nesdev.org

I've been struggling for the past day or so trying to get a Star Fox 2 repro working on a Doom donor cart.

I used a TSOP40 to DIP36 adapter from Buyicnow (the Type III one), and a AM29F080 I had spare to burn the game. I downloaded the rom image with the matching "good" MD5 as listed on the SF2 translation patch page on Romhacking.net, applied the patch, checked for a header via SNES purify, tested it in bsnes, and wired it up 1:1, since it was on an adapter board that matches the exact pinout of a normal SNES mask rom (and GSU roms, from what 3 or four sources say).

However, it just will not flipping boot.

I've checked the re-checked for bridges on the TSOP, replaced the TSOP, checked my solder points with a continuity tester, and nothing is bridged. The chip gets 5 Volts, and is grounded properly, /CE and /OE are tied to ground (CE originally was going to pin 20 on the GSU2 though? I tried it both ways. Neither worked.)

I continuity tested every address and data line, and they all went to the GSU2, but the pins did not mesh with the pinout of the GSU2 mentioned here: http://www.snescentral.com/0/0/7/0077/sf2_faq.txt, so either I have a special board, or the document there is incorrect.
My copy of Doom even has the Korean SRAM found in Stunt Race FX, so it SHOULD be fine. (I removed it from a destroyed board)

Regardless, when I put the game in my SNES, I get a black screen. My sony PVM says it's getting an RGB signal though.

The board model is SHVC-1CB0N7S-01
http://www.snescentral.com/pcbboards.ph ... 1CB0N7S-01

Anyone have any suggestions?
Did I maybe fry the GSU2 with an errant static shock?

Ok, I've swapped the clock crystal from a known good cart, and it's no good.
I've also swapped another GSU2 from a different copy of doom, and it's STILL no good.
I've swapped the SRAM, still no good.

Would a bad lockout chip do this?
What about the 74HCU04?

Is there maybe a broken trace under the solder mask I can't see??

-Edit 12/31-
I've just finished removing the old wires and replacing them with 80 wire IDE cabling, to eliminate the possibility of stray wires.
I also soldered back on the original Doom Mask Rom, and the game works just fine. It boots reliably EVERY TIME.
So, I re-soldered the new wires on, and put a fresh TSOP, checked every pin for continuity and when I was convinced the soldering was perfect (no bridges, every pin goes either to ground, VCC, or the SuperFX2), I fixed them all in place with hot glue.

I re-tested the wires, no bridging, and all wires have continuity from the TSOP pin to the superFX or the ground/VCC pins on the cart edge.

I read the file off the TSOP package and, booted it in BSNES and played a vew missions. Everything SHOULD work.

I put it in my SNES and get a black screen.
Great.

Does Star Fox 2 not work on Doom, or does it not work via RGB?
I'm using 120ns flash roms, this should surely be fast enough for a 200ns slowrom?
Can someone give me the CRC32 of their patched Star Fox 2 rom that is known good and working on real hardware?

I'm tearing out my damn hair here.

I did mine with a 27801 per SNESDEV. A TSOP is a waste for this game. My PCB was the racing game for the FX chip, I forget the name, but there's only like one.

I used the translate/fix patch for the rom, which translates, but also removes anything that doesn't work from the menu screen.

the TSOP is a AM29F080. It's only 1 Megabyte, and I got a bunch of them for free.

It's hardly a waste, but I'm going to try it again with a M27c801

wyndcrosser wrote:I did mine with a 27801 per SNESDEV. A TSOP is a waste for this game. My PCB was the racing game for the FX chip, I forget the name, but there's only like one.

I can think of two: Stunt Race (Wild Trax in some markets) and Dirt Trax (predecessor to Excitebike 64).

there's something fishy with this copy of Doom.
it seems it only wants to play Doom!

I've tried with an M27c801, byte swapped and regular, and neither will boot, but as soon as I put the Doom mask rom back on, it works fine.

guess it's off to ebay to find a copy of Stunt Race FX.

Can you put Doom on an EPROM and play that? Because if you can get Doom to run on Doom, that's a good starting point.

unfortunately, I don't have any flash modules more than 1MB right now, and no logic chips to multiplex them (would that even work on SuperFX?)

It's most likely the rom image.
I tried the eprom and flash in a copy of Yoshi's Island, and it's no good.

Does anyone have a CRC or MD5 for a working rom?

I've run starfox2 on doom. There are no issues with it or the game. The stunt race is an easier conversion mostly because doom doesn't have the save circuitry. And Dirt Trax doesn't have the save circuitry as well but it does have the 512k SRAM that SF2 needs. In fact, you can get SF2 to run on any of the FX boards if you upgrade the SRAM size with a few jumpers. I've done it.

Here's my FX adapter.

http://youtu.be/Qb99wXsS7_s. Go about 5 mins into the vid for the SF games.

The smt mask rom is the same pinout as the dip mask roms except a few more power and grounds are added. So if you wired your type 3 tsop adapter pin for pin, it should work. Maybe you cooked your flash rom with all the soldering. It's unlikely you damaged the FX pcb itself. I would bet it's in your wiring or the flash rom is damaged.

Markfrizb wrote:In fact, you can get SF2 to run on any of the FX boards if you upgrade the SRAM size with a few jumpers.

Sure you can!

Oh wait! Is that why Star Fox 2 was abandoned? Confusion with Street Fighter and Shining Force?

It worked after migration to a Stunt Race FX donor.

very very weird.
I guess there's a broken trace on the Doom PCB mask rom pads that was being stressed more with the wires than with the mask rom.