Looking rabidly for a good Earthbound Zero proto/rom

[drwily008]

I have looked everywhere for a earthbound zero cartridge. If anyone knows of a place/website with a ENGLISH version of this game with label (or not depending on price) please let me know! It has to be able to be played on a regular NES unit with a cart shell. Thanks!

[TheRedEye]

I'm confused. Are you looking for someone to make you an EPROM cartridge from the ROM on the internet?

[Daria]

It almost sounds like he wants the actual prototype cartridge... but surely someone wouldn't just ask for something like that on a messageboard? O.O

Or after re-reading maybe he does want a bootleg. Actually that's kind of a neat idea. A realistic looking label would be tricky to make though.
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[Jred]

i've made a few labels for unreleased games when i get bored.. only have three saved though and none are earthbound. california raisins, sunman, and a label for a translated sweet home. rest were lost on last hard drive crash.

[TheRedEye]

Can I see them?

[Jred]

np i'll email them to your lostlevels email account.

[drwily008]

Thanks for the questions. Nope, I would love the original, but I have seen excellent looking fakes and want a real working dumped version of the original. Hell I even saw one, late last year, with a fake (real looking)box maps, and instuction booklet. I would definitely settle for a (non-buggy) english one preferably w/label (homemade or scam of original).

[Shady Smurf]

I doubt that anyone here will burn a cart for a cheap price, look for someone with a rom burner, and you can find the image of the box fairly easily

[Shady Smurf]

I doubt that anyone here will burn a cart for a cheap price, look for someone with a rom burner, and you can find the image of the label fairly easily, just use that

[drwily008]

It doesnt have to be cheap...or expensive, just fair. Why doesnt someone withthese skills produce this in small to medium quantities and find a venue to sell it. I'd buy one.

[portnoyd]

It doesnt have to be cheap...or expensive, just fair. Why doesnt someone withthese skills produce this in small to medium quantities and find a venue to sell it. I'd buy one.

Because we don't want the NES to turn into the shovelcart system that 2600 is now. That and it's also the problem of finding donors all the time, etc, etc.

dave

[TheRedEye]

It also might have something to do with the fact that Earthbound is the protected intellectual property of a megacorporation still very much in practice today.

[AlanD]

I quit making Earhtbound carts for the simple reason that is was not worth the money. I charge most people $25 an hour for electronics work (which is extremely cheap) and a 2 hour minimum. Making that cart passes that easily on the time (desoldering chips, erasing and programming eproms, making mods to the board, soldering in new chips) - plus the donor and around $15 worth of chips, my gas to find the donor, go to the post office, etc etc. I don't enjoy the work as it is tedious and I can find much better things to do with my time than work on a cart I will sell for $75 or so and just break even on. And then I hear bitching because I don't go to Kinko's and print a nice label for it or I charge too much.

I have posted the instructions several times here and on Atari Age to make your own cart. With some minor research and major time on your part you can track them down and make it yourself if you know someone with an eprom burner
Alan

[Daria]

I quit making Earhtbound carts for the simple reason that is was not worth the money. I charge most people $25 an hour for electronics work (which is extremely cheap) and a 2 hour minimum. Making that cart passes that easily on the time (desoldering chips, erasing and programming eproms, making mods to the board, soldering in new chips) - plus the donor and around $15 worth of chips, my gas to find the donor, go to the post office, etc etc. I don't enjoy the work as it is tedious and I can find much better things to do with my time than work on a cart I will sell for $75 or so and just break even on. And then I hear bitching because I don't go to Kinko's and print a nice label for it or I charge too much.

I have posted the instructions several times here and on Atari Age to make your own cart. With some minor research and major time on your part you can track them down and make it yourself if you know someone with an eprom burner
Alan

That sounds like a lot of hard work but at the same time does kinda sound like a fun project. I can think of a few games I'd like to have "fake" american copies of, couldn't sell them of course wouldn't be fair to translators and I know nobody would approve selling their work. But for a private collection would be kinda cool.
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[ragtime_tgs]

I quit making Earhtbound carts for the simple reason that is was not worth the money. I charge most people $25 an hour for electronics work (which is extremely cheap) and a 2 hour minimum. Making that cart passes that easily on the time (desoldering chips, erasing and programming eproms, making mods to the board, soldering in new chips) - plus the donor and around $15 worth of chips, my gas to find the donor, go to the post office, etc etc. I don't enjoy the work as it is tedious and I can find much better things to do with my time than work on a cart I will sell for $75 or so and just break even on. And then I hear bitching because I don't go to Kinko's and print a nice label for it or I charge too much.

I have posted the instructions several times here and on Atari Age to make your own cart. With some minor research and major time on your part you can track them down and make it yourself if you know someone with an eprom burner
Alan


i occasionally sell secret of mana 2 carts (snes, 32mbit) and i always enjoy building the carts.
i think 75 for a nes cart is a bit too expensive, though.
i sell 32mbit snes carts for $60 a piece usually.
i bought lots of 8mbit eproms for $0.25 a piece, thats why i can sell so cheap.
after all, its just a hobby for me.
you cant make big money with selfmade carts

[AlanD]

I agree it is expensive but when I am paid to do the electronic repair work I am trained to do I earn $25 an hour. Taking any less for what I consider assembly line work is not something I am willing to do. I would however be glad to know where you found 27080 chips for $.25 each since I'll take a 1000 of them right now. For that price I could probably get the price down quite a bit as well as do a ton of projects of my own (multicart 5200, etc) since the cheapest I have found them (been a year since I looked) is around $4 each + shipping.

As for making big money for self-made carts I never intended to. I only make the carts as favors for people generally. Anyone that continually emails and annoys me about it can buy one at the price I listed. I don't sell many :) and I really don't want to increase my volume. I prefer my free time to work on my projects. I have freely posted the instructions for making the carts on the net and anyone can google it and find it in 5 minutes so a little time on their part and they can have Earthbound, Drac's Night Out, Hero Quest and a few others I built and gave instructions for.
Alan

[drwily008]

Wow...seiken densetsu 3...never even thought about that. Is it buggy, a 3 year old version of the zsnes one I tried to play was really slow & choppy. If its in english and flawless (no bugs) I would like to get my hands on that!

[AlanD]

Here's the info I have since a few people PM'ed me saying they had rtouble tracking it down. Guess it has rolled off the servers I have posted it to in the past (including here) as I couldn't even find it through Google. Hope it helps everyone and if you need help and I'll do my best to answer questions.
Alan

Custom Nintendo Carts:

Hero Quest:
- Board required: NES-UNROM-04 (Castlevania works)
- Use a TC571001D-20 or equivalent
- Remove mask rom
- Bend up pins 1,2,31,32 on eprom
- Solder into place of the masked rom.
- Tie pins 1, 30, 31 & 32 together (+5)
- Tie pin 2 to ground.


Robocop vs Terminator:
- Board required: NES-TSROM-06 (SMB2 works)
- Use 2 TC571001D-20 or equivalents
- Remove mask roms
- Bend up pins 1 & 2 on PRG eprom
- Solder into place of the masked rom.
- Tie pins 1 & 32 together (+5)
- Tie pin 2 to pin 20.
- Bend up pins 1, 20 & 31 on CHR eprom
- Solder into place of the masked rom.
- Tie pins 1, 31 & 32 together (+5)
- Tie pin 20 to the pin 31 hole.

Drac's Night Out:
- Board required: NES-SLROM-06 (Hudson Hawk works)
- Use 2 TC571001D-20 or equivalents
- Remove mask roms
- Bend up pin 1 on PRG eprom
- Solder into place of the masked rom.
- Tie pins 1 & 32 together (+5)
- Bend up pins 20 & 31 on CHR eprom
- Solder into place of the masked rom.
- Tie pins 31 & 32 together (+5)
- Tie pin 20 to the pin 31 hole.

Earthbound Zero:
- Board required: NES-TKROM-10 (Tecmo Basketball works)
- Use 2 D27C2001D-15 or equivalents
- Remove mask roms
- Bend up pin 1, 2, 24 & 30 on PRG eprom
- Solder into place of the masked rom.
- Tie pins 1 & 32 together (+5)
- Tie pins 22 & 24 together
- Tie pin 2 & pin 24 hole together
- Tie pin 30 & pin 1 hole together
- Bend up pins 1, 2, 22, 24, 30 & 31 on CHR eprom
- Solder into place of the masked rom.
- Tie pins 1, 31 & 32 together (+5)
- Tie pin 30 & pin 1 hole together
- Tie pin 24 & pin 2 hole together
- Tie pin 2 & pin 24 hole together
- Tie pin 22 & pin 31 hole together

Sweet Home:
- Board required: NES-SNROM-05 (NES Open Golf works)
- Use 1 D27C020-150 or equivalent
- Remove mask rom
- Bend up pin 1, 2, 24 & 30 on PRG eprom
- Solder into place of the masked rom.
- Solder pin 24 to ground.
- Solder pin 1 to +5.
- Solder hole 24 to pin 2.
- Solder hole 1 to pin 30.

[rbudrick]

I bought one off someone for $60 once...I
ll try to see If I can dig up who it was...

-Rob

[ubersaurus]

It doesnt have to be cheap...or expensive, just fair. Why doesnt someone withthese skills produce this in small to medium quantities and find a venue to sell it. I'd buy one.

Because we don't want the NES to turn into the shovelcart system that 2600 is now. That and it's also the problem of finding donors all the time, etc, etc.

dave

You're just mad that some of those homebrew games are awesome :P

[Bratwurst]

Alan, why did you tie off pins 1, 31, and 32 together on respective 27C2001 eproms? The pinouts appear to be identical to 27C020s and I've gotten along fine without grounding those. Unless you're doubling up rom images on some larger capacity chips??

[AlanD]

Well my docs are subject to error but that worked for me. I just do not like to leave pins floating so I tie them one way or the other 31 if I remember right is grounded to put it into progam mode so I tied it high. Do not recall what 1 is at the moment - ummmm Vpp maybe? Anyway just tied it off so it wasn't floating. The listed chips are just what I had. Adapt what you have as needed and you should be good to go. Actually IIRC I tied them off since I had trouble with some chips when I left them floating. Has admittedly been a while since I built one. Hazards of being away from home for a year.
AlanD

[Bratwurst]

Anyway just tied it off so it wasn't floating.

Good enough reason for me, and yeah pin 1 is vpp. I usually bend stray pins in an L crook and that keeps them from touching anything stray when the cart halves come together.

[portnoyd]

Because we don't want the NES to turn into the shovelcart system that 2600 is now. That and it's also the problem of finding donors all the time, etc, etc.

dave

You're just mad that some of those homebrew games are awesome :P

No... I don't want the NES to turn into the AtariAge booth at PC5. I have to admit - it's kind of a good thing NOA is so against things like that.

dave

[Goblin]

I don't enjoy the work as it is tedious and I can find much better things to do with my time than work on a cart I will sell for $75 or so and just break even on. And then I hear bitching because I don't go to Kinko's and print a nice label for it or I charge too much.

I hear you loud and clear. I've made a few carts myself and when I've offered them up at $75 I heard pretty much the same thing.

I'll spend any amount of time neccessary on a personal project but making carts to sell in any volume is extremely prohibitive. I've done a few as favors, and when making something for myself I occasionally make an extra and offer it up for trade. In trade is the only way it ever becomes worth your effort since some people will trade well for a special cart they couldn't otherwise get.

NES World has instructions for those interested in doing it themselves. It really isn't tough just time consuming.
http://www.nesworld.com/devcart.htm

[Shady Smurf]

On the Secret of Mana 2 Cart, does the game run ok with a translation patch applied, or is thier a horrible slowdown, like when I try to emunlate it on my dreamcast with a patch :o

[mumeix]

I hear you loud and clear. I've made a few carts myself and when I've offered them up at $75 I heard pretty much the same thing.

I'll spend any amount of time neccessary on a personal project but making carts to sell in any volume is extremely prohibitive. I've done a few as favors, and when making something for myself I occasionally make an extra and offer it up for trade. In trade is the only way it ever becomes worth your effort since some people will trade well for a special cart they couldn't otherwise get.

NES World has instructions for those interested in doing it themselves. It really isn't tough just time consuming.
http://www.nesworld.com/devcart.htm

I've been searching all over the place for a way to make NES carts with translated games on them, but I can't seem to find a single site that details how to do this! I'm pretty new to this kind of stuff, but would love to play games like Earthbound on my NES! I own a Famicom copy of mother, but it's not the same since I have to use a 60 to 72 pin adapter robbed from a Gyromite cart :S Can anyone here give me a link or a tutorial on how to program the EEPROM of this cart? The link above seems to be dead.