Another question from S q u e e !

S q u e e ! · Post by **S q u e e !** » Sun Feb 20, 2005 2:59 pm

Wow! Two in one day! I saw this from a while back, and was wondering if this was possible.

I would like to make my NES portable even better by making it so I only have to put in the games once, save the data to a compact flash card, and select it from a menu to play without the cart. Is there a way I can do this, becuase I Googled and came up with nothing.

Thanks!

Post by **gannon** » Sun Feb 20, 2005 3:04 pm

yes, but without advanced programming and hardware design knowledge you can't.

S q u e e ! · Post by **S q u e e !** » Sun Feb 20, 2005 3:08 pm

Lucky me! My dad is a programmer, and I have some knowledge of hardware and stuff of the like...

Post by **gannon** » Sun Feb 20, 2005 3:19 pm

Ok then, you need to interface the CF card in either ide mode or flash mode to a PIC microcontroller. That will contain all filesystem code and create a gui in 6502 asm. You output the PIC to a FPGA that loads a 6502 bios to read rom headers to find out mapping/mirroring type and split the roms, then load them up into a PRG Ram and CHR Ram. To dump carts you'd need to write in an option into the bios and then select the games mapper manually (this is because a nes can't read mapper type)

S q u e e ! · Post by **S q u e e !** » Sun Feb 20, 2005 3:31 pm

Seems simple enough. Now, is there a certain place that I have to attatch this to on the NES?

Post by **gannon** » Sun Feb 20, 2005 3:33 pm

on the cart port like a standard nes cart.
Oh yeah, and it's not as simple as it looks. There are over 148 mappers for the nes you'd need to code in the fpga, and the PIC fs reading code is pretty complex.

S q u e e ! · Post by **S q u e e !** » Sun Feb 20, 2005 3:38 pm

I asked my dad what it means, and he doesn't have the slightest idea. TO believe I though he was a programmer! I really want to know how to do this, and I only understand some of it, the rest is all gibberish to me. Could you explain it a little simpler, because then I might understand it.

Post by **gannon** » Sun Feb 20, 2005 3:40 pm

That is the simple explanation. The real explanation would have included how you'd need to use the outputs from the PIC and FPGA to controll shift registers and such

Post by **SpongeBuell** » Sun Feb 20, 2005 4:43 pm

S q u e e ! wrote:TO believe I though he was a programmer!

well, he could be a programmer in a language other than what's needed, it's like giving instructions in German when you know Spanish.

peppers · Post by **peppers** » Sun Feb 20, 2005 4:48 pm

you could always just incorperate a eeprom into its design or maybe a few for the appropreate sizes but that would onley work for 0 mapper games well at least without getting complicated

S q u e e ! · Post by **S q u e e !** » Sun Feb 20, 2005 5:00 pm

Now that sounds a bit easier... but which games are 0 mapper?

peppers · Post by **peppers** » Sun Feb 20, 2005 5:09 pm

ofcourse its a bit more complicated than just sticking in a few eproms
dont get me wrong for starters disableing the lockout chip is a must and maybe ill go into the rest lator if your lucky if you want to do it the ez way your going to need a lot of switches, well onley one switch to change the mirroring if you do it the most ezest way

SgtBowhack · Post by **SgtBowhack** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 2:42 am

Yeah, there's already a thread on this topic and it was pretty much deemed impossible by all except for Kevin Horton, who is a god among geeks.