WTB English translated FC and SFC games.

[Titus]

Best members,

I am interested to get english translated FC and SFC carts/titles. Is there anyone out there that can be of help or service.

Thank you, best regards.

/ Titus   
Post Merge: October 29, 2018, 03:40:29 pm

Hi again all,

I really like to know someone or someones that know/make SFC english translations in origin carts.
Would appreciate any help here.

Thanks

[gorgyrip]

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[krzy]

Super Famicom:
There are two ways of doing that: use existing PCB cartridge or do entirely new PCB.

Entirely new PCB
I projected my own PCBs which have place to solder memory (29LV320), RAM, battery, supercic PIC12F629 and everything that is needed to make a game (in LOROM or HIROM mode). This is really fast, cheap & will fit in any existing shell. To program it, you will have to have SNES programming tool.



Using existing PCB
Using existing PCB is unexpectedly rather more time consuming & expensive.
First you need to find proper cartridge mapper type (LOROM/HIROM) for your donor. If you're going into translations, this is no trouble cause original and translated game are probably the same mapper,  but ROM size occasionally might be bigger (I saw translated games that are bigger than originals).

Secondly - identify the PCB of your game. There are various types:
games with <= 512 kB might have place to put just one ROM,
games with  1MB might have place to put one ROM or two  512 kB
games of 1.5 MB consists of one 1MB and one 512 kB ROM
games of 2MB might be using two 1MB ROMS or 2x1 MB
games > 2 MB will probably use one big ROM

Thirdly - make plan of your modification. You will have to desolder original ROM and replace it with translated one. Unfortunately, original ROMs are not 1-1 pin compatible with currently available ones.

For 512 kB chips you can use memories like  39SF040 (512 kB), very cheap,
for 1MB chips you can use 27C801 - around 2$. For this one you will also need UV eraser
Both of them need special rewiring (2 wires if you smartly re-organize the bytes before programming)
Unfortunately there are no easy alternatives for ROMS >= 2MB. You can use:

Chip	Pros	Cons	Sample adapter
4MB 27C322 chips	+ Cheap + 5V tolerant + half of the chip (2MB) can be used without need of any other chips	- Needs special adapter - Will not fit in existing place, will need some free space in cartridge - You will need UV eraser, programmer (TL866) and special DIL42 adapter
2MB 29F160	+ Will fit in existing place + 5V tolerant + no other chips needed	- Needs special adapter - Expensive - You will need programmer (No idea if TL866 will work)
4MB 29LV320 or 8MB 29LV640	+ Might fit in existing place and be used even in big 4MB games + Cheap	- Needs special adapter - Only 3.3V tolerant, so needs voltage translating chips - You will need programmer and special adapters for programming

As you can see, all of the memories need special adapter but in my opinion 27C322 wins cause of extremely low price and the fact that this adapter is most simple and can be done even in home. Yes, it is me who designed this universal adapter - it takes into account few things:
* Some of the games use cheap paper laminate which has soldering pads only on the bottom layer:
* There might be a RAM which causes the need of adapter to be slightly longer.
* Shape of PCB is not rectangular cause there is mounting screw in the shell that is an obstacle,
* There is even space to solder DIL42 socket to make it as a devcart, because ROM is soldered underneath


This is how it looks like after soldering:


This memory+adapter can even be used in cartridges where there is small (<=1MB memory). But it is not perfect - it will not fit cartridges with BIG pcb whhere there is not enough room for anything - example:


There is one additional thing that need to be taken into account - the protection CIC chip. If you're translating Japanese games (which most of them works only in Japan SNES) and you want to play it in USA/European SNES, you will have to remove the original CIC chip from cartridge and replace it with universal super cic (PIC12F629)

For NES/Famicom I will not write anything because it is rather obvious and easy. So.. good luck!

[prince tomato]

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[etitan]

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