES to somehow support CDS?

Post by Fisher »

I mean that the cost of the interface, at least to me that hardly can get a PIC for less than 50 bucks, would be terribly expensive. :cry:

What about an ATA/SATA adapter? Do they work fine for this purpose?
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