SNES MARIO CHIP chip-on-board used for reproduction

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lidnariq
Posts: 11432
Joined: Sun Apr 13, 2008 11:12 am

SNES MARIO CHIP chip-on-board used for reproduction

Post by lidnariq »

In the Discord, KML discovered that one of the SNES MARIO CHIP boards has all the signals needed brought out to test pads at the top of the board.

I asked if I had permission to repost this information so here it is:
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Markfrizb
Posts: 607
Joined: Sun Dec 02, 2012 8:17 am
Location: East Texas

Re: SNES MARIO CHIP chip-on-board used for reproduction

Post by Markfrizb »

Does this CoB style cart also have more than needed (at that time) Ram ? Looks like StarFox2 running there which needs 512k Ram.
gorgyrip
Posts: 58
Joined: Tue Jan 11, 2011 4:41 am

Re: SNES MARIO CHIP chip-on-board used for reproduction

Post by gorgyrip »

Maybe it's working because retron dumps the rom and runs it in an emulator. So it doesn't matter how much ram the cart has.
Markfrizb
Posts: 607
Joined: Sun Dec 02, 2012 8:17 am
Location: East Texas

Re: SNES MARIO CHIP chip-on-board used for reproduction

Post by Markfrizb »

gorgyrip wrote: Sat Mar 18, 2023 1:16 pm Maybe it's working because retron dumps the rom and runs it in an emulator. So it doesn't matter how much ram the cart has.
Oh, you’re right. I didn’t notice that it was on the Retron5.
KML85
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Joined: Mon Aug 27, 2018 12:57 pm

Re: SNES MARIO CHIP chip-on-board used for reproduction

Post by KML85 »

If I get my hands on another cart I will check if its possible to expand the SRAM in an ”easy” way.
To disable to maskrom on the board all you need is to remove R4
BokuNES
Posts: 42
Joined: Wed Apr 22, 2020 8:42 pm

Re: SNES MARIO CHIP chip-on-board used for reproduction

Post by BokuNES »

ohhhh man!!, thats sooo cool, i know that starfox 2 its running on an emulator, but it is posible to run it on real hardware using the mario chip??, i think that the MC has not enough pins to address a 512 kb of ram.
Markfrizb
Posts: 607
Joined: Sun Dec 02, 2012 8:17 am
Location: East Texas

Re: SNES MARIO CHIP chip-on-board used for reproduction

Post by Markfrizb »

KML85 wrote: Sun Apr 23, 2023 1:28 am If I get my hands on another cart I will check if its possible to expand the SRAM in an ”easy” way.
To disable to maskrom on the board all you need is to remove R4
I doubt there’s an easy way. Are there similar break out pads like the rom has? Still, you’d have to find out which pin on the Mario chip is the extra address line needed for 512k. It’d be a miracle if they actually pinned that signal to a test pad.
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