Forums

Hello,

I have a SMS 2 which has died and I was wondering if it would be possible to take the in built game of Alex Kidd in Miracle World and put it on a cartridge board for use on my Megadrive (with an SMS converter).

The chip has the following written on top of it

SEGA
MPR-12808 W63
9224E9010

If this is possible could someone provide a list of games/carts that would be appropriate for what I have described above.

I noticed that some carts don't have the gold plated connectors on both sides of the boards. Would I need a cart that has gold connectors on both sides of the PCB?

Thanks for the help,

Jacko

jacko87 wrote

I have a SMS 2 which has died and I was wondering if it would be possible to take the in built game of Alex Kidd in Miracle World and put it on a cartridge board for use on my Megadrive (with an SMS converter).

If this is possible could someone provide a list of games/carts that would be appropriate for what I have described above.

If I were in Sega's position, I know I'd use the same ROM chips from the cartridge version to create the built-in game. But that's just me; there are plenty of guys here with more knowledge about the hardware who will probably give you a better answer.

There is a list of memory mapping chips with known cartridges that might be useful if you haven't already read it.

All that being said, it's not a terribly rare game. Unless you're doing it purely for fun, you'd probably be better off just buying the original SMS cartridge. There are some on eBay right now, all dirt cheap.

jacko87 wrote

I noticed that some carts don't have the gold plated connectors on both sides of the boards. Would I need a cart that has gold connectors on both sides of the PCB?

As far as I can tell, a cartridge with a one-sided connector couldn't work on either the SMS or the Mega Drive. Could you describe one of these cartridges?

Nezuji :)

It won't work. Built-in games contain code that disaplys the SEGA logo, and checks the cartridge slot, to see if a cartridge is plugged in; if so, they check it's OK (giving the SOFTWARE ERROR message if not) and then run it. Unfortunately, this means that if you put a built-in game in the cartridge slot, it'll keep doing that detection, finding itself, and then running itself... which gets you back to the detection part.

About the missing pins on the cartridge slot: no game uses all of them, and some only put the metal there for the ones they need. In general, a game of a particular size will have all the lines needed for another game of the same size.

Thanks for that guys,

I just thought of that myself it would just keep looping at the detection part and the game would not run. I think E-Bay is my only option although I live in Australia and to tell you the truth in all the second hand game shops e.g. Game Traders I have never seen an Alex Kidd in Miracle World Cartridge.

Seeya

Jacko

Oops. Yeah, I forgot that this has already been covered :b

Maxim wrote

About the missing pins on the cartridge slot: no game uses all of them, and some only put the metal there for the ones they need. In general, a game of a particular size will have all the lines needed for another game of the same size.

That's what I assumed, but I thought jacko87 was talking about an entire side being blank. Power isn't a problem, but the addressing and data lines are split accross both sides, aren't they?

Nezuji :)

Humm,

just a question regarding that cartridge check the builtin ROM does.
How is it done? By sensing some pin (~crtOE,...) or by software checking cartridge data?
...

Cheers

unoesis wrote

Humm,

just a question regarding that cartridge check the builtin ROM does.
How is it done? By sensing some pin (~crtOE,...) or by software checking cartridge data?
...

Cheers

A US or European SMS goes through each slot in sequence and looks for the 'TMR SEGA' string.

A Japanese SMS does a similar test but checks to see if the data bus is being driven by an external device (ROM) or not by examining several bytes in sequence.

As I recall it checks the inner 4 or outer 4 data bits so I wonder if some of these are connected to pull-up resistors on the mainboard and would have definite values, while the others would be truly random. I think Maxim did a nice, fully commented disassembly of this routine.

Well, random in the sense the value on the bus is the last Z80 opcode or contents of an address output during a refresh cycle - not sure what the Japanese SMS does exactly.

See here:

http://www.smspower.org/dev/docs/wiki/?n=Software.BIOS

for my documentation of the checking routines.

Author	Message
Jacko Joined: 01 Feb 2004 Posts: 1464 Location: Sunny ol Tamworth, New England NSW AU	Alex Kidd in Miracle World~Put it in a cart Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 2:49 am
	Hello, I have a SMS 2 which has died and I was wondering if it would be possible to take the in built game of Alex Kidd in Miracle World and put it on a cartridge board for use on my Megadrive (with an SMS converter). The chip has the following written on top of it SEGA MPR-12808 W63 9224E9010 If this is possible could someone provide a list of games/carts that would be appropriate for what I have described above. I noticed that some carts don't have the gold plated connectors on both sides of the boards. Would I need a cart that has gold connectors on both sides of the PCB? Thanks for the help, Jacko

Nezuji Joined: 01 Sep 2005 Posts: 28 Location: Melbourne, Australia	Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 5:55 am
	jacko87 wrote I have a SMS 2 which has died and I was wondering if it would be possible to take the in built game of Alex Kidd in Miracle World and put it on a cartridge board for use on my Megadrive (with an SMS converter). If this is possible could someone provide a list of games/carts that would be appropriate for what I have described above. If I were in Sega's position, I know I'd use the same ROM chips from the cartridge version to create the built-in game. But that's just me; there are plenty of guys here with more knowledge about the hardware who will probably give you a better answer. There is a list of memory mapping chips with known cartridges that might be useful if you haven't already read it. All that being said, it's not a terribly rare game. Unless you're doing it purely for fun, you'd probably be better off just buying the original SMS cartridge. There are some on eBay right now, all dirt cheap. jacko87 wrote I noticed that some carts don't have the gold plated connectors on both sides of the boards. Would I need a cart that has gold connectors on both sides of the PCB? As far as I can tell, a cartridge with a one-sided connector couldn't work on either the SMS or the Mega Drive. Could you describe one of these cartridges? Nezuji :)

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14745 Location: London	Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 9:54 am
	It won't work. Built-in games contain code that disaplys the SEGA logo, and checks the cartridge slot, to see if a cartridge is plugged in; if so, they check it's OK (giving the SOFTWARE ERROR message if not) and then run it. Unfortunately, this means that if you put a built-in game in the cartridge slot, it'll keep doing that detection, finding itself, and then running itself... which gets you back to the detection part. About the missing pins on the cartridge slot: no game uses all of them, and some only put the metal there for the ones they need. In general, a game of a particular size will have all the lines needed for another game of the same size.

Jacko Joined: 01 Feb 2004 Posts: 1464 Location: Sunny ol Tamworth, New England NSW AU	Thanks Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2005 3:29 am
	Thanks for that guys, I just thought of that myself it would just keep looping at the detection part and the game would not run. I think E-Bay is my only option although I live in Australia and to tell you the truth in all the second hand game shops e.g. Game Traders I have never seen an Alex Kidd in Miracle World Cartridge. Seeya Jacko

Nezuji Joined: 01 Sep 2005 Posts: 28 Location: Melbourne, Australia	Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2005 2:53 am
	Oops. Yeah, I forgot that this has already been covered :b Maxim wrote About the missing pins on the cartridge slot: no game uses all of them, and some only put the metal there for the ones they need. In general, a game of a particular size will have all the lines needed for another game of the same size. That's what I assumed, but I thought jacko87 was talking about an entire side being blank. Power isn't a problem, but the addressing and data lines are split accross both sides, aren't they? Nezuji :)

unoesis Guest	Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2005 1:31 am
unoesis Guest	Humm, just a question regarding that cartridge check the builtin ROM does. How is it done? By sensing some pin (~crtOE,...) or by software checking cartridge data? ... Cheers

Charles MacDonald Joined: 28 Sep 1999 Posts: 1197	Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2005 5:34 am
Charles MacDonald Joined: 28 Sep 1999 Posts: 1197	unoesis wrote Humm, just a question regarding that cartridge check the builtin ROM does. How is it done? By sensing some pin (~crtOE,...) or by software checking cartridge data? ... Cheers A US or European SMS goes through each slot in sequence and looks for the 'TMR SEGA' string. A Japanese SMS does a similar test but checks to see if the data bus is being driven by an external device (ROM) or not by examining several bytes in sequence. As I recall it checks the inner 4 or outer 4 data bits so I wonder if some of these are connected to pull-up resistors on the mainboard and would have definite values, while the others would be truly random. I think Maxim did a nice, fully commented disassembly of this routine. Well, random in the sense the value on the bus is the last Z80 opcode or contents of an address output during a refresh cycle - not sure what the Japanese SMS does exactly.

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14745 Location: London	Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2005 10:57 am
	See here: http://www.smspower.org/dev/docs/wiki/?n=Software.BIOS for my documentation of the checking routines.

Forums

View topic - Alex Kidd in Miracle World~Put it in a cart