I want to buy a Famicom reprogrammable cart

[faganas]

Hello.
This is my first post here
I am the owner of a ZX spectrum (since I was a child) & I have bought a Famicom Clone (those cheaps ones).
I like retro games more than the new games that need a 200euro PC to work

The carts I've found so far are type like "80000 in 1" or "9999999 in 1" which actually have 5-10 games that are repeated for XXX times

I was trying to find a way to play some of the NES emulator images I have to my Famicom clone.

I was thinking of "hacking" one of the carts I have with something that can be reprogrammed but I'd rather avoid it (since I'm not that much into electronics soldering).

The thing that attracted my attention is (with the use of an 60-72 adapter I guess) is the PowerPak. from what I've read it's not 100% reliable but I'm still thinking of buying it...

Are there any programmable-carts like this (I mean not requiring a flash programmer)? I like the idea of just using a card reader/USB to tranfer games.
Also, where can I buy a cheap 60-72 converter?

Apart from ready made, can you point me to schematics of the simpler to make programmable cart for famicom? I saw few that seem simple but they are all for NES & the making the 60-72 converter adds to complexity....

Thanks

[noattack]

I have a PowerPak. It's a great tool to have and plays most games, but it might be a bit pricey if you're not also using it for development. It isn't compatible with some of the more sophisticated mappers, so games like Castlevania III and the Koei strategy games won't work. That doesn't matter so much anyway since you're Famiclone most likely couldn't handle those particular games either.

As far as adapters go, I'm not clear on whether you want a 60 -> 72 or vice-versa. The former was commercially released as the Honeybee, but you can even tear apart a Gyromite cart and find the proper adapter. I forget what the 72 -> 60 is called (though if you have a true Famicom clone, I assume that's what you want), but you could probably hunt around the famicomworld.com messageboards to find one for sale. I imagine they'd be around $15-25.

[tokumaru]

I have bought a Famicom Clone (those cheaps ones).

Those are not very good, but if all you want to do is play some games, it's probably enough.

I like retro games more than the new games that need a 200euro PC to work

Me too, although for me it doesn't have anything to do with the price (also I'm too lazy to convert 200 euro to see how much that is O_o), I just think most new games suck.

The carts I've found so far are type like "80000 in 1" or "9999999 in 1" which actually have 5-10 games that are repeated for XXX times

Those are completely useless for any sort of "hacking"... Making dev carts usually involves desoldering the original chips from carts and installing sockets so that you can freely swap chips you program with an EPROM programmer. However, these pirate multicarts do not have desolderable chips, they have what's knows as "glop tops", which make the cart pretty much unusable for anything else.

The thing that attracted my attention is (with the use of an 60-72 adapter I guess) is the PowerPak. from what I've read it's not 100% reliable but I'm still thinking of buying it...

If you are willing to pay what the PowerPak costs, do yourself a favor and buy a real NES/Famicom too, it will probably be cheaper than the PowerPak. I remember reading at the official site that there might be compatibility issues between the PowerPak and Famiclones. Famiclones really aren't that good, you should keep that in mind.

I had Famiclones for years before I bought my first NES a while ago. Believe me, hunting one down is really worth the trouble, the original is much better than those awful clones (once you do something about that damned cartridge connector).

[faganas]

Thanks for the quick reply

All the cartidges I have appear to be "glop tops".. so I guess I can't "hack" any of those ... & since you say that famiclones are not very good then it might not even worth it...
I could try and just bypass those "glop tops" and put a IC base ....

Or maybe a PS with NES emulator or maybe WII with an NES emulator might do the trick...(with the same ammount of money that a NES+programmable cart will cost me)


PS: By mistake I missed a "0" in my initial post . I meant 2000Euro not 200Euro

Thanks again

[tokumaru]

Or maybe a PS with NES emulator or maybe WII with an NES emulator might do the trick...

If ALL you wanna do is play games on your TV, yeah, I'd say this is a better choice.

We usually resort to the actual console for developing purposes, because the original hardware is the only one that can be 100% trusted. Emulators and Famiclones will always have discrepancies when compared to the original thing, even if they are not easily noticed by casual gamers.

Famiclones can run most games when you have the actual cartridges, and they are usually OK for casual gaming, but there are some games that will have problems running, and some hardware (such as the PowerPak) might not work either. I haven't tried my PowerPak on my Famiclones yet, maybe I should.