SNES Pinout/ Wiring questions

Hello there. I apologize upn front if this question has been answered. I ant seem to find it.

I am trying to build a few SNES carts for myself and have some flash chips to use. I ordered a couple adapters from BuyICnow.com seen here

Type III

http://www.buyicnow.com/vp.php?pd=2586


And I also have type II

http://www.buyicnow.com/vp.php?pd=1986


I am not very learned at SNES carts. SO I am new to all of this. My questions are this

1. When burning the chips , do I just remove the header from the .SMC file? and then burn the rom onto the chip?

2. Do I have to rewire the chip when I am using the adapter ? When I use a 27C8001 I have to rewire Pin 31 to hole 24 and pin 24 to hole 31. DO I have to do this when using the adapter? or is the adapter fine with no rewiring?


One of the games I want to make myself is Brutal Mario which is a 4Mb rom. But I only have 29FO016B chips. Can I use NBA Live 95 as a donor and do I just split the file evenly in 2Mb files?


I truely appreciate any help here. And again, I am sorry if this is a qusetion that is asked alot.


-Imagesowner2

These reproduction posts are getting old really fast =/.

Why is that? Please excuse my ignorance but I find , that playing these games on rea hardware is a lot of fun. I don't want to pay someone to do it. I don't learn that way. Playing some of the homebrew games and hacks on the SNES is very exciting.

And I was always taught that the only stupid question is the one not asked. I don't see the harm in asking these questions here. I am sure that a lot of members here know the answers to my questions.

People who want to play hacked games on the console can always try SNES PowerPak, Super EverDrive, and sd2snes. A lot of people who ask SNES reproduction questions here have ended up turning around and making repros to sell.

Or buy one of infiniteneslives repro boards. What is the difference of buying one of his boards and burning a game on it and just building one myself and Saving the money? I am a collector and like all collectors I like having and holding each and every game , comic , toy , etc that I collect. No matter what or where you are your going to have that element of deceit by people. But I am not going to let the actions of few ruin it for me. I and anyone else who views things this way are robbing themselves of the fun of why we collect or develop this stuff. Know what I mean? I've seen these discussions on here before and no matter what is said the end result stays the same. If the person is going to build it to sell then so be it. If they want to collect like me then so be it. I wouldn't stress yourself out about it.

Actually my endgame here is to learn how to program games. It would be a dream of mine to create a new game. It amazes me what some of you guys do here. I'm a super mario 3 guy myself. I'm stoked about the upcoming release of mario adventure 3. That guy is simply amazing. I've tried collecting all of his previous hacks to play but can't find them all. I am missing his smb1 seasons hack. Wouldn't it be cool to have all of those on one cart? Like the ninja gaiden cart I saw somewhere on here. That would be cool. I'm trying to Learn 6502 assembly now and then on to the next step. I don't care if I'm 80 when I get it done. It would be cool to have my one hack.


Hey , I understand if you don't want to help me. I'm going to learn it somehow. I was just hoping you guys would give me a hand. Trial and error has always worked for me in the past. But in this , it can get expensive.


Thanks for listening to my rant.

There are two problems.
One is what tepples said.

The other is that this forum seems to regularly acquire people, coming in just once to ask a single question, which is always the same as the last time the previous time a person wanted to make a single reproduction for themselves, and then they leave. Being asked the same question over and over is tiring. Especially if those questioners don't stick around to help answer the same question for others. (Could this partly be due to the brusque treatment they get in the first place? certainly)

As a counterpart: the thread where unregistered has been regularly asking for coding help for the past two years has been mostly polite and rewarding to those assisting.

I certainly understand that. That's why , in my last thread/question , once the issue was figured out I posted the complete breakdown on how to complete the job.

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=10410


Now , I don't post much. I am just not learned enough to intelligently contribute. But I will definately help whomever I can. If I know how to do something.



So , yes I am a new member. I want to stay and learn and help. But I am going to ask a lot of questions. And , hopefully a lot of people can learn from the question I ask.



Anyone got any info for me from the original post? I still need help. Lol.

lidnariq and tepples basically pointed out the two main reasons that you've received the response that you have. Of course YOU aren't going to turn around and sell repros on Ebay for ridiculous markups. Neither is anybody else who's ever asked here. And yet, repro sellers continue to pop up. And to further exacerbate the issue, there have been websites with no affiliation to NesDev which discussing repro building, and then link here, as though this is "the" place to discuss repro building. I don't have access to account statistics, but I'd wager that the vast majority of new accounts here have been created to ask questions about repro building. I'll admit, I did it myself, though I have stuck around to contribute and work on other projects as well, but you have to understand that you've just walked into a sore topic that is something of a bad, running joke here. New user, first post, who wants to bet they're asking how to build repros?

1) That's not what this forum is for
2) Many of the members feel VERY strongly against repro building, both due to its destructive use of donors and because of the repro selling market
3) 99.9999% of the time, it's the EXACT SAME QUESTION that has been asked a dozen times before, and has been answered again and again

The other big issue with repros is that as soon as infiniteneslives completes his Hi\LoROM boards, donor-based repros will no longer be necessary. I understand not wanting to use a flash cart like the PowerPak/SD2SNES, I understand wanting to have individual carts for repro games. I understand that those flashcarts are expensive. I understand that the SD2SNES (the one flashcart I want to purchase because of its special chip support) is out of stock pretty much everywhere. That's why infiniteneslives' boards are the perfect solution. No need to hunt down obsolete chips, no need to solder fine-pitch TSOP parts, no need to sacrifice existing games (even if they are mediocre sports titles). Yes, it's a little more expensive, but it's overall a much better solution. I don't have a link on hand, but there are replacement cart shells available as well that are manufactured new, so between that and inl's boards, you can build a repro cart without any donors or EEPROMs or Willem, or any of that. If he manages to stick to the $20 price point he mentioned early on, the cost you save by building your own with donors really isn't worth it unless you plan on mass-producing and selling, which then puts you straight on the black list of reasons why people don't want to help you.

Here's a price breakdown:
INL HiLoROM cart
=============
One time purchase
INL Kazoo Programmer - $20

Per-cart purchase
INL HiLoROM board - $20 (32Mbit, pre-order price)
Cart shell - $6
Label - varies, depending on where you get it made

Total = $46 for the first cart, $26 for each cart thereafter (plus labels and shipping)


Donor cart
========
One time purchase
Chip Programmer. I'll assume the GQ-4X. - $100
Programming adapter board - varies, I'll say ~$30

Per-cart purchase
Donor cart - varies, I'll estimate ~$5
Flash ROM/Adapter board - varies, I'll estimate ~$10
Label - varies, depending on where you get it made

Total = ~$145 for the first cart, ~$15 for each cart thereafter (again, plus labels and shipping)

You'd have to build 10 donor repros just to break even on the cost of the programmer. Not to mention it's more work, so is your time really worth that little?

Honestly, I think there should be a sticky titled "DON'T ASK HOW TO BUILD REPROS" that links to inl's site and the cart shells.

Suggesting to buy a powerpak to people who want to learn soldering doesn't seem to be very helpful. Unasked questions are certainly stupid, but actually asked questions can sound quite stupid, too. For example, that SMC header question: There should be lots of docs that explain the "purpose" of that useless header, and that explain the SNES memory map & location of the title/entrypoint structure, so yes: remove that header! Asides, how would you burn a 512.5 Kbyte ROM-image on a 512.0 Kbyte EPROM, for example?
If I may advertise this: check http://nocash.emubase.de/fullsnes.htm especially the Cartridge Slot Pinout and ROM Pinout chapters should contain the info that you do need. For the ROM Pinout chapter, I should probably add this: Mind that SNES "LoROM" cartridges are leaving SNES.A15 unused (and do instead connect "ROM.A15 and up" to "SNES.A16 and up"). For your EPROM pinouts refer to the EPROM datasheets, and for your adaptors, refer to adaptor datasheets, or trace out how they are wired on your own.
Oh, and it would sound smarter if you could change your notation to say "wire /ROMSEL to /CS" instead of wire "Pin X to hole Y". That'd make it easier to other people to figure out what you are doing, and it would sound a bit more as if you were having a rough idea what you are doing :-)

Yeah, buying eprom burners is expensive. But they are an absolute must-have for any half-serious projects. I wouldn't know how to make emulators without an eprom burner (leaving apart systems like SNES and GBA that can be booted from WRAM). Without eprom burner I wouldn't even be able to boot my PC without useless delays. Please, everybody, stop discriminating people with eprom burners. That devices are really useful!

Anyways, I wouldn't recommend buying one. They are basically consisting of a bunch of latches, so one could fairly easy build them for $2-$5 (or more if you want to use a textool socket instead of a 10 cent socket). Nowadays, with modern FLASH chips (that don't require those special EPROM programming voltages) it's really very simple.

EPROM/flash rom programmers are essential and not just for repos and Snes stuff..... But hey, I'm in the arcade business so I do use it often. Hobbiest maybe not so much but still a good learning tool.

But this leads me to a basic question..... Why not have a site (like rom lab) that spells out the information newbies need/want? To actually make a repo cart, there's a BIG learning curve there.... More than just connectivity.

I know I have learned A LOT since joining this forum.

Or maybe when that question comes up in the future, a link to a FAQ forum post can be used as a reply that answers some of the most basic questions instead of a tongue lashing.

Just thinking out loud.