Niku-Sama
08-11-2005, 01:44 AM
first off i am sorry if this gets kinda legenthy
ok, i like the idea of having a prototype and all but i really dont know what to look for when it comes to them. this one involvs crystal mines. i saw some one else had a beta of it but it had no windowed chips.
any way my story is i go to my local game shop and i have been looking for converter carts, so i am grabbing up 5 screw, flat topped nes carts. this time arround i get Mach Rider, Slalom, and Athena...i dont expect Athena to have a converter in it but i wanted to check this game out. i buy them, i go home and they sit for about a week befoer i can get to them.
when i finally get to them mach rider and slalom are fine, they are what they say they are on the label. pop in athena and its grey for a seccond like its not getting a good contact and it make me think oh great a bad cart, then a robot pops up on the screen with a crystal in its hand and then the crystal mines menu. what the heck i thought so i popped it open and sure enough the PCB has ColorDreams on the back, no real identifying parts and some of the psrt numbers on some what look like regulators and a skinny looking controller chip are sanded off. i scrubbed the top of the chip that was sanded with my thumb to see if i could get any thing off of it but to no avail.
i took scans of the pcb and the cart plastic, there are some interesting battle wounds on the cart plastic: caution some pics are a meg
http://webpages.charter.net/nikusama/CrystalM/front.jpg
http://webpages.charter.net/nikusama/CrystalM/back.jpg
http://webpages.charter.net/nikusama/CrystalM/cart0001.jpg
http://webpages.charter.net/nikusama/CrystalM/cart0002.jpg
this pcb does not have the plastic connector on the left front (the 6 pin white based one) but it does have a windowed eprom with a sticker over it (am assuming its a UV erasable, reason for stickers)
like i think i said earlier i am just checking to see if i happened upon any thing, i am not assuming it is but its werid its in an athena cart.
i tried finding a crystal mines production cart to compare but i cant find any local.
ok, i like the idea of having a prototype and all but i really dont know what to look for when it comes to them. this one involvs crystal mines. i saw some one else had a beta of it but it had no windowed chips.
any way my story is i go to my local game shop and i have been looking for converter carts, so i am grabbing up 5 screw, flat topped nes carts. this time arround i get Mach Rider, Slalom, and Athena...i dont expect Athena to have a converter in it but i wanted to check this game out. i buy them, i go home and they sit for about a week befoer i can get to them.
when i finally get to them mach rider and slalom are fine, they are what they say they are on the label. pop in athena and its grey for a seccond like its not getting a good contact and it make me think oh great a bad cart, then a robot pops up on the screen with a crystal in its hand and then the crystal mines menu. what the heck i thought so i popped it open and sure enough the PCB has ColorDreams on the back, no real identifying parts and some of the psrt numbers on some what look like regulators and a skinny looking controller chip are sanded off. i scrubbed the top of the chip that was sanded with my thumb to see if i could get any thing off of it but to no avail.
i took scans of the pcb and the cart plastic, there are some interesting battle wounds on the cart plastic: caution some pics are a meg
http://webpages.charter.net/nikusama/CrystalM/front.jpg
http://webpages.charter.net/nikusama/CrystalM/back.jpg
http://webpages.charter.net/nikusama/CrystalM/cart0001.jpg
http://webpages.charter.net/nikusama/CrystalM/cart0002.jpg
this pcb does not have the plastic connector on the left front (the 6 pin white based one) but it does have a windowed eprom with a sticker over it (am assuming its a UV erasable, reason for stickers)
like i think i said earlier i am just checking to see if i happened upon any thing, i am not assuming it is but its werid its in an athena cart.
i tried finding a crystal mines production cart to compare but i cant find any local.