Zig's SNES Repros

[Epoch]

Hey Ziggy, I found out about your project just today and I gotta say what you've done is truly awesome. I've actually dreamed of doing the same thing for Earthbound 3 on the GBA but while I'm still wishing you're actually doing. I've also thought about basically replacing abused cover art on official game cartridges with high-quality official looking prints as I can't stand a good game having a scuffed and/or scratched up cover. The perfectionist in me can't stand it, but I just can't seem to find the time and my printer being a cheap piece of junk doesn't help to motivate me.

But anyway enough of that, about your draft... while I agree that measures need to be taken to ensure your carts aren't mistaken for official copies, making the cartridge practically scream "I'M A PIRATE JOB!" does take some of the glitter away from the project. Specifically, I feel like changing the "Super Nintendo Entertainment System" seems a bit much. The game is for the Super Nintendo right?

The "SNS-ZIG-USA" text is a great idea and the watermark idea is definitely a must. I think it would be even better if the watermark was fashioned in the style of a stamp, it would be very Nintendo-ish somehow and would look more attractive than simply having text.

Along with that, how about modifying the Official Seal of Quality to show that it's not quite official? Like maybe have it say "Un-Official NINTENDO Project Cartridge"?

I hope you don't mind but I kinda messed around with your original draft to give you a visual idea of what I mean:



I also added "By Ziggy587" to ensure no one has any doubt that this is not an official cover or cartridge, as well as kinda put a signature on the work you've done. In the event that someone else out there does something similar it would be cool to let others know which custom covers were done by you and which ones were not. Just an idea anyway.

[Hobie-wan]

Hmm, Project Cartridge. Gets the point across without being crass about it. I kinda like it.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

Hmm, Project Cartridge. Gets the point across without being crass about it. I kinda like it.

Agreed, this looks awesome, now just fix the SNES logo's red underline to once again say Super Nintendo Entertainment System and I am once again a fan of the art.

[Yukima]

*backtracks through thread with an awed whistle*

All I can say is... WOW. These SNES repros are AMAZING, especially the ones of Starfox 2 and Star Ocean. I have some original Japanese carts of some RPGs (Star Ocean, Bahamut Lagoon, and Sailor Moon: Another Story to name a few) that I might like to have translated versions of in the near future... It would definitely beat trying to hunt down a SNES game copier to play these games with, and I'd be able to actually use the cartridges!

I'll be looking forward to what other repros you come up with! (And maybe get around to requesting a few myself! )

[Ziggy]

Thanks.

No need to hunt down a bulky copier, just get a flash cart...

http://www.tototek.com/store/index.php? ... ucts_id=39

They're gr-r-reat!

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

Agreed, tototek is one of if not the best places to get SNES copiers and flash carts.

[Ziggy]

For sure, I highly recommend that flash cart. Especially if you want to play translated games (I recommend it over getting repros).

I hope you don't mind but I kinda messed around with your original draft to give you a visual idea of what I mean

Not at all. In fact, thanks for the suggestions. I like them a lot. I really like the stamp effect, and I think I may use that. I also really like your idea for the seal, but unfortunately that is REALLY hard to see when it's printed to size, I think it would go unnoticed.

And I actually have a really cheap printer. It's a Canon printer/scanner combo that was only $30 in Wal Mart. When I was using the Avery paper labels with the "tape trick" my printer would make them look like shit. I would use my mom's high quality printer to get them to look good. But since I've been using the photo paper, my cheap $30 printer looks VERY nice. I haven't even bothered to try the photo paper labels on the better printer.

[Epoch]

Good point about the seal of quality being unreadable... I took a look at one of the SNES games nearby and the text would be tiny indeed. Oh well. :/

[Ziggy]

*None of the pictures below are my own, they were found on the internet. I'm just using them to illustrate what I'm talking about. I don't want any one to think that I'm trying to pass off this work as my own.

So as always, I'm researching for more info on this when ever I can. I've come up with a few things, I thought I'd share.

So this goes for the standard SNES game that's around 32Mbits big. Nintendo's mask ROM pin outs differ from the standard pin out of an EPROM, so you're not able to simply drop in new chips. The "standard" way to get around this is to wire each pin of the EPROM to the PCB, so you get something that looks like this:



Note that this is not my work, this was posted by kogami on the digitpress forums (he does great work). But anyways, this is what I've been doing. It works great, but it is very time consuming and very tedious work. Preparing something like 40 wires is a pain in the ass. Also, fitting this inside the cart can be a pain in the ass. It does fit, but takes some effort. You can fit up to 6 EPROMs (which is needed for Tales of Phantasia) using this method, there are 4 EPROMs in the pic (which is what most games will be).

Then I found out there's a couple other ways of doing it, but all have their pros and cons. A game that only needs 1 or 2 EPROMs can be a lot easier. You can just bend the pins up that differ and drop the EPROM into the mask ROM socket, then just wires each pin to it's corresponding pad like in this pic...

EDIT: Opps, I goofed and linked the wrong images. I couldn't find a good pic, but here's what I'm talking about implemented on an NES cart...



And there's yet another method for doing essentially the same thing, it involves cutting the traces on the PCB of the pins that differ and re-routing them to match up with an EPROM so that you can just drop in an EPROM with out having to bend up any pins. You can see what I mean in the following pics from Rom Lab...



And if you need two EPROMs, you can solder one to the underside of the board like this...



So both EPROMs are stacked, as you can see in the side view of the board in this pic...



Note the last three pics are all the same board. Also, they're from the RomLab website as credited in the photo. I didn't see any disclaimer saying not to use the pics, so I hope I'm not upsetting any one (I love that site!).

So yeah, great method. But only effective if you only need 1 or 2 EPROMs otherwise you're back to square one. It is possible to put two chips on the PCB, then two more above the PCB like in this pic (again from kogami)...



...which does make fitting in all in the cart a LOT easier. But if you ask me, I think that's a little more confusing to do. You still have to solder a wire for each pin, so you might as well just stack all four EPROMs to avoid confusion.

Again, this is great, but only really effective when you only need 1 or 2 EPROMs. If you do this, you can stack the EPROMs on the board (2 on either side for a total of 4) but they wont fit inside the case unless you cut out some holes. Obviously most people wouldn't like that.

[bacteria]

Lovely work.

So, apart from StarFox 2; what other unreleased titles are there out there on ROMS that you can integrate into your SNES carts?