raulpica

I guess I'll find a better forum for my gaming needs. gbatemp has jumped the shark with this new outrageous ruling.

Many forums copy and paste their articles. Long has you post quotes and a link, your not do anything illegal. GBATEMP is already behind with the version of VB they are using. Bet they haven't updated the servers in awhile too and this is a tempt to lower resource usage. Making a new rule of article posting is fine and all, but don't fucking lying about the real reason behind it!

Don't bother with a 'super universal program everything but the kitchen sink with 500 adapters' device programmer. I used to use this ISA-based programmer that came with a long-life UV eraser, but haven't used it in years. It's with the Gameboy stuff, but I'd imagine that you guessed that by now. I'm probably just going to Craigslist/eBay/... most of that junk when I get back down to Texas.

There are tons of options. Look at Hackaday or the old SNES docs if you want some ideas on how to do it. I just bought a PCI-based Parallel port adapter off of eBay and have buffer chips and MOSFETs sitting around. You can trigger a MOSFET ($1 part) off of a standard 3 to 5V (TTL/CMOS) data line and have it switch 12 to 25V from either the PC or an adapter. I already have some programmers designed for microcontrollers and JTAG devices. A lot of people just use a spare motherboard and hotswap the EPROM. (That's the easiest and cheapest but also riskiest way)

Here's the insides of that cart that I found:
<snip>

I censored parts of it because of obvious reasons. I'd rather we be able to still get these unique carts.

1) See the left half of the first picture? That sucker is just a BGA adapter - in theory you can program it using an overhead pin adapter pressed against it! This means that we don't even need to know the programming method, if any, that the ASIC uses. In fact, you could replace that with a socket.
2) The back in the second part shows how professional the circuit board is. Those are very well-made lines and holes. The layout isn't too bad, either.
3) Some other views of the Flash memory and also the EPOXIED (!) chip on the board. Reminds me of the old Sharp carts on the NES/SNES.

I didn't include the wire-routing list for that wire-wrapped daughterboard because A) didn't remember B) it's pretty basic if you follow the GMB/GBC docs. All of about 20 wires. The glue has some added advantages. It insulates to avoid static/power rail discharges and shorts. It protects the wires from getting pulled out. It protects your freaking hand from those sharp pins(ouch!). It also keeps the solder from corroding - your hands are covered in salt and acids.

The BGA chip seems to be a 128Mb Flash ROM and 16Mb PSRAM all in one package. There are companies putting multiple chips on one IC carrier, nowadays. In theory, you could use this on a DS but mine is waiting on a cable before I can test it out with GBExploader or such. Annoying: EZFA and eCube software won't detect the saved game memory.