Here’s the guts from [Dext0rb’s] Super Nintendo cartridge. It’s easy to pick out the dark-colored board which lets him reflash SNES ROMs via USB. We’ve seen this done a number of times, but this is a much cleaner option than hacks that just add a dead-bug-style memory chip.
The board he designed has a double-row of pin headers sized to fit the footprint vacated by the original ROM chip. The board has a mini-USB connector which can be accessed through a hole he cut in the side of the cartridge enclosure. This is in the right place so that you cannot plug it in when it’s being used in the SNES (which would cause damage). The ATmega32u4 chip handles USB connectivity and programs the 32 megabit flash chip which stores the ROM. He’s posted a few articles on the blog portion of his site which you’ll find interesting. We suggest starting with this hardware teaser.
This is the coolest SNES hack. IT’S LIKE I PLAY MARIO, BUT THEN LATER TONIGHT, I PLAY ….Ganbare Goemon 2: Kiteretsu Shougun Magginesu.
On the topic of the actual hack, this board is very slick and appears quite functional. If I still had a working SNES, I would definitely try to build one.
However, I have to point out that the title of the article says “Drop-in board for NES ROM…” when it should say SNES.
wait does anyone know a pcb manufacturer that would make a set of 15 of these for me? for cheap of course
ITead studio. It was $32 USD shipped for the options I picked (thinner PCB, black soldermask, etc) for 8 boards. They ended up sending me 12 or so. That’s about as cheap as you’re going to get :D
How expensive an option to add microSD and a default room as a menu?
A lot more expensive. Most designs like that use a CPLD as the memory mapper, which is awesome. But adds complexity and cost.
There are the SNES PowerPak, sd2snes and Super Everdrive projects that do what you ask!
What exactly is going wrong with the mac code? I haven’t’ had an opportunity to look at it yet, but if you could let me know what the issue is I might be able to work on it a little bit.
its terribly unreliable. it errors when writing data to the AVR – i think its a HID send report problem.
Hawt! I have the cycloDS chip, so was looking for another one!
So, I thought of doing this myself to try to get a translated version of Seiken Densetsu 3 working on my system. Went through and figured out that making my own flash-DIP adapter would be nearly as expensive as buying the PowerPak… so I just bought the PowerPak to save myself the work. Turns out that although that game wasn’t on their “incompatible” list, I can’t get it to work. Not even the untranslated version.
To the original builder of this: have you tried this particular rom (translated or untranslated) in this device?
No; only tested with NBA JAM T.E.
It would work if you used this with SHVC-1J3M-20 PCB: http://www.snescentral.com/pcbboards.php?chip=SHVC-1J3M-20
That site lists other games that use that PCB, so NHL97 seems like the easiest way to get this PCB.
alright, thanks for the advice! If I use this as a rom replacement I’ll let you know if it works with that PCB.
Spectacular device. Well done!
This is awesome, I know this guy in real life. he told me a week or two ago that he had finished it and its on hackaday, small world.
Why was the MAD-1 address decoder removed? the SRAM would not be usable without it.
That was just a prototype picture…I just grabbed the first SNES PCB I had lying around and tack soldered two or three pins in place.
Wonder if it’ll work on a super fx cart
Ah this is so awesome, anyone have one I could purchase via paypal (dex3ter?)
william@infinite-views.com
Help!!!!
Sorry to post on such an old topic…
I started this project years ago and lost the schematic :( I have 3 boards with the Megas, memory and octal latches…. I cant find the resistor and capacitor values to finish them.
Dext0rb… I beg of you… This project NEEDS new life.. This is such an amazing board.. I want to develop more games “Live”
Shit just got interesting folks. Found the files ;)
I lied.. Im a liar. I recovered some old data from the project but it was too far overwritten to salvage. Back to “HELP!!”