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I'm interested in making a repro cart of Final Fantasy VII. I'm looking for that cart, but it may be easier to find another cart from Shenzhen Nanjing. So I wanted to know if the correct mapper is the only requirement, or is there anything else that such as the size of the game that is needed.


I'm sorry if this has already been answered somewhere else. But I couldn't find anything on google.

I just want to be sure before I go out and buy a game that may not be able to be used as a donor.

I seem to remember there being discussion about hacking the ROM to use a different mapper. I can't seem to find any threads about it now, but my google-foo sucks It all depends on weather or not the FFVII code uses the funky CHR-RAM banking in mapper 163. If not it could probably be ported to another mapper.

To answer your question, without hacking the ROM, you'll need to find a board with the same mapper with enough PRG-ROM address lines to support a 2MByte (16MBit) ROM chip.

Shenzhen 163 is very simmilar to an oversized BNROM. I have the Lei Día Huang Bi Ka Qiu Chuan Shuo (aka Pokémon Yellow)

It has the ability to automatically switch CHRRAM pages on scanline 128, but I've found that in this game it is barely used, only on the title screen.

Replace that with a sprite 0 hit and write to 2000. Poof, no more weird cartridge stuff.

Please, don't call this chineese pirate crap Final Fantasy VII. This is an insult to the real Final Fantasy VII. Please !

As for your question this game uses a quite unique mapper (like many chineese pirates) and I don't even know what hardware this cart uses. If it has glob tops or any crap like that you could even be unable to replace the ROM sadly.

It is essentially one giant BNROM cartridge, only with WRAM. It just needs to be mapper-hacked.
But yeah, Nanjing can't code worth shit. The code where they load font characters into VRAM looks fine and decently optimized, but their game algorithms are bad. Using slow movement for walking around a map, then suddenly doubling the movement speed when you are scrolling the screen is inexcusable.

I see I haven't been the only reverse-engineering their text system

I have opened the Pokémon Yellow cartridge and inside there is a TSOP FLASH chip containing the game, two RAM chips (I can't remember their size right now), one of them battery-backed, and finally a small epoxy blob with the mapper

I think I have some pictures of it dissassembled on my ImageShack account...

To answer your question, without hacking the ROM, you'll need to find a board with the same mapper with enough PRG-ROM address lines to support a 2MByte (16MBit) ROM chip.

Okay, so most any Nanjing game should work.
Thank you

Please, don't call this chineese pirate crap Final Fantasy VII. This is an insult to the real Final Fantasy VII. Please !

I would have to agree with this when referring to the original untouched version. But with all the changes it's been receiving lately, it's become a much more enjoyable game to play.

Pictures here: http://www.elotrolado.net/hilo_hilo-ofi ... 1727723864

PS: Oh, I've just noticed you have a Red Savarin avatar. I like that game, too.

Other Nanjing boards might not work, there are two different Nanjing mappers.

I would have to agree with this when referring to the original untouched version. But with all the changes it's been receiving lately, it's become a much more enjoyable game to play.

Yes, you did an amazing work in this department, turning this total piece of pure shit into something that is somewhat decent.

Although, I'm sorry, but it's still not Final Fantasy VII yet. Sorry for the fanboyism.

FFVII is mapper 163 like most Shenzhen Nanjing games. I bought mine on Taobao. You can buy one, desolder the FLASH, reprogram it with your game and solder it again.

Of course a BNROM conversion would be better

Other Nanjing boards might not work, there are two different Nanjing mappers.

I thought all Nanjing games used mapper 163. What other mapper did they make?

I see I haven't been the only reverse-engineering their text system

What games of theirs are you planning on translating? If you're interested in doing a translation of Pokemon Yellow, I did a hack of this game you can use. It translates most of the menus and improves the game's music.

FFVII is mapper 163 like most Shenzhen Nanjing games. I bought mine on Taobao. You can buy one, desolder the FLASH, reprogram it with your game and solder it again.

Of course a BNROM conversion would be better

Alright, sounds easy enough, what flash chip would you recommend?

Just match the part number on the chip inside the case. For instance, the Pokemon Yellow cart linked above uses a 29LV160 part. You can order some of those chips and what ever other hardware you may need (like a compatible socket adapter for flashing or for fixing to the board) and it should work just fine.

If you have issues finding the part number just post a high-resolution image on this board.

My goal was improving the text engine for western languages, doubling the text box height from 2 lines to 4 lines (removing chinese character compatibility), adding a new and easier-to-read font and converting the game to BNROM, then translating the game to English (using texts from the real Pokémon Yellow), but as I didn't like the ugly hack I had to make on the text engine to expand the text box, I just abandoned the project.