Super Mario Bros. 2 (Japan)

[133MHz]

Nice pirate! Mine's got the same number of glue logic chips (even some diode-OR gates too!) but the whole program is condensed into one big OTP EPROM and CHR RAM is used for graphics.

[JC]

I'm assuming the small ones are the discrete logic chips. Is there a reason why they use nine? The Doki Doki Panic cart I've got also uses nine, and then four of the larger chips, but all windowless.

[133MHz]

A lot of them are needed to recreate the interrupt signal generated by the FDS, SMB2j uses it to keep the status bar from scrolling with the rest of the screen. One or two of them are used for address decoding (bankswitching).

Windowless chips could still be EPROMs, they're called OTP EPROMs (OTP stands for One Time Programmable). Basically it's a common EPROM without an erasing window, so once you program it, there's no way to erase its contents.

[Walky]

A lot of them are needed to recreate the interrupt signal generated by the FDS, SMB2j uses it to keep the status bar from scrolling with the rest of the screen. One or two of them are used for address decoding (bankswitching).

Windowless chips could still be EPROMs, they're called OTP EPROMs (OTP stands for One Time Programmable). Basically it's a common EPROM without an erasing window, so once you program it, there's no way to erase its contents.

Yes, the windowless ones for the picture are in fact OTPs from the 27 series (quite old stuff, not even 27C!).

¿Why are there so many eproms there? do the cart actually have the FDS bios or at least some modified version of it? (in this case, I suppose they didn't include the boot screen in order to save money by using smaller eproms?)

[133MHz]

¿Why are there so many eproms there? do the cart actually have the FDS bios or at least some modified version of it? (in this case, I suppose they didn't include the boot screen in order to save money by using smaller eproms?)

Correct, these carts use a modified version of the FDS BIOS in conjunction with all the crazy glue logic to simulate the FDS drive.

[MarioMania]

What's the LF36 SMB2j hack...

[JC]

That's the Whirlwind Manu hack. I don't know what's different about it, but it's likely just a slight title screen variation from the real thing and then what you'd expect for the rest of the game, including an ending similar to what's been stated above.

[MarioMania]

I have the Pirate SMB2j Cart that patman has..

[133MHz]

My LF36 cart's title screen looks like this (thanks PatMan33):



Other differences:

• Mario and Luigi's names are both MARIO in the status bar


• Luigi's physics are the same as Mario's


• The ending is flawed (read my previous posts)

The cart looks like this, except in a white plastic shell (thanks Famicom World):

[MarioMania]

I think I have the LF36 SMB2j mine is black..I put the Board in a Gyromite case

[MarioMania]

I'm tyring to mod this game so it would be easy......

[JC]

What's the point of doing that? It's fine as is and there are ways to cheat.

[nintendodork]

SMB2j was, and I quote from Nintendo, designed to challenge players who had mastered SMB..

I don't think of it as a sequel, but as an add-on...that you can't install...

[turbo D]

Ya, JC and board Yonger are right! SMB2j is supposed to be hard. That is what makes it..er...fun? Ok, so I got super pissed at it today, lol. But ya, I guess that is what makes me keep coming back to it. Like that girl you want to bone that wont give it up. It just leaves you wanting more! After all, it is Super Mario for Super Players! That being said, if you do make a hack, I will try it out. hahaha.

[MarioMania]

Well it was just a thought JC

That's why I pick SMB2j over the US version..of it challage

I might be modding a hard version of SMB...to easy on the First 2 Worlds