Is it possible to put "road blasters" on a real cart?

[Markfrizb]

As far as I know, the only way to play road blasters is on the SD2Snes flash cart. Just wondering g what it would take to get it on a real cart. Is it possible? I suppose it is since the SD2Snes can load the game on the Snes. Just curious what it would take.


http://www.dforce3000.de/

[tepples]

You'd need to build an FPGA that implements the MSU1.

[Markfrizb]

You'd need to build an FPGA that implements the MSU1.

But what if you used a MSU1 cart? What then? Is it just a boat load of memory or a lot of other stuff going on? I don't really understand what the MSU1 is .......
This is pure curiosity. No intention of making one. Just want to learn why this is possible.

Thanks

[qwertymodo]

You'd need to build an FPGA that implements the MSU1.

But what if you used a MSU1 cart? What then?

There's no such thing The SD2SNES is the only MSU-1 cart in existence. The MSU-1 was invented by byuu, and didn't exist during the lifetime of the SNES, and was never actually produced in hardware until ikari_01 implemented it on the SD2SNES. If you want to take his HDL files and build your own MSU-1 cart, then you could do exactly what you're suggesting, but it'd be rather expensive...

EDIT: Now that you have me thinking about it, I get the sneaking suspicion the MSU-1 could be implemented with a CPLD and an external DAC, rather than needing a full-on FPGA. If so, it actually wouldn't be too bad price-wise.

[benjaminsantiago]

I know that you meant a singular cart as opposed to a "dev" or memory card-based tool, but I think its important to note that the SD2SNES is very real. Besides the engineering exercise of getting it onto a cart, how would getting it onto a cart be "more" real?

[Markfrizb]

I didn't realize that MSU carts didn't exist. So my question about putting it on a "real cart" is a fallacy.

The sd2snes is a real cart, I get that. Very interesting. Is road blaster the only msu1 game?

Thanks

[tepples]

the SD2SNES is very real. Besides the engineering exercise of getting it onto a cart, how would getting it onto a cart be "more" real?

It's more real in two senses: 1. being able to sell repros, and 2. being able to develop an original homebrew game using this coprocessor and sell it.

[getafixx]

Is road blaster the only msu1 game?

No, there's also a Mario world hack that utilizes the MSU-1 for digital cd-quality audio.

[Markfrizb]

Is road blaster the only msu1 game?

No, there's also a Mario world hack that utilizes the MSU-1 for digital cd-quality audio.

Humm, I didn't know that. Where can that be had?

IT seems like if there were a CLPD device that could function as a MSU (or maybe a blank dev cart), then the home brewers would have another tool at their disposal. The Road Blasters is very impressive!

[getafixx]

Humm, I didn't know that. Where can that be had?

I think it's still in demo stages, but its called Super Mario Odyssey. You can probably find it on SMW Central.

[MottZilla]

I'd like to see someone build a MSU-1 add-on cartridge stand-alone. Think a Game Genie pass-thru sort of device but adds MSU-1. Infact you could take that a bit further, and actually have a Game Genie type of device so you could actually use it to add CD quality music to games while using the original game cartridges.

But at the very least a pass-thru to use MSU-1 on other Flash Carts would be handy.

[getafixx]

So bypassing the game's built in audio for an external audio source, but using a passthrough cart with an MSU-1...That would be pretty cool to see. I wonder if it's even possible without having some kind of code on the original game to tell the digital audio when to play/change tracks?

[MottZilla]

Maybe I can make it more clear. Imagine a cartridge that is like a Game Genie or Action Replay. It plugs into the SNES cartridge port and has a cartridge port on top of it for another cartridge to go into. Similar to a Game Genie it would have hardware inside it to intercept ROM accesses to patch ROM reads in real time, but ofcourse having a much higher capacity than a Game Genie or Action Replay. Those devices can only patch a few bytes of ROM at a time. This would need to be able to patch alot more.

Ideally the device would be able to handle a significantly large amount of patched or expanded data so you could use it to play translations of games such as Final Fantasy 4 or Seiken Densetsu 3. But also so you could patch games to use MSU-1.

So here is an easy example. You have this device with the MSU-1 which is like a Game Genie. You plug in a real Rock 'n Roll Racing cartridge on top and put in your SD card for the game. The MSU-1 data could actually contain ROM patch data for a BIOS in this cartridge to read to know how to patch the ROM for the MSU-1 features. So you'd just turn your system on and your game could have CD quality music, using the original cartridge. And ofcourse nothing would stop you from using it with another flash cart like the PowerPAK. You wouldn't need Game Genie style ROM patching in that case, just the MSU-1 support.

[qwertymodo]

byuu actually proposed exactly such a pass-thru device, or possibly an expansion-port device (though IIRC the final MSU-1 design wouldn't support that, where the original 21FX draft spec did). It could be done, but one of the big pains is obtaining the female socket for the pass-thru functionality :/

[mupfelofen.de]

or possibly an expansion-port device

That shouldn't be that hard to obtain. Even the pitch is non-standard, something close should do the trick quite nicely. I remember a post in this forum about the expansion port.