Famitracker NES music to NROM256 cartridge? 27c512 eprom

Hey, I have a bunch of Famitracker tunes I've made over the years. I would love to put some of them on cartridge. I recently exported one of my songs to an NES ROM file, then I split it using ReadNES, and doubled the PRG to make it 64KB. I burned the 64KB PRG file to a 27c512 EPROM, then put the PRG in a NROM256 board. I plugged the game in and nothing seems to happen?

I put a socket on the PRG and left the original CHR in tact. Am I missing something?

I appreciate any and all help with this,

Thanks!!

The process you described is correct, so there must be something wrong with the soldering. Did you use a socket or did you solder the chip directly to the board? If you used a socket, you could try putting the original PRG-ROM back to see if it works.

Did you just drop the chip in as is? Or did you rewire the mismatched pins properly?

I keep sending people to this topic and discussions similar to this one end. Not sure if it's helping or causing them to give up
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=9220

The 27c512 should work without rewiring...

Well, it was my first time soldering/desoldering in months so I was kind of sloppy with it (mangled the original pins a bit). Here's a couple pics:





I think I might've cut a trace or 2 during the desoldering process. I may have even rewired the traces wrong?

I bought half a dozen NROM carts at a local shop last night for very cheap, so I think I might do another one (correctly this time) and first test the original PRG on the socketed board I have.

Thanks for the help

Put the original ROM back, if it works, the EPROM wasn't programmed correctly, if it doesn't work, there must be something wrong with the soldering. Do you have a multimeter to test the continuity of all the contacts?

I meant the original PRG rom I desoldered is pretty much in a million pieces. So, I'd have to open up and desolder a PRG from another NROM board. I might have a multimeter somewhere, that should help.

I'm gonna go desolder the other PRG chip now, I'll get back to you guys soon.

Thanks for the help

Well that was a waste...

I desoldered the new NROM board (did a good job, removed easily), then I put the original PRG in the socket. All I get is a grey screen, nothing else. I tried my 27c512 music chip as well, same result.

Do sockets have to be facing a certain way or something? This isn't making any sense. The game is clean and was tested before I desoldered it.

The socket is supposed to face to the right correct (the notch is on the right, just like the PRG EPROM)?

All the traces are fine and in tact, all the solder joints are good.




**edit** it seems to be working slightly...it's playing my song but just the first note and very glitchy. The original Othello PRG works.

Would having DPCM samples make it not work or something? The ROM ran fine on FCEUX

Are you using the latest version of Famitracker? I think the last version had a bug in the NES export that failed to clear RAM.

Nope. I have it though. What should I do to export the file? I usually export it to .NES then I split it using ReadNES, multiply the PRGx2 to fit on a 27c512. I see that 4.1 has a few more options. What's best? Or is my method fine?

Also, I noticed my NROM has solder on the Vertical mirroring. Do I have to desolder that and solder the Horizontal mirroring? The ROM for my music says it uses Horizontal mirroring.

^lol, no. I can play some cool glitch Othello now though hah

I'm not sure what to recommend for export. Your method sounds okay. I use the BIN export when I want to make a ROM, personally. Guide here: http://famitracker.com/forum/posts.php?id=3681

Mirroring is not a problem, the ROM made by Famitracker does not use the PPU for anything.

Can you try burning an NROM game to your chip just to verify that there's nothing wrong with the programming of the chip?

When I go to burn the PRG ROM I change the file extension to .BIN correct? I've made repros before but not sure if music carts are different.

A file extension is just text, it doesn't change anything.

Try the exact process you're doing (splitting, doubling, burning), but with a commercial game (that doesn't rely on the CHR data, so SMB is out), this should tell if the problem is the ROM or the process.

I'm trying again using the latest version of Famitracker. I've followed RainWarrior's .BIN export guide, but when I go to click " build_prg or build_nes" it says "nes_wrap.o not found" ?

Any help?

Thanks a lot, I feel I'm almost there! Also I'll be using a 27c256 eprom so I wont have to double it or anything this time either.

Well, if nes_wrap.o isn't being generated, perhaps you could show me the errors the compiler generated? (The line invoking ca65.exe is the one that is supposed to generate nes_wrap.o from nes_wrap.s.)

Sounds like you didn't put the NSF driver source in the folder.

Ah, I see. jsr put the files in a folder in the zip for the latest version. It wasn't like that when I made the guide. Just copy all the driver files to the same folder as the wrapper.