nesdev.org

Heyy i am new to this site, but am very interested at what you guys discuss and know. I have recently been reading alot of stuff about people taking donor carts and replacing the PRG and CHR(sometimes) chips inside with new roms. I am thinking of purchasing a willem eprom programmer (good choice? for a beginner?). I have cajoNES to seperate the files. I think i should be able to do it, but i can't find out how to know what donor carts work for each rom? Any help would be greatly appriciated

Willems are terrible, stay away!


Buy parts from retrousb.com for MMC1 and logic mapper games, they work well and no carts are destroyed, plus no rewiring needed!

If CajoNES doesn't split a file right, mail me and I'll give you my splitter program.

thanks, how would i know if cajo is splitting the file right? do u mind sending me the file you use so i choose the one that i prefer (you probably know what your doihng better than me) and why are willem no good? i am on a fairly low budget so could u suggest another affordable one that could get the job done? Also i have read about retrousb, but i would much prefer do the wiring and stuff myself using donor carts etc. I am doing this project mostly for enjoyment! thanks

oh right one more thing i meant to ask (sorry to be a bother just want to get information right ) would someone mind explaining the mappers of an nes rom ? ino there are a bunh of types but dont really understand it

qtoyoda wrote:I am thinking of purchasing a willem eprom programmer (good choice? for a beginner?).

In my personal experience, Willem programmers are very unreliable... Don't get anything that connects to the parallel port, as most new computers don't have this port, and the few ones that do usually have compatibility issues. I replaced my parallel port Willem by a USB Wellon and I'm very satisfied. Works every time, and I don't have to mess with switches or jumpers.

I have cajoNES to seperate the files.

I usually split ROMs using an hex editor, since the iNES format is so simple (16 byte header + PRG-ROM pages + CHR-ROM pages), but you feel more comfortable using a software, that's fine.

I think i should be able to do it, but i can't find out how to know what donor carts work for each rom? Any help would be greatly appriciated

A good reference for this is bootgod's database. Look up the game you want to put on a cart and see what board it uses. Then make another search for that board, and all the games that use it will be listed. Some boards can be converted into different boards if they are similar enough (if they use the same mapper, for example), and some games will run on different boards without modification if their board is a subset of the other board (for example, if the only difference between two boards is the presence of SRAM, a game that doesn't use SRAM will run on both boards), but you shouldn't wory about that right now.

I'm just curious about what you have against Willem programmers. I have the USB programmer and I haven't had any problems with it.

THis is what i was thinking of buying, and i dont think i have paralel ports, but im thinking, there must me some adaptor ? Also i looked up the wellon usb but that thing is EXPENSIVE! im pretty cheap... and dont know how much i will use this thing. Im a pretty big beginer so this information is very helpful to me could u send me a file to one of your hex editors ?

THANKS

qtoyoda wrote:would someone mind explaining the mappers of an nes rom ?

"Mappers" is how we call the extra hardware present in the carts that is meant to expand the capabilities of the system. You see, there's an entire computer inside a video game console, but there is no software for it to run. The software is in the carts, and you have to plug them in so that the computer has a program to run. The NES was designed with certain limitations to how much memory it can see (32KB of PRG-ROM, 8KB of CHR-ROM/RAM), and the first games that were made actually respected those limitations, so their carts only conteined the memory chips wit the program and the tiles.

But as time went on, games were becoming more complex, and those limitations were getting in the way. Now, you can't change how much memory the NES sees, but you can use a larger memory chip and select which part of it will be visible to the NES at any given time. This means you can have a total of, say, 128KB of PRG-ROM, but the NES will only see 32KB at a time. This works well for games, because you can have different levels, songs, etc. in different banks (as they are called) of memory.

The same concept has been used to overcome the CHR limitation, and since there are a lot of signals present on the cart connector, the carts can monitor/control a lot of other aspects of the machine as well. So Nintendo and other companies started to explore this potential, and and this resulted in the creation of many mappers with different features available to the games.

If you're gonna get a Willem, at lest get a USB one. There is no adapter to make the parallel programmer work on USB... Even if there is an adapter that works for printers for example, those programmers are very picky, and don't even work right with the majority of actual parallel ports, let alone an adapter.

Alright thank you for that information, it would suck to buy a paralel port willem before realizing i couldnt use it ! Is this what im looking for eBay Can u plz check for me ? Sorry if the things im asking are RLLY stupid... I appreciate the help

No, don't buy that one. Can't you see the giant Parallel Port on it in the picture? The parallel port eprom programmers are very flakey for some people or when used with certain PCs or operating systems.

Here's my ROM splitter and a blank file maker on racketboy forums, it explains how to use them there. IDK if cajones does it but mine will tell you the mapper it uses so you can find it by just running the ROM through it and seeing what it is if it doesn't say online.

http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... 25&t=28549


Also has source. Basically made by everyone in the IRC chat.


I have a parallel port pocket programmer I, it's amazing and does every NES you'd ever need, but it's old and USB would be a nicer one, but the ones on their site are $300 and that is a tad expensive, even to me.

qtoyoda wrote:Can u plz check for me ?

Like MottZilla said, watch out for the huge parallel port connector at the left side. Notice how the one posted by 67726e doesn't have it. That seller is probably trying to confuse buyers, because the parallel port Willem does indeed have a USB connection, but it's only used for power. All data communication goes through the parallel cable.

alright thanks guys, but is there any eprom pregrammer that doesnt use paralel ports that i could get for cheap? otherwise i think i will just buy one of the paralel port ones anyways cus im on a low budget and i reallly want to get on with this project if i do have paralel ports out, how could i determine if it would work or not?

thanks

One somebody I know bought some model for $50, still waiting for it to come in though to see how it works. I'll tell you what he says later, but they exist.


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 9460wt_905


Says XP software but not 64 bit PC's, but the software should still work.