Page 1 of 1
NES Earthbound TKROM Cartridge - Power Off/On - Grey Screen?
Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 8:52 am
by guy-jim
Hello
I have made a NES Earthbound cartridge for my friend and I, using a TKROM PCB from NES Shadow Gate.
I followed instructions on the ROMLab website to prepare the CHR and PRG ROM files from a 100% clean Earthbound prototype ROM.
I stripped the header of the prototype ROM using uCON64 and then split the resulting clean Earthbound ROM using Hex Workshop into appropriate CHR and PRG ROM files of 256kb each.
I have used two 27c2001 EPROMs for CHR and PRG programmed at 100% correct programming voltages etc, and I followed the instructions on this website for connecting up to the TKROM cartridge PCB; (NES EPROM Conversions.txt).
Now the cartridge does seem to work just fine.. when I put it in and power on initially it boots up and you can play it. However I have a little annoying problem. When I power the NES off, and then back on again, I get a grey screen and the cartridge refuses to load.
The only way to get the cartridge to work again is to either press reset, and then it loads up instantly again, remove the cartridge and wait a while then put the cartridge back in again and power on, or remove the power from the rear of the NES then power back on.
The NES has a brand new 72 pin connector, and I do not have this problem with my other original games, only the Earthbound reproduction cartridge that I made. My CIC-chip in the NES is disabled, I tried on a NES that does not have the CIC-chip disabled and the same symptoms occur.
I have checked the pinouts of the CHR and PRG ROMs against the 27c2001 EPROM and everything seems to be connected just fine.. I have googled/searched these forums and other places and I cannot find anyone with the same problem.. I have checked and double checked that the programmed files are OK..
I was just wondering if anyone has any ideas please as to how I might resolve this annoying little problem?
Thank you in advance..
Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 9:29 am
by peppers
Most of the guys in the fourms are too mature and will simpley ignore this type of thing and let the problem go away but I suspect makeing so meny identical posts is a violation of the don't be a dick rule.
Anyway I don't know I made me a EB0 cart useing flashROM's and do not have this issue, buts its such a minor problem it seems to hardley matter pressing reset is not difficult, your supose to hold the reset button when you turn off the power for games that have S-RAM anyway, and your not supose to leave the cartrige in the system when not in use also anyway because that wears out the connector. I would simpley not worry about it, all it really dose is make you do what your supose to do.
BTW: FYI, don't be a dick is pretty much the general rule of any and all good forums just use common since next time.
Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 11:10 am
by B00daW
Weird if you check his post count though, man.
Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 11:12 am
by guy-jim
Hi,
I'm really sorry about the identical posts!
When I was trying to post this thread yesterday I kept getting an error message, I did check to see if the thread had been posted and it hadn't..
I'm guessing that there was a problem with the forum at that point yesterday and now it has caught up and there are multiple threads.
I'm so sorry about that, please could a moderator delete the duplicates?
Thanks so much!
With regards the issue perhaps it is because I have a PAL NES and the game was unreleased and designed for North America - NTSC region?
Anyway sorry again and if anyone has any more ideas with regards solving the problem please do let me know, I'd be most appreciative!
Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 11:17 am
by koitsu
guy-jim wrote:Hi,
I'm really sorry about the identical posts! :shock:
When I was trying to post this thread yesterday I kept getting an error message, I did check to see if the thread had been posted and it hadn't..
I'm guessing that there was a problem with the forum at that point yesterday and now it has caught up and there are multiple threads.
I'm so sorry about that, please could a moderator delete the duplicates?
The reason for this was that there was server maintenance going on, which isn't your fault. There was also a mishap as a result of some MySQL table corruption, which resulted in missing messages and other oddities.
http://nesdev.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=5261 describes that problem.
I've deleted your duplicate threads and left this one active.
Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 11:33 am
by tokumaru
What about his supernatural post count?
Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 2:03 pm
by Jarhmander
tokumaru wrote:What about his supernatural post count?
He
is our father.
Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 2:18 pm
by Memblers
Haha, 16 million posts. Doesn't look like there's an easy way to edit it, no big deal. It's 24-bits, so I guess if he posts more later it might wrap around to zero.
Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 2:23 pm
by Memblers
As for Earthbound, I've heard there were some copy-protection type of tricks in it (presumably them just being careful with their finished prototype). I don't know how likely of a problem that is, but are you sure about the origin of the ROM you have?
Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 2:29 pm
by Bregalad
He looks like he have 0xFFFFFF posts (or -1 if you prefer), so on next post it will it wrap arround to zero (suspense, suspense...)
Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 3:13 pm
by peppers
You could try the old hacked version I think its was Neo Demiforce version or something like that. It was made because the copy protection would not allow you to play very much of the game in older emulators that where around in those days. So they hacked it to remove the protection. (there is more than one version of the NEO demiforce hack one not sure what would be recamended)
Just so you know the unaltered version works for me, US console though.
So what is the goodNES name of the ROM you where useing?
BTW sorry for calling you a dick.
Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 4:01 pm
by guy-jim
Yeah 16 million posts in just a day... I love it. Always said I was a fast typer
I am pretty sure that my ROM is just fine.. the one that I have used is called "Earth Bound (Prototype).nes" I can't remember where I got it from exactly but it wasn't from GoodNES.
I do have a GoodNES set and I've just used Hex Workshop to compare my "Earth Bound (Prototype).nes" with "Earthbound (U) (Prototype).nes" and it all matches up OK.
Is that the right one to use?
Thanks very much for the advice. A nice friendly forum here.
BTW sorry for calling you a dick.
Haha, don't worry about it, I do have one so I guess I am a bit of a dick in a sense
Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 4:29 pm
by peppers
Thats the unaltered version. you might want to try "Earth Bound Zero (Neo Demiforce v1.01 Hack-1) (U)" "hack-2" in place of 1 if you want the word zero at the end on the title screen, can't say if it will help you or not though.
Personally I would still just call it good enough but thats me.
edit: you know I mgiht have used the demiforce one when I made mine, perhaps I'll dump it later and check.
btw goodNES is a rom auditing tool you can run any NES ROM through, it runs a checksum on them and can tell you if they are good or not and will rename them appropratley. It can also fix minor problems.
Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 5:20 pm
by Dwedit
The demiforce hack only changes the menu code, and removes copy protection (The copy protection crack is only necessary if the game is modified, such as modifying the menu code to be Nesticle compatible.)
Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2009 6:25 pm
by koitsu
Memblers wrote:Haha, 16 million posts. Doesn't look like there's an easy way to edit it, no big deal. It's 24-bits, so I guess if he posts more later it might wrap around to zero. :P
I sat for about 10 minutes trying to figure out what tokumaru was talking about, then I read this and burst out laughing. :-)
Code: Select all
mysql> DESCRIBE phpbb_users user_posts;
+------------+-----------------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+------------+-----------------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| user_posts | mediumint(8) unsigned | NO | | 0 | |
+------------+-----------------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
The field has a numeric range of 0 to 16777215, but can be used to store up to 8 bytes worth of data, effectively supporting a value up to 18446744073709551615.
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/ ... types.html explains the difference between MEDIUMINT(8) and MEDIUMINT. Boring stuff, I know.
I validated his post count (and looked for others) by doing:
Code: Select all
mysql> SELECT user_id,user_posts FROM phpbb_users WHERE user_posts > 10000;
+---------+------------+
| user_id | user_posts |
+---------+------------+
| 3927 | 16777215 |
+---------+------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
mysql> SELECT post_id,topic_id,poster_id FROM phpbb_posts WHERE poster_id=3927;
+---------+----------+-----------+
| post_id | topic_id | poster_id |
+---------+----------+-----------+
| 47511 | 5260 | 3927 |
| 47466 | 5260 | 3927 |
| 47534 | 5260 | 3927 |
+---------+----------+-----------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)
mysql> UPDATE phpbb_users SET user_posts=3 WHERE user_id=3927;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)
Rows matched: 1 Changed: 1 Warnings: 0
Voila, fixed. :-)