What all goes into nes/snes reproductions?

[ThrashOmen]

I'm really getting heavy back into collecting with my nes and snes, mainly due in fact to my two article-ish torrents over at underground gamer, and I want to perhaps create my own reproductions along with learning how to re-flash famicom carts with an English translated version of the game.

Growing up I played Final Fantasy 2 and 3 on the snes. Didn't beat either but got far. then I went on to 7, 8, 9, and 10 which I beat the hell out of and loved. Recently I've been playing final fantasy 1 for the nes and I'm ungodly hooked. I don't know why either. It's so archaic compared to the snes FF's.

Anyways, I want a famicom version of the non-us final fantasy and I want to re-flash them myself and then go on to bigger things. So aside from the aesthetics such as labels and what-not, how difficult is it to tinker around with nes cartridges if your only looking to do things like flash english versions of games (such as those done by aeon genesis) onto Japanese carts or completely repurpose them for other games? I really can't find much info online about it and truthfully I don't even know of I'm looking for the right stuff.

[Ziggy]

You don't reflash the carts. The mask ROMs on the carts which contain the game data are permanently written. They can not be erased or rewritten. They have to be removed and replaced with new memory that you've programmed the new game data onto. Of course, it isn't a simple drop in replacement, some rewire is involved.

A better option, in my opinion, is to use a flash cart:
http://www.retrousb.com/product_info.ph ... ucts_id=34

[Betamax001]

Or just buy a repro from someone. I have seen repros of FF2 and 3 floating around.

[Bradtemple87]

I see Ziggy has you covered, you are in good hands

[ThrashOmen]

You don't reflash the carts. The mask ROMs on the carts which contain the game data are permanently written. They can not be erased or rewritten. They have to be removed and replaced with new memory that you've programmed the new game data onto. Of course, it isn't a simple drop in replacement, some rewire is involved.

A better option, in my opinion, is to use a flash cart:
http://www.retrousb.com/product_info.ph ... ucts_id=34

are there guides on doing this? How much programming is involved If I used game data that someone else created instead of actually altering the game data myself?

Im probly going to buy a repro at some point but I would love to learn the basics of it myself. However I feel there are no basics... I'll probly just give up at some point.

[MrPopo]

You don't reflash the carts. The mask ROMs on the carts which contain the game data are permanently written. They can not be erased or rewritten. They have to be removed and replaced with new memory that you've programmed the new game data onto. Of course, it isn't a simple drop in replacement, some rewire is involved.

A better option, in my opinion, is to use a flash cart:
http://www.retrousb.com/product_info.ph ... ucts_id=34

are there guides on doing this? How much programming is involved If I used game data that someone else created instead of actually altering the game data myself?

Im probly going to buy a repro at some point but I would love to learn the basics of it myself. However I feel there are no basics... I'll probly just give up at some point.

What he means by programmed is using a piece of hardware to dump the ROM file onto the chip; this is called programming the chip.

[ThrashOmen]

Uh huh... I see...

Would anyone be willing to link me to a step by step process that shows all the the tools required? A repro for dummies guide?

[Ziggy]

Yeah, I didn't mean programming as in coding software, I just mean writing the data to the chip. Call it burning if you wish.

Jeffro has written a tutorial on NES repros here:
http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... 25&t=21934

I recommend flash carts over repros for a number of reasons. If you're only gonna make a few then it's really not worth investing in the set up. NES repros can be bought for very cheap from NESreproductions.com, or just use a flash cart. These are cheaper options. Using a flash cart, you don't have to use a "donor" cart to create your repro so no carts are harmed. Also, you can use it for MANY games. So you may just want FF2 and 3 for now, but down the road if you want more you can already play them instead of having to buy more repros or make more.

[ThrashOmen]

Understood. I have a flash cart for GBA but I think the famicom carts are something not alot of people have, and if I had them in English they would really stand out in my collection. Perhaps I'll just buy a repro.

[Ziggy]

Are we talking about actual FAMICOM carts, or NES? Some one was just asking me about Famicom repros and didn't realize that they're not playable on a NES with out an adapter.