FX chip compatible SNES Game Genie

[wiggyx]

Though it'd be a fun project, so I went ahead and did it. Now I just gotta put in the effort to make some codes.

One copy of Stunt Race FX and one Game Genie had to give their lives for this project.

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k99/wiggyx/Game%20Stuff/DSC02288.jpg

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k99/wiggyx/Game%20Stuff/DSC02308.jpg
http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k99/wiggyx/Game%20Stuff/DSC02309.jpg

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k99/wiggyx/Game%20Stuff/DSC02310.jpg
http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k99/wiggyx/Game%20Stuff/DSC02311.jpg

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k99/wiggyx/Game%20Stuff/DSC02370.jpg

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k99/wiggyx/Game%20Stuff/DSC02383.jpg

And here it is in action!

Playing StarFox, no lag (http://youtu.be/ywWacDGcEA4)

Super Gameboy working at full speed as well (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVRP5AJsFkk&feature=youtu.be)

[markusman64ds]

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4113/4994941172_e3c5fde19f_m.jpg
http://defendjerusalem.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/hands_clapping1.gif

That is supposed to be a person. Anyways, awesome job!

[badinsults]

Did you find the old GGCCC guide to doing this?

[wiggyx]

I recall seeing someone do this years and years ago, long before I would have attempted to do it myself. But, I couldn't really find any info about it when I decided to give it a go about a month ago :/

Do you have a link by any chance?

[badinsults]

Unfortunately, the GGCCC's website vanished years ago. They even had codes for Star Fox.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

this is pretty damn cool! I'd love to do this myself. Gotta get me a cheap, bad SNES game that uses the extra pins. Is there a master list of games on the SNES that used more pins than usual?

[MarioMania]

Street Fighter Alpha 2 does

[theclaw]

this is pretty damn cool! I'd love to do this myself. Gotta get me a cheap, bad SNES game that uses the extra pins. Is there a master list of games on the SNES that used more pins than usual?

BS-X Satellaview
Mega Man X2
Mega Man X3
Super Game Boy
Yoshi's Island
Kirby Super Star
Kirby's Dream Land 3
Doom
Star Fox
RPG Tsukuru 2
Sound Novel Tsukuru
Mini-Yonku Shining Scorpion: Let's & Go!!
Super Mario RPG
Power Rangers Zeo Battle Racers
Dirt Trax FX
Dragon Ball Z Hyper Dimension
Star Ocean

A few protos and promo games it'd be shameful to gut. Super Starfox Weekend, etc.

[Icarus Moonsight]

It'd be cool to have some Star Fox GG codes to mess with.
I swapped roms from a Star Fox board to a Stunt Race board so Star Fox would work with my passthru adapters. Got a mild overclocking out of the deal also. :)

No, I didn't have a Doom cart to do it that way either. Got another Star Fox though, should that change.

Looks like you'd need to Frankenstein a Genie and rom swap with Doom to get the best of both.

[markusman64ds]

Unfortunately, the GGCCC's website vanished years ago. They even had codes for Star Fox.

You forgot about the Wayback Machine!

http://archive.org/web/web.php

Just type in the old URL and you shall be amazed!

[wiggyx]

Unfortunately, the GGCCC's website vanished years ago. They even had codes for Star Fox.

Well damn. That's probably where I saw it those many years ago. There really isn't much of anything on the web about this sort of mod at this point (at least not that I could find). I hunted around for a bit before giving it a go with pretty much no luck. It'd be great to have codes too. Oh well.


BS-X Satellaview
Mega Man X2
Mega Man X3
Super Game Boy
Yoshi's Island
Kirby Super Star
Kirby's Dream Land 3
Doom
Star Fox
RPG Tsukuru 2
Sound Novel Tsukuru
Mini-Yonku Shining Scorpion: Let's & Go!!
Super Mario RPG
Power Rangers Zeo Battle Racers
Dirt Trax FX
Dragon Ball Z Hyper Dimension
Star Ocean

A few protos and promo games it'd be shameful to gut. Super Starfox Weekend, etc.

There's a few others too as I recall. Vortex, Winter Gold, & Metal Combat immediately come to mind (although they aren't all "FX" chip games, they do all have the extra pins for whatever extra chipset they're using).

Stunt Race carts are the way to go. They're dirt cheap and plentiful. I don't think too many people will cry over seeing a few of them being butchered. It's crazy to think that I paid 60 bucks for that game 15 or so years ago...

[JLukas]

It'd be great to have codes too. Oh well.

The homebrew code sites like GSHI and GSCentral have plenty of codes for special chip games. Even though the actual GG hardware wasn't compatible with most of them, people were still able to create codes for use on emulators.

Here's a helpful link with a full special chip game list:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Super_NES_enhancement_chips

The exception is the DSP games. The GG works with most, if not all, of them AFAIK.

[theclaw]

Right. Pretty much anything with a cartridge slot, uses the extra pins too. Not that there's really a benefit to use GG codes on the SGB menu. (most emulators don't support SGB's 16bit features anyway)

[wiggyx]

You forgot about the Wayback Machine!

http://archive.org/web/web.php

Just type in the old URL and you shall be amazed!

I don't know the original URL, so I can't find anything (still) :(


However, I DID find a site with an archive of the GGCCC codes. If anyone else is interested, here you go!

http://bsfree.shadowflareindustries.com/?s=4&d=2


The homebrew code sites like GSHI and GSCentral have plenty of codes for special chip games. Even though the actual GG hardware wasn't compatible with most of them, people were still able to create codes for use on emulators.

Here's a helpful link with a full special chip game list:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Super_NES_enhancement_chips

The exception is the DSP games. The GG works with most, if not all, of them AFAIK.

The GG works on most SNES versions with most FX chip games (based on my tests), but the big issue is performance loss more than anything. Some games, like MMX2, don't utilize their special chipset until a specific point in the game. MMX2 only makes use of it at the end of the game, which leads many folks to erroneously report 100% GG compatibility having not played through the entire game with the GG in place.

[MarioMania]

Wow,

Street Fighter Alpha 2 is one of them

[Zoe F]

The Game Genie Code Creators Club's site is still around. It's here: http://videogamesource.com/genie/

[wiggyx]

The Game Genie Code Creators Club's site is still around. It's here: http://videogamesource.com/genie/

It sucks that the message board isn't archived though. Woulda been great to see how someone else did the mod :(

[badinsults]

Wow, I thought that domain disappeared long ago. I wouldn't lament about their message board, I don't think it was ever that active. I think I was even a moderator there.

Edit: I was looking through the Final Fantasy 2 and 3 codes, and there are tons of codes missing. It would be sad if they were gone for good (although I believe I have printouts at my parents' place).

[rbudrick]

The Game Genie Code Creators Club's site is still around. It's here: http://videogamesource.com/genie/

Wow, I had no idea that was still around. Not updated in 6 years, though.

-Rob

[wiggyx]

I can't imagine that there's a big community of GG code crackers at this point. Not a big surprise that there's been no activity :(

[MarioMania]

http://gamehacking.org/

Has Codes for Star Fox, But there are for the PAR

[hybrid0]

http://gamehacking.org/

Has Codes for Star Fox, But there are for the PAR

well those won't work but these may
start with 9 lives
DB8B-07AE
infinite lives
C23F-ADC2
Infinite Shield
8921-60EA
Infinite bombs
C230-D44A

[wiggyx]

http://gamehacking.org/

Has Codes for Star Fox, But there are for the PAR

Yeah, those are posted just about everywhere. They definitely DON'T work with the GG :(


well those won't work but these may
start with 9 lives
DB8B-07AE
infinite lives
C23F-ADC2
Infinite Shield
8921-60EA
Infinite bombs
C230-D44A

Those didn't work for me last time I tried 'em. I'll double check later today though...

[hybrid0]

Those didn't work for me last time I tried 'em. I'll double check later today though...
you might have the later revision of the game
and from what i'm seeing all the codes are the same except the start with 9 lives
Start with 9 lives
DB88-0DAE

[wiggyx]

you might have the later revision of the game
and from what i'm seeing all the codes are the same except the start with 9 lives
Start with 9 lives
DB88-0DAE

Or a different version of the Genie :/

[Culex4096]

WOW. If someone mass produced these I'd buy one in a heartbeat.

[wiggyx]

WOW. If someone mass produced these I'd buy one in a heartbeat.

I've made a couple for other folks. If you're interested, just let me know.


Someone requested a little how-to for this mod, so here it is.

Stunt Race board

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k99/wiggyx/Game%20Stuff/DSC02300.jpg


Dremel/Rotary tool plus cutoff wheel to remove extra tabs.

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k99/wiggyx/Game%20Stuff/DSC02301.jpg


Wired up tabs with 28G wire, both sides. Measure the wire and trim it beforehand since it'll be a pain to do so after wou've done some soldering. The space is tight. Too close to the lower edge of the tabs and the cart won't fit into the SNES, too high and you'll have a hard time mounting it to the GG board.

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k99/wiggyx/Game%20Stuff/DSC02305.jpg


Sorry, no pics for this next step. I can go back and snap a couple if anyone needs a little more visual aid.

Pulling pins from the donor Genie and placing them in the other is probably the trickiest part. If you bend them, even slightly, it becomes nearly impossible to reuse them. I ended up using the Dremel to cut into the black plastic until the pins were completely exposed and loose save for their connection to the board. Carefully de-solder the pins from the board and clean up any remaining solder that's still attached to the pin. I used some 200 grit sandpaper to get the pin ends as flat and free of solder as possible, which is what you need to do in order to push them back into the Genie.

GENTLY push the pins into their new homes. You're gonna bend a few until you find the way to hit the hole at the bottom of the cart port without bending them. They need to be pushed ever-so-gently toward the outside of the port. I used a very small flat screwdriver to help coax them into place while pushing from the top. You'll have to just play with it a bit to get the feel. There's no way for me to take pics of what I'm explaining because it's such a tiny space and you can't really see into the spot that you're working in anyway. You pretty much have to do it all by feel. You've got plenty of extras in the donor Genie, so go ahead and bend a few trying to figure it out ;)

If you did it correctly no pins should be touching in the cart port on the top and you should have enough pin on the other side to solder the wires to.

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k99/wiggyx/Game%20Stuff/DSC02296.jpg

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k99/wiggyx/Game%20Stuff/DSC02297.jpg


All that I used to connect the extra tabs to the Genie board was a couple drops of super glue. I shaved down about 1mm from the Genie board where the tabs were connected. Again, tolerances are tight, and the extra room really helps, even though it's nearly nothing. Be careful when doing this, as there's not much material that you can cut into before hitting something critical (like a trace, resistor, etc) on the Genie board.

Level the FX tabs with the center tab (duh), then toss a few drops of glue on the tabs where they meet the board. I taped the tabs to the board with a little piece of cardboard on the back to support them while applying the glue. After the glue has set up, repeat on the opposite side. Super glue takes to silicon really well, for whatever reason, and I've had ZERO issues with this method of adhesion over the last month after many uses and MANY stress tests (inserting and removing the Genie over and over).

You should be able to see the slight cuts into the Genie board in this pic. Again, these are very slight cuts.

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k99/wiggyx/Game%20Stuff/DSC02306.jpg


Now you simply need to solder the wires to the corresponding pins up on top of the Genie. Lay down some tape where there's concern of shorts and some hot melt to keep everything in place.

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k99/wiggyx/Game%20Stuff/DSC02308.jpg

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k99/wiggyx/Game%20Stuff/DSC02309.jpg


The Genie's plastic sheel needs to be modded in order for the new tabs to pass through. Again, the Dremel does the job perfectly.

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k99/wiggyx/Game%20Stuff/DSC02292.jpg

[wiggyx]

Reassemble and this is what it should look like.

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k99/wiggyx/Game%20Stuff/DSC02310.jpg

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k99/wiggyx/Game%20Stuff/DSC02311.jpg


You're good to go. Test it out to make sure everything is working properly. Many FX chip games will work with an un-modded Genie, but they'll run at a much slower speed. Star Fox and a Super Gameboy with Tetris are really easy games to use for testing since the slowdown is really obvious. We all know that Tetris music so well, and any change to the tempo will be really obvious. Same with Star Fox, the action will feel sluggish, sort of like you're traveling through water. If there's no change between no Genie and then with the Genie then you've succeeded!


*Some of you more astute folks may notice that I did NOT reuse the extra ground that the FX chip games have on the cart. I haven't found its absense to be an issue, so I didn't bother adding it. If you're so inclined to do so, then by all means go for it. If there's any noticeable difference, then please feel free to post and let me/us know :)