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Tumbled upon this repro seller and this technique caught my eye.
https://retrogamerandbackups.com/pro...rce-collection
Can anyone explain how this works (and how are the roms stored/accessed)? Some of them seem to go beyond the 4 MB limit (Phantasy Star collection), but it doesn't look that any sort of coding is involved.
That's kind of cute, but what a stupid way to switch between games.
Lemme guess: there's another magnet inside the cartridge and when the other magnet is placed on top it moves and closes a contact that allows the switching mechanism to work. Taking this guess from the way it works (place magnet and hit Reset, implying something connected to the reset line only works when the magnet is in place).
And yes it's stupid, a button would have done the job just fine.
ok thanks. I take from this and other rom switching trends that repro/bootleggers are avoid the whole multicart gamecode remapping by simply not having any graphical menu nor putting all the code on the same rom. It's a shame. I'm very fan of official big multigame carts. Or at least pirate ones with good presentation and being actually one rom instead of many.
This repro seller seems based in the US and does seem to use quality parts (and true EEPROMs and not those little flashroms, I guess). He actually sells some pretty translucent colored carts, but the price sets me off.
Seeing Golden Axe, Phantasy Star or Shning Force trilogies looks impressive nonetheless. I take that there's not any ROM limit when switching games like that, right? I mean there's still the 4 MB limit PER rom but not for the total. Do you think he uses individual EEPROMS or just a simple flashchip of probably gigantic capacity?
I'm curious about how all those carts are produced. Including XXX in 1 chinese pirates (I guess those are flashchips, but how do they handle the menu UI software, given that it has already loaded a rom (the menu) and does therefore have to remap all the rest of the software? (I guess not...) Do they used bankswitching with their own custom mappers? If so, is it just a single rom for all the data?
Many bootleg carts with only a handful of games (basically 2-in-1, 3-in-1, 4-in-1) will just switch to another game when you press the Reset button.
The downside with that method is that you can't just reset a game. I assume this is what this repro seller is trying to work around, but a better method would be to just add a switch on the cartridge. I'm going to guess though that the seller also doesn't want to modify the shells, hence this ugly hack with a magnet...
It's all honestly pretty dumb.
It could be they're using reed switches (or maybe hall effect sensors) as suppose to a switch that would need to be access through a hole all the way down to the PCB or placed at the or attached to the inside shell half somehow also would need a hole for the protruding to be button to be pushed.
Edit: I doubt they are using specially made PCBs.
That's kind of dumb. I knew a guy who made a multicart for the Phantasy Star ROMs that would switch on just regular reset, but I believe he was using a capacitor with a circuit to switch banks on the EEPROM and load different ones that way.
https://photos.vanityfair.com/2014/0...magnets331.gif
Is that the way both Codemasters 2-in-1 licensed carts work? There's no menu whatsoever and you must hit reset to change the game. Or are there other methods?Quote:
Originally Posted by xelement5x
Magnets are cool. :cool:Quote:
Originally Posted by xelement5x
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU9fRFfS3Qc