Homebrew NES Carts?

[pimpbot1976]

Has there been any made? Is anyone currently working on one?

[portnoyd]

There's a ton: http://nesdev.parodius.com is good to start with. Check out Solar Wars and hacks like Legend of Blob Bros 2.

dave

[pimpbot1976]

Awesome. Thanks.

Is there somewhere you can purchase a physical homebrew cart?

[portnoyd]

You have to find someone with an Eeprom burner. Don't ask me. ;)

dave

[Goblin]

I built an extra copy of Solar Wars last month that I offered on the buy/sell board. A few expressed interest but nothing ever was finalized, so if you (or anyone else) is interested let me know. I figured some of the guys working towards a complete NES collection would have been interested.

Here is a picture of it.
http://www.pietrucha.net/images/NES-Homebrew_small.jpg
I followed the plans on the Solar Wars site, and it works fine. Making NES homebrews is a more involved process than making 2600 or other systems due to a many different mapper chips that were used. To make one, you first need to identify an appropriate donor cartridge, remove the roms and then program the new PROMs. Sadly you can't just grab a stack of SMB carts and go to town, you actually need to hunt down the right donor. This cart also uses EEPROMS for compatibility which are more expensive than the EPROMS used in most homebrews which would also jack up the cost significantly if the author were to release it themselves.