26th August 2022, 5:29 AM
I finally got the two Everdrives I ordered in. I have one for original/GBC which I can finally use for all kinds of custom ROMs on actual Gameboy/Super Gameboy hardware. I also have one for my PC Engine. I finished up adding parts to allow USB access but other than that it simply works. Unlike my Famicom one, neither of these really make use FPGA cores because the GB/C and PC Engine never really made use of "addon chips" the way the NES and SNES did. The Gameboy only ever used mappers to exceed the normal cartridge size, which is easy enough to simulate. The PC Engine had a game with built in saving and another with built in additional RAM (both also rather easily to simulate) but otherwise didn't make use of much beyond that. If I want to run CD games, this is the wrong addon for that anyway. There's another that attaches to the back I could get but it's incredibly expensive even by the standards of Everdrives.
Anyway, beyond that I now have a physical cart of Starfox 2. I've seen numerous guides for making these online, but most of them involve an utter rat's nest of loose wires. I didn't want to deal with that kind of nightmare, but I eventually found someone had made a lovely adapter board to allow my writable ROM chips to connect with zero odd wiring. I ripped the ROM straight off my SNES Classic and, after removing it's "header" data to leave the ROM clean, flashed away and soldered it in with that board (after "reversing" the battery on the donor copy of WinterGold I had and replacing it's region chip with one of those aftermarket "region free" replacements). Now not only is it clean internally, it looks lovely externally too. I found someone on Etsy that was printing out SNES cart labels and full manuals using Nintendo's own officially released artwork and manual for the game. Now, what I should do is go to Everdrive and pick up an FX Pack Pro, but I do love original hardware and that includes the Super FX, and this ONE project in particular I just had to do this way for my own reasons. I'll get an Everdrive later on. The one I'm aiming for for my SNES is, after all, the most expensive one that Krikzz sells. https://krikzz.com/our-products/cartridg...k-pro.html (As an aside, as interested as I am in a Master System Everdrive, it's a shame there's not a Japanese style version of that cart for sale. I would also absolutely buy "cartridge adapters" from that site if they sold say a NES to Famicom adapter.
Anyway, beyond that I now have a physical cart of Starfox 2. I've seen numerous guides for making these online, but most of them involve an utter rat's nest of loose wires. I didn't want to deal with that kind of nightmare, but I eventually found someone had made a lovely adapter board to allow my writable ROM chips to connect with zero odd wiring. I ripped the ROM straight off my SNES Classic and, after removing it's "header" data to leave the ROM clean, flashed away and soldered it in with that board (after "reversing" the battery on the donor copy of WinterGold I had and replacing it's region chip with one of those aftermarket "region free" replacements). Now not only is it clean internally, it looks lovely externally too. I found someone on Etsy that was printing out SNES cart labels and full manuals using Nintendo's own officially released artwork and manual for the game. Now, what I should do is go to Everdrive and pick up an FX Pack Pro, but I do love original hardware and that includes the Super FX, and this ONE project in particular I just had to do this way for my own reasons. I'll get an Everdrive later on. The one I'm aiming for for my SNES is, after all, the most expensive one that Krikzz sells. https://krikzz.com/our-products/cartridg...k-pro.html (As an aside, as interested as I am in a Master System Everdrive, it's a shame there's not a Japanese style version of that cart for sale. I would also absolutely buy "cartridge adapters" from that site if they sold say a NES to Famicom adapter.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)