Famicombox Ice Hockey and Volleyball

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Fiskbit
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Re: Famicombox Ice Hockey and Volleyball

Post by Fiskbit »

The FamicomBox/Station can definitely use IRQs, but there's no multiplexing; the IRQ line is directly connected to all 16 slots. As such, only one IRQ-driving game can be used at a time. MMC3, unfortunately, drives the IRQ line at all times, not just when asserting, so MMC3 carts are mutually exclusive. I don't know anything about Super Chinese 2, but if it does use the scanline IRQ, you wouldn't be able to have 2 of them plugged into the same console and see correct behavior.

If you mod the console to do something like AND all the IRQ lines together, it fixes this issue, but you have to hope a game doesn't exit with its IRQ asserted. You need proper multiplexing, instead.
Hiccup
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Re: Famicombox Ice Hockey and Volleyball

Post by Hiccup »

Thanks to j4m13c0 and RetroGE for dumping these. Just spent a few hours adding them all to No-Intro DAT-o-MATIC. Hopefully we can get some photos and dumping method info to go with those dumps soon (or new dumps with those things). I've also created placeholder entries for carts that are not dumped. https://datomatic.no-intro.org/index.ph ... earch&s=45
kmg
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Re: Famicombox Ice Hockey and Volleyball

Post by kmg »

I've gathered a few PCB photos from various places. Here are a few of the clearer images. IIRC the SMB PCB was in a tweet, and the other three came from an auction. Note, Excitebike's mask roms match the Famicom ones, further evidence the eventual dump will line up as expected.

Argos no Senshi:
argos2.jpg
Excitebike:
excitebk.jpg
SMB:
smb1.jpg
Volleyball:
volley2.jpg
There's also Patnukem's photo of Mahjong's board: Image
kmg
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Re: Famicombox Ice Hockey and Volleyball

Post by kmg »

Oh, and here are a couple from a Japanese blog post that aren't quite as crisp.

Mario Bros:
mario.jpg
Takahashi Meijin no Boukenjima:
takahashi1.jpg
NewRisingSun
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Re: Famicombox Ice Hockey and Volleyball

Post by NewRisingSun »

I wonder what SSS stands for.
Fiskbit
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Re: Famicombox Ice Hockey and Volleyball

Post by Fiskbit »

Both j4m13c0 and RetroGE have taken images, though I'm still waiting on those. I'd like to get them onto https://nescartdb.com eventually.

Regarding the dat-o-matic:

-Volleyball didn't get the dump information. The info in my post is correct; it just wasn't initially because the CHR was repeated, which I've fixed.
-Fighting Golf is, like, half-verified. Not sure if that's useful for the dat-o-matic, but the PRG chip, which is the one known to have differences, has been dumped from two sources.
-The FamicomBox menu cart has been dumped (by j4m13c0, Patnukem, and others). Checksum details below.
-The FamicomStation menu cart has been dumped by Patnukem, but it's believed 2 bytes of code at the start were overwritten with 00's by overvoltage. Fixing those bytes to match the identical section in the FamicomBox menu makes the ROM match the Nintendo header's checksum, so it's suspected the fixed dump is correct. Obviously, though, we do want verification.
-These games marked as 'no dump' in the dat-o-matic are dumped and confirmed the same as other released versions:
+-- Gomoku Narabe Renju (Japan) (FamicomBox)
+-- Hogan's Alley (Japan) (FamicomBox)
+-- Mario Bros. (Japan) (FamicomBox)
+-- Rockman (Japan) (FamicomBox)
+-- Winner's Cup (Japan) (FamicomBox)
-This duplicate entry, marked as no dump, can be removed: Twin Bee (Japan) (FamicomBox)
-There is also a release of Punch-Out!! (no Mike Tyson's) for the FamicomBox that should be in the list. It may be unique because the Nintendo header for non-Mike Tyson's versions do not have correct checksums, which would prevent them from being recognized by the FamicomBox.

FamicomBox (Japan) (FamicomBox)
Size (Bytes): 40960
CRC32: 646170EF
MD5: EE1DFCBD2CC2AB3708B1438C988D3B05
SHA1: FD63394BDFD7DA653F3CAF2CE1E9E9361B63FDC7
SHA256: 27C334F5FA3B3A69922D81724FBFDF5A7724E78D3B697D1427814BC382A836DD

FamicomStation (Japan) (FamicomStation) [REPAIRED]
Size (Bytes): 40960
CRC32: 05F73CB8
MD5: 63C42944B0DD171C4E98A5CCD828A592
SHA1: 8BF4B89CF26D0C4B1AB9DA54EEA2974C000617F8
SHA256: 4C1B0E6E7B585B3C8B1F6CFC9E17C1051A6A488D525DAE64ED26F87EF8BA9B8F
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togemet2
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Re: Famicombox Ice Hockey and Volleyball

Post by togemet2 »

A friend of mine dumped a total of 10 cartridges which came with his unit, all of them except one matched the retail releases.

From what I can tell, some of the eprom cartridges have differences from the maskrom cartridges. (I'd assume the eprom variants are the first revision? They even use the same eprom covers that can be seen on various NES prototype sample boards). j4m13c0's dump of Senjou no Ookami matches the retail release (CRC32: 441aeae6), but ours ( CRC32: 7c2cbb96) does not. I also have hashes for a bunch of carts dumped by cheesemeister, and his copy matched our dump.

I think it'd be a good idea to note down what type of PCB each of these were dumped from so that we could also track down and check the other version of it. I've uploaded the hashes for the dumps we did (as well as PCB shots) to the dat-o-matic for anyone who wants to take a look. :beer:

Image
Preserving Nintendo's History
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Fiskbit
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Re: Famicombox Ice Hockey and Volleyball

Post by Fiskbit »

I've dumped my Senjou no Ookami (EPROM) and it is also the different version. My guess was that this might be a mapper change from UN1ROM to UNROM, and it definitely looks like that has been changed. Rather than using the UN1ROM bank table at PRG $1FF00, it's now using a new UNROM bank table at $1C000 (and the table at $1FF00 has been changed, too, for good measure!). Not sure what else is different, since the contents have been shifted. There is, of course, a Nintendo header now, since this modified version is not in the database.

Size (Bytes): 131072
CRC32: 7C2CBB96
MD5: C8A33D4D50E247105740A22BD0ECB814
SHA1: 1E6EF6615C6C45F366263AC39F54F312A37C134F
SHA256: 93EE1D86DD65982B269EAFCA117992A3A671161288786A6E15238D5240C7409E
Hiccup
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Re: Famicombox Ice Hockey and Volleyball

Post by Hiccup »

Nice :)
Fiskbit wrote: Sat Mar 12, 2022 3:55 pm Both j4m13c0 and RetroGE have taken images, though I'm still waiting on those. I'd like to get them onto https://nescartdb.com eventually.

Regarding the dat-o-matic:

-Volleyball didn't get the dump information. The info in my post is correct; it just wasn't initially because the CHR was repeated, which I've fixed.
I forgot to add that, done that now.
Fiskbit wrote: Sat Mar 12, 2022 3:55 pm -Fighting Golf is, like, half-verified. Not sure if that's useful for the dat-o-matic, but the PRG chip, which is the one known to have differences, has been dumped from two sources.
Ah I was a bit confused about that. I've added it, but its marked as "other" so that it doesn't count as a verification and put a comment.
Fiskbit wrote: Sat Mar 12, 2022 3:55 pm -The FamicomBox menu cart has been dumped (by j4m13c0, Patnukem, and others). Checksum details below.
Thanks, added entries for j4m13c0's and Patnukem's dumps. Can Patnukem provide photos? I can also add the others if you know who they are.
Fiskbit wrote: Sat Mar 12, 2022 3:55 pm -The FamicomStation menu cart has been dumped by Patnukem, but it's believed 2 bytes of code at the start were overwritten with 00's by overvoltage. Fixing those bytes to match the identical section in the FamicomBox menu makes the ROM match the Nintendo header's checksum, so it's suspected the fixed dump is correct. Obviously, though, we do want verification.
Thanks, added that. I guess you mean the header in the ROM itself? Also, do you have the hashes for the unmodified cart?
Fiskbit wrote: Sat Mar 12, 2022 3:55 pm -These games marked as 'no dump' in the dat-o-matic are dumped and confirmed the same as other released versions:
+-- Gomoku Narabe Renju (Japan) (FamicomBox)
+-- Hogan's Alley (Japan) (FamicomBox)
+-- Mario Bros. (Japan) (FamicomBox)
+-- Rockman (Japan) (FamicomBox)
+-- Winner's Cup (Japan) (FamicomBox)
Can you post the hashes and dumper names for confirmation?
Fiskbit wrote: Sat Mar 12, 2022 3:55 pm -This duplicate entry, marked as no dump, can be removed: Twin Bee (Japan) (FamicomBox)
Done
Fiskbit wrote: Sat Mar 12, 2022 3:55 pm -There is also a release of Punch-Out!! (no Mike Tyson's) for the FamicomBox that should be in the list. It may be unique because the Nintendo header for non-Mike Tyson's versions do not have correct checksums, which would prevent them from being recognized by the FamicomBox.
Created a nodump entry with that explanation.

Thanks for the corrections/suggestions.

Btw, in your list of RetroGE's dumps, Baseball is listed twice. I just assumed that was a mistake, is that true? Or are there two carts?

----
togemet2 wrote: Sun Mar 13, 2022 1:31 am ...
Thanks, was about to mention your additions. Please could you add cheesemeister's too? (or paste the info here and I can add them)
Also, please could you add photos/dump tool for this one https://datomatic.no-intro.org/index.ph ... =45&n=3295

----
Fiskbit wrote: Sun Mar 13, 2022 2:54 am I've dumped my Senjou no Ookami (EPROM) and it is also the different version.
Added.
Fiskbit
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Re: Famicombox Ice Hockey and Volleyball

Post by Fiskbit »

Hiccup wrote: Sun Mar 13, 2022 5:25 am Thanks, added that. I guess you mean the header in the ROM itself? Also, do you have the hashes for the unmodified cart?
Yeah, we've been calling the header/footer/whatever at $FFE0 in the CPU address space the "Nintendo header". With the two fixed bytes, the PRG checksum there matches, and the CHR one was good already. Note that this cart came out of a system that had been fried, which is a common issue on these consoles as the power supplies tend to fail high-voltage, which supports the idea that the bad bytes were erroneous writes at the time of system failure. The information for the unfixed ROM, as originally dumped:

Size (Bytes): 40960
CRC32: F9534CBA
MD5: BF0D8CBE3E8676E485DA3D58620ABC76
SHA1: F9D4370A3E7DB8746AC235FC8CD91D5125932B62
SHA256: 734EA0648E92980C6355D1077649A6353B38105FDA3C97CA08DB68CF5175A35C

Fiskbit wrote: Sat Mar 12, 2022 3:55 pm -These games marked as 'no dump' in the dat-o-matic are dumped and confirmed the same as other released versions:
+-- Gomoku Narabe Renju (Japan) (FamicomBox)
+-- Hogan's Alley (Japan) (FamicomBox)
+-- Mario Bros. (Japan) (FamicomBox)
+-- Rockman (Japan) (FamicomBox)
+-- Winner's Cup (Japan) (FamicomBox)
Can you post the hashes and dumper names for confirmation?
The Mario Bros information is contained in the list of dumps from j4m13c0, and the other 4 in the list from RetroGE (along with 2 more dumps of Mario Bros, one from FamicomBox and the other FamicomStation).
Btw, in your list of RetroGE's dumps, Baseball is listed twice. I just assumed that was a mistake, is that true? Or are there two carts?
There were two Baseball FamicomBox dumps. (The set I received had Baseball.nes and Baseball 2nd.nes.)


I'll be adding board types where I have the information to my earlier dump lists.
Edit: I have done this now.
Hiccup
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Re: Famicombox Ice Hockey and Volleyball

Post by Hiccup »

Ah I see, you meant those nodump entries are redundant as there are FamicomBox dumps in the retail entries. Okay fixed all three issues.
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Ben Boldt
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Re: Famicombox Ice Hockey and Volleyball

Post by Ben Boldt »

NewRisingSun wrote: Sat Mar 12, 2022 3:40 pm I wonder what SSS stands for.
SSS:FamicomBox::HVC:Famicom

For that matter, what does HVC stand for?
kmg
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Re: Famicombox Ice Hockey and Volleyball

Post by kmg »

HVC is purportedly Home Video Computer. I'm not sure what to make of some of the PCB serial codes, though they may just be arbitrary, non-overlapping identifiers. SSS for FamicomBox, MDS for VS, IRS for M82. If they stand for something I suppose S is meant to be System.
Fiskbit
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Re: Famicombox Ice Hockey and Volleyball

Post by Fiskbit »

Hiccup wrote: Sun Mar 13, 2022 6:13 am Ah I see, you meant those nodump entries are redundant as there are FamicomBox dumps in the retail entries. Okay fixed all three issues.
For the FamicomBox dumps that match consumer versions, I figure these dumps should probably be added to the consumer versions' dump lists with a comment specifying they're from FamicomBox.

Some more nitpicks (sorry!):

- Winner's Cup (Japan) (FamicomBox) is in RetroGE's set and matches Soccer League - Winner's Cup (Japan), so this entry should presumably be removed.
- Super Chinese 2 (Japan) (FamicomBox) is in RetroGE's set and matches Super Chinese 2 - Dragon Kid (Japan), so this should also be removed.
- There are currently 2 Excitebike games in the list: Excite Bike (Japan) (FamicomBox) and Excitebike (Japan) (FamicomBox). I think the former should be removed.
- I'm not convinced the (EPROM) dumps should have their own entries unless they are found to be unique. So far, only Senjou no Ookami has a unique EPROM version, and this is because it's a mapper conversion from an uncommon mask ROM board to the common SSS-UNEPROM-02 EPROM board. For games with both mask ROM and EPROM variants, I don't think we're generally going to see differences here because the other games we know about use standard mappers/boards.
Hiccup
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Re: Famicombox Ice Hockey and Volleyball

Post by Hiccup »

Nothing to apologise for :). I've merged/deleted entries as applicable, although I've left the "no dump" entries there for now, just so they are visible. If they turn out to be the same as the consumer version, they'll be merged into the consumer entries of course.
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