Sunsoft 5B found in $4 US Dodge Danpei cart

[Arkanix38]

Bought a Dodge Danpei cart hoping to get an FME-7 to put on the boards jensma sent me, and after a bunch of delays it finally gets here. I open it up just after my birthday and its got a bloody 5B inside! Did I win the jackpot or what :p

[HVC-Man]

Congrats! I've gone through a lot of Gremlins 2 carts and even a Dynamite Batman, never did I find a 5B.

[Arkanix38]

It was a pleasant surprise, but I had already tooled up for a FME-7 Repro! I had jensma's repro board populated and ready to accept the mapper... and here I go pulling off a first time 5B. Might try and find some more cheap FME-7 games and make the Gimmick! Boards for anyone interested

[xIceMan]

And I get all the FME-7 boards, xD.
I did have 5B Dodge Danpei as well though.

[famifan]

You ain't the first one who gets 5B with Dodge Danpei. Let me find the corresponding thread
Post Merge: September 01, 2016, 01:21:52 am
http://www.famicomworld.com/forum/index.php?topic=10056.0

^ this is not the first reporting about sunsoft 5b found. I just can't find anyother 

[L___E___T]

 



It's a great find first time round though

Even if it should be in the Finds thread

I also have a Gimmick 5B repro, and must admit it sounds way better than the alternatives.

[Arkanix38]

Yeah I knew it wasn't a first by a long shot, just that it was extremely uncommon.I wouldn't mind a few cheap FME-7's to make up the repro boards I already had.

I desoldered the Dodge Danpei ROMs and programmed my own. The game runs flawlessly and once I get the sound circuitry done it should sound great too! I currently have my NESRGB mixing the audio so even just the 2A03 audio sounds fantastic in this game.



(sorry, the light is poor so my phone wouldnt focus well)

[famifan]

Yeah I knew it wasn't a first by a long shot, just that it was extremely uncommon.I wouldn't mind a few cheap FME-7's to make up the repro boards I already had

almost the same happened for me too. I want to make 'hebereke', but it became gimmick! 

bad thing, i was so unlucky, i couldn't get another 5b even after 7 new shots. so i gave up 

5b still remains sacred

[Arkanix38]

because i'm bored i'm making a comparison video of 5B disabled vs 5B enabled audio, will have it up as soon as I can get the audio output soldered up and the board cleaned properly (not going to put it in the shell w/ flux on it!)
Post Merge: September 01, 2016, 08:20:10 pm
Here's the video

and here's the final sound add-on. Went with the standard ceramic caps I had and a few surface mount resistors I had lying around. Sorry about the hot glue, using solid core wire so I used a tiny amount of glue for stress relief on the cables going to the 5B lifted pins

[P]

So much better with all the channels! Thanks for the video.

I didn't know Gimmick had such a nice sound test with song titles. Makes me want to include song names in the sound data format for my sound engine to show up automatically in the sound test.

[Arkanix38]

hold select and press start at the menu, I love games w/ sound tests cause then I can just listen to the wonderful music whenever I want!

[L___E___T]

 



From memory it sounds a little different to mine - are you playing this through NES?  

I might boot mine up later to compare.  I have an FME-7 and a 5B and an AY (?) and a non-chip version.

I think the AV Famicom plays back expansion audio slightly differently to the original red and white as well, e.g VRC6 is louder.

I'd like to test them all out, but I don't have a direct audio out to record this to share with everyone, just interested to judge by ear and can report back.

[Arkanix38]

My expansion audio from my AV Famicom is still a little loud, need to play with the resistors i'm using to mix it into the NESRGB audio from the 2A03.

[P]

I might boot mine up later to compare.  I have an FME-7 and a 5B and an AY (?) and a non-chip version.
...
I'd like to test them all out, but I don't have a direct audio out to record this to share with everyone, just interested to judge by ear and can report back.

I think FME-7 and 5B refers to the same mapper. 5B is just the revision of the mapper chip that contains the Yamaha sound chip and FME-7 is without it (but it seems the whole board family is commonly called FME-7, I don't know). You had the Infiniteneslives CPLD version too no? Also it seems the Everdrive finally got some unofficial mappers that support the 5B, how does that one compare to the others?

Edit: It seems that the infiniteneslives version doesn't use CPLD for the sound chip. It uses a real AY-3-8910 sound chip so the sound should be as accurate as it gets.


Edit: Bah! I just tested the custom Everdrive mappers for Gimmick! and Akumajou Densetsu from the Everdrive forum. The expansion audio is at a way too low volume for both mappers so they are drowned by the square and triangle channels. Sound effects are almost inaudible. The HI/LO setting in options doesn't help either. And on the Everdrive forum they say they are almost perfect "only slightly lower volume".

I'll guess I just go with an INL-board if Paul ever makes a Famicom version of the 5B.

[Arkanix38]

Just redid the audio mixer on my NESRGB, follows Tim Worthington's circuit considerably closer. I've got it sounding pretty spot on now, without the Expansion audio overpowering the 2A03.

The FME-7, 5A and 5B are all in the same iNES mapper category, but there are differences. The FME-7 has twice the PRG ROM capacity (512k compared to 256k of the 5A/5B) according to the NESDev wiki.

As for the Everdrive, the AV Fami requires a fair amount of modding to correct the issue. At that point its probably just better to RGB mod a Famicom if you have the cash and a steady soldering hand.
Post Merge: September 05, 2016, 07:01:29 pm
Also, got it back in the Dodge Danpei cart case. Luckily the label peeled off cleanly (so I've got adorning my bedroom wall) and i'm prepping it for a new label. Slightly modified the label available for download on Jensma's website to say 'reproduction', just have to get it printed somewhere now. What do you think?