NES Racermate Challenge II

[Skrybe]

I posted about this over at Nes World a while back, and ment to do the same here, but it slipped my mind until now.

I'm getting together a list of all the known NES Racermate revisions. Those of you who're fortunate enough to own a copy, could you post the version number, date, and time from the title screen? I already know what versons portnoyd, jasonlotp, DreamTR, and Darth Vader own, so you guys don't need to bother checking again.

As of right now, these are all of the versions I'm aware of:

3.11.088
05-02-1991
20:41:04

5.01.033
02-01-1994
19:28:10

5.01.036
05-15-1996
19:47:57

6.02.002
05-21-1996
12:22:18

9.03.128
03-22-1996
11:57:11

That last one seems to be a PAL version, BTW.

Also, those of you who own a copy should know that the programming for the Racermate carts is stored in battery RAM, like the Game Action Replay. That means that when the internal battery dies, the cartridge is going to go with it.

Edit: Added Postermen's version, and fixed a typo.

[Postermen]

3.11.088
05-02-1991
20:41:04

My cart is also a regular Tengen cart and not the kind with the handle.

[christhegamer]

I repeat,

what is Racermate Challenge II?!?!

x_x x_x x_x x_x x_x x_x x_x x_x x_x x_x x_x x_x

[rbudrick]

So is this rom preserved by anyone yet? And good question...what is it? I've heard of it, but never really asked about it before. I vaguely remember that it is a cart with an odd history.

I recently had Kevin Horton back up my Game Action Replay and my Game Action Replay proto. Man, was I worried as hell I'd lose the data on those. Glad I bought a CopyNES from him recently in case I ever run into the issue. Plus I'll be able to dump any other NES carts I come across. I'd recommend buying one from him now to anyone who has rare carts that need to be preserved.

Skrybe, definitely cool project here. It would be good to find out how many versions there are and hopefully preserve as many as possible, if that is your aim.

-Rob

[bunnyboy]

RacerMate is a whole trainer system for bicycle riders. It has a trainer stand that you put your bike in with your back wheel turning a flywheel. Electrical power is used to put more resistance in the flywheel. The speed and power output is transmitted to the NES through the controller ports where the RacerMate Challenge II game reads it and displays it on screen. There are different courses you can ride and be timed against yourself or computer riders. There are a few modern versions using the same ideas, possibly some with internet racing.

Mine is version:

6.02.002
05-21-1996
12:22:18

On the inside there is a 27c512 rom with a sticker that says

N602-2
08/01/1996

The rom chip in the prg area suggests the code will not die when the battery dies. Theres lots of discrete chips so figuring out the mapper may not be easy...

[Skrybe]

Postermen: Thanks, I think your cart is the first Tengen-style one on the list. Are the labels on the Tengen cart any different from the one with the handle? I've never actually seen the Tengen version before.

christhegamer: bunnyboy summed the Racermate up well. The cart is just the software for a bicycle trainer system. Here's some pictures of the game and the cartridge.

rbudrick: Nope, no one's been able to dump it correctly yet. I've had two people try unsucessfully to dump my copies already, and at the moment Kevin Horton is looking at them. If anyone can do it, though, it's Kevin. And yep, ideally I'd like to see all the Racermate revisions dumped some day. That could turn out to be a bastard of a project, though, looking at how many versions there seem to be.

bunnyboy: Thanks. That 6.02.002 version seems to be one of the easiest to come by. Yours makes the fifth copy that I've seen. The 6.01.002 version on the list was a typo on my part, it should have been 6.02.002.

The rom chip in the prg area suggests the code will not die when the battery dies.

I don't know the details, but the two people that I sent the game to in the past to back it up both said that the cart would stop working without the battery. Maybe part of the code is in the chip, and the rest is in SRAM?

[rbudrick]

I can count on two fingers the people I know of that could possibly figure out the mapper. Kevin and Brian Provinciano maybe. Kev will almost asuredly eventually crack it. The guy can use his copynes tools to probe a mapper like there's no tomorrow. The guy never ceases to amaze me in the discoveries he's made.

-Rob

[portnoyd]

Skrybe, you got mine, right?

[Postermen]

Skrybe,

My label is the same as the others, but it is upside down. The other stickers are on the back of the cart.

[Skrybe]

portnoyd: Yeah, I've got yours. Your copy is the only 5.01.036 version I've come across so far.

Postermen: Cool, thanks.

[bunnyboy]

Hope rbudrick has another finger to count on because here is how the cart works:

There is 64KB of prg rom in 4 banks of 16KB, and 64KB of chr sram in 8 banks of 8KB. A write to $8000 latches 6 bits of the data bus. D6 and D7 select which rom bank is enabled. D0-2 select the chr bank. D3 is also latched, not sure what it does. The cart WILL run with a dead battery, program code is NOT lost when the battery is removed. Saved race information is lost because it is stored in the chr sram. With no battery the boot screen occasionally says "memory cleared" at the top but functions normally.

Using CopyNES I dumped the prg rom so a dead rom chip could be replaced. The code could also be dumped by pulling the rom off the board and using an eprom programmer. After I clean up the CopyNES plugin I can make it available, or people can send me their carts with different rom versions to dump and compare.

Does anyone actually use theirs to do bike exercising? I would use mine but it needs some work on the trainer bearings. I think the person I got it from used it frequently. It looks like there are two ports on the NES controller box, is side by side racing possible?

[GrandAmChandler]

I have two of these, both are the following version

6.02.002
5-21-96
12:22:18

I also have an Eprom that were shipped to me from Racermate inc, as well as a racermate branded NES. Pretty Rare stuff...

On the EPROM it claims it is version 15.19, but I have no way of telling for sure.

[qbertandernie]

as far as i know, there were racermate 1 and 2 carts. the racermate 1 may be the tengen type.

i have access to one and dont think ill be getting to look at it in action any time soon, but ill try to keep this is mind when next i am at the house where it resides.

[Skrybe]

bunnyboy: Awesome, thanks! I'll pass this along to Kevin so he can go on and dump the copy I sent him. You mentioned a CopyNES plugin, if you could make that available, that would be extremely useful now that there are more CopyNESes to go around. And as far as using it for exercising, I only have the cartridge and handlebar controller, so my copy is only good for a conversation piece. :P

GrandAmChandler: Thanks, that makes seven of the 6.02.002 revision, definitely the most common one I've seen. I'm going to guess that version was the last NES version made, and therefore the one that Computrainer had in stock to ship out to collectors who made recent orders. Did you get those two from Computrainer? And that EPROM, is that supposed to have NES code on it, or do you know?

qbertandernie: If you could post the version on yours when you get the chance, that would be great. And yeah, I'm assuming that since there's a Racermate 2, there must be a Racermate 1, but despite several people looking for a copy, no one has confirmed that it exists. Postermen mentioned that his Tengen copy has the same labels as the newer copies, so I know his is a Racermate 2. I'm wondering if Racermate 1 was for a different platform.

[NESaholic]

Nice thing to do Skrybe,always good to have some info bout this.
Anyways i'm really looking for one of these,if any one has a double or willing to part with it lemme know.I have some great NES stuff for trade but am also willing to buy,anyone?

[GrandAmChandler]

GrandAmChandler: Thanks, that makes seven of the 6.02.002 revision, definitely the most common one I've seen. I'm going to guess that version was the last NES version made, and therefore the one that Computrainer had in stock to ship out to collectors who made recent orders. Did you get those two from Computrainer? And that EPROM, is that supposed to have NES code on it, or do you know?

Not a clue, nor do I have any way of testing. HE SAID it was a NES EPROM with a version of racermate on it.

No way of testing however.

[Skrybe]

Not a clue, nor do I have any way of testing. HE SAID it was a NES EPROM with a version of racermate on it.

I suppose if you really want to find out, loaning it to someone with an EPROM programmer and having the code dumped is an option.

[bunnyboy]

A bit more info about the RacerMate system:

There is no RacerMate Challenge 1 for NES. RacerMate 1 was C64. RacerMate Challenge 2 for NES was first sold in late 1990 so the version numbering may have started at 1.XX.XXX.

Anyone that wants their cart dumped can mail it to me, I will pay for return postage and make the rom available.

[blissfulnoise]

Chalk up another

6.02.002
05-21-1996
12:22:18

Version. Aquired second hand so I don't know the source.

[Skrybe]

Sorry for neglecting this post, the holidays got the best of me.

blissfulnoise, thanks for the addition.

bunnyboy, where did you get that info? That's very nice to finally have confirmation on what system Racermate 1 was on. And also, I really appreciate you offering to help get these dumped.