nesdev.org

So far, I've actually had pretty good luck with the replacement cartridge connectors I got on eBay - it just tends to get dirty easily. I came up with a simpler cleaning method though... The official NES cleaning kit is this "cart" with a handle, and a funny cardboard thing inside, instead...

Which reminds me also, it'd be worth looking up your burner's support for the chips, because I seem to remember seeing older NMOS EPROMs requiring some different programming voltages. I'm not sure if that was only chips before the 2764 though. It should list 2764 and 27C64 seperately. Yes, your pro...

27010's don't have A17. That pin, pin 30, is simply not connected to anything on those chips. That extra address bit is used on the 27020, however, because it needs it to select the upper bank. So, yeah, the wiring would be pretty much the same - the 010 is just half the size of the 020, so no A17. ...

Regarding leaving games in the system - I generally try to never leave games in the NES when I'm not using it. The NES connector relies solely on spring tension, so leaving the cart in the connector can't be good for it in the long run. Other machines, I don't worry about. The industry standard boar...

Maybe that weird tune when you start the game was made on purpose? It also appears in another hack made by ATA, called Mario vs. Airman (SMB ROM). Somehow I doubt that this is intentional. I think it's more a case of the same person making the same oversight twice. If he's using an older, less accu...

This has probably been gone over many times, and I've found some inconclusive threads on it. But, I figured I'd bring it up again and see what's currently available. As we all know, the cartridge connector in the NES sucks. The thing is really sensitive to dirt and dust, the pins tend to fatigue, an...

The "C" means that they are CMOS devices, devices without the "C" are old style NMOS devices. The important differences here are the speed and the power consumption. CMOS devices draw less power and tend to be faster. I've noticed that when using non-CMOS EPROMs in NES games, the...

I've been having some fun lately playing with various ROM hacks I've found on the 'net. Super Mario Bros. is a prime target for hacking, and there are some cool ones out there. The best one I've found is "Extra Mario Bros.". It's an amazing hack, expanding the original ROM and changing it ...

Well, yesterday I was at a local used game store and noticed this "thing". It's called a Retro-Bit NES console, but from what I see on the 'net, it's really a Yobo. It was $25, so I bought it out of sheer curiosity. I got it home, hooked it up, and, while I'm appalled at the incredibly che...

That sounds like a mirroring problem. Perhaps you were confused by Nintendo's opposite nomenclature for nametable mirroring. "V" on Nintendo discrete boards (NROM, C*ROM, U*ROM) means vertical arrangement of nametables, which implies horizontal mirroring. Likewise, "H" means tha...

I've never made an EPROM cartridge for the NES before, but I've done it many times for simpler systems, such as the Atari 2600 and the Gameboy. I'm very familiar with Atari bankswitching, and I have done some reading on the NES and the various mappers that were used, and I think I have a pretty good...