Hey,
I have been wanting to upgrade my Gameboy (mostly Pokemon) cartridges to use non-volatile RAM so that my save files don't disappear anymore when the battery dies. The best replacement RAM chip that I have found is the FM18W08. The only problem is, to make this chip work as a drop-in replacement, a 10K resistor must be used to connect the voltage supply pin (Vcc or Vdd) and the chip enable pin (CE).
Once in place, the battery could actually be removed from the cartridge and the game would still retain save data. Of course, if the game uses a real-time clock, the clock won't run while the console is turned off if there is no battery in there.
Seems simple enough, right? The only issue is, I hate the way an axial resistor looks when it's soldered in, and would like a more professional-looking solution. A surface-mount resistor would look great, but this would require editing the cartridge design to fit one in.
That's what we're gonna do.
[Edited for clarity]
I have been wanting to upgrade my Gameboy (mostly Pokemon) cartridges to use non-volatile RAM so that my save files don't disappear anymore when the battery dies. The best replacement RAM chip that I have found is the FM18W08. The only problem is, to make this chip work as a drop-in replacement, a 10K resistor must be used to connect the voltage supply pin (Vcc or Vdd) and the chip enable pin (CE).
Once in place, the battery could actually be removed from the cartridge and the game would still retain save data. Of course, if the game uses a real-time clock, the clock won't run while the console is turned off if there is no battery in there.
Seems simple enough, right? The only issue is, I hate the way an axial resistor looks when it's soldered in, and would like a more professional-looking solution. A surface-mount resistor would look great, but this would require editing the cartridge design to fit one in.
That's what we're gonna do.
[Edited for clarity]
Last edited by wadeVillines,