"FamiNes" project

[Pit]

Hello,

For a long time, I wanted to have an ultimate famicom/fds/nes system, that includes :

- nes cartridge support,
- famicom cartridge and famicom disk system support,
- RGB video output.

To do so I took :

- a NTSC nes console, with region lock ship disabled,
- a 60 to 72 pins cartridge converter, I found mine in US version of Gyromite,
- a PPU RGB video processor, took from a nintendo playchoice 10 arcade system.

Some US Gyromite cartridge hide some very interesting stuff.



Once opened, the cartridge reveals the famicom pcb of Gyromite, plugged into a 60 to 72 pins converter :



That 60 to 72 pins converter can be used with every famicom game :



I decided to add that converter to my nes, in order to make it as an hybrid that can play both famicom and nes games.

I soldered the converter to the nes motherboard, precisely on the 72 pins egde. The easiest way to do that is to solder all signals on the component side of the motherboard :





Next, the famicom connector needs to be fasten :





Some test before reassemble the nes :





Good  

Once reassembled, "FamiNes" is ready and working :








Also, I'm a big RGB video quality fan, so my nes has been modded to output RGB, replacing the original video processor, that output composite, with a RGB ppu processor took on a playchoice 10 arcade system. I don't have pics of the mod (a friend of mine did the mod, thanks to him ), but I can explain with schematics the procedure if you want.

RGB quality is godness, and with the famicom port, I'm able to play famicom disk system in RGB quality  

[RainLink]

Oh my...that is so Godly!! I love this! The best of both worlds + RGB! Brilliant!

[P]

Nice!! Now you just need the ENIO or something so you can use Famicom keyboard and other things that uses the Famicom expansion port.

[Duke.Togo]

Very nice, just need to put a dust flap over the cart port and EXP access like P mentioned.

[MWK]

Fantastic

[Frank_fjs]

Brilliant work, love it!

[YoshiFan501]

[NintendoKing]

I recommend removing the sticker left overs and adding a famicom dust flap.

[Pit]

I'll remove the sticker .  I have a snes dust flap ready to install. Also, I have to do the extra sound mod for famicom/fds games. It requires to link two points on the expansion port.

[Duke.Togo]

Why not just get an ENIO to do that and give you EXP port access?

[Pit]

Going to check and learn about the Enio. I didn't know the existence of that until the last past days.

[2A03]

Why not just get an ENIO to do that and give you EXP port access?

If he went through the trouble of adding a Famicom cart port, I think it'd be fairly trivial by comparison to add both an expansion port and external audio internally.

[garyptaszek]

must...have...

[80sFREAK]

Some test before reassemble the nes :

APPROVED

Looks solid as rock.

[Jedi Master Baiter]

My only concern is the NES Joint Converter - I remember those being extremely tight whenever I used one for FC games.

It isn't a hassle to remove games is it?