Castlevania 1 (FDS port)
Elements:
Chip signature:
KS110(27512)+KS109(27512)+7432+KS-201(DIL28)
PCB top:
PCB bottom:
Shell top:
Shell bottom:
Screenshoots:
No photo
Extra info:
Start of #nesdev buffer: Thu May 21 00:06:38 2020
* Now talking in #nesdev
* Topic is 'https://nesdev.com - 8-bit dev central | Channel info: https://wiki.nesdev.com/w/index.php/IRC | Stay inside and wash your hands!'
* Set by jero32!~Jeroen@102-176-145-85.ftth.glasoperator.nl on Tue Mar 24 15:27:14
hello
kevtris would you be wiling to share PCB photos of the cartridge FDS port of Castlevania?
<+tpw_rules> http://bootgod.dyndns.org:7777/ i wonder if it could be here krzysioba ?
No, there are only the official carts and the Castlevania port is latest hot topic
<@kevtris> I can take some at some point
<@kevtris> it has a KS-201 on it
<@jero32> its a pirate cart?
<@kevtris> of course
<@kevtris> it's the FDS version but on cart
<@jero32> ah
<@jero32> gotcha
<@jero32> with saves?
<@kevtris> it has the weirdest mapper
<@kevtris> nope
<@kevtris> none of the FDS to cart conversions have saves as far as I know
<@kevtris> I pinned out the KS-201 also
<@kevtris> this mapper is weird. it is more like atari 2600 than NES
<@kevtris> it responds to reads or writes to specific addresses to bankswitch
<@kevtris> https://pastebin.com/AKwevRjL
<@kevtris> that's the pinout
Cool, another KS-20X chip to the collection https://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?t=19377
<@kevtris> 8K CHR banks, 8K PRG banks
<@kevtris> haha I was looking at that post 2 days ago
<@kevtris> I am very surprised national semiconductor made those KS 202 to 204's
<@kevtris> the 201 is not made by them though
Hmm, similar concept to the 3D-block game based on PIC16C54 where the game looped for a few cycles so that the slow PIC had chance to watch for the address and fire internal function https://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=16267
I wonder what's inside the FDS port of Castlevania2
<@kevtris> yeah dunno
<@kevtris> I just have the cv 1 port
<@kevtris> https://imgur.com/a/vawfDEC
<@kevtris> I like how there's no brand name anywhere, but it has to be kaiser
<@kevtris> and I like how the label art is cropped down to remove the konami name and all that
<@kevtris> the 14 pin chip is a 7432 to expand the /CE on the CHR ROM which has a single enable, which gives it the required two enables
<@kevtris> that KS-201 appears to have two functional modes, with one of the pins being tied to VCC. it probably can also be grounded to select a second mode
other three gates of 7432 are unused?
<@kevtris> yeah
<@kevtris> it's very simple hardware wise
<@kevtris> I just buzzed it out with my meter in around 5 minutes to generate that pinout
<@kevtris> I had pulled the two ROMs (128K each, single enable) 10 years ago to dump them when my dump-fu failed. little did I know I was really close to cracking it and technically had
<@kevtris> that is the only mapper that stymied me ever out of the 40-50 I have reverse engineered
Interesting that the original castlevania has CHR-RAM and here is CHR-ROM
<@jero32> I don't think it used the ram very dymanically
<@jero32> dynamically*
<@jero32> just load it at the start of a level
<@jero32> probably made it easier to port from fds
<@kevtris> it depends on the game
<@kevtris> some of the memory maps are pretty insane!
<@kevtris> http://wiki.nesdev.com/w/index.php/NES_2.0_Mapper_347
<@kevtris> check that one out
<@kevtris> 1K, 2K, 3K, 4K and other banks
<@kevtris> with ram/rom thrown in
<@jero32> I'm always surprised with how much effort pirates put in
<@kevtris> some of them are relatively simple
<@kevtris> yeah me too
<@jero32> you'd think with that much engineering you could write a game!
<@kevtris> http://wiki.nesdev.com/w/index.php/NES_2.0_Mapper_554
<@kevtris> that's the cv 1 mapper from my cart
does the fixed bank contain the fds bios?
<@kevtris> dunno
<@kevtris> if it does it's a hacked version of it
<@kevtris> I know some of them have that
<@kevtris> watching a playthrough of fds cv2
<@kevtris> what a pain in the ass the disk access is on that
<@kevtris> the cart would be preferable
<@kevtris> even if you can't save
i guess the second mode of that chip is used for cv2, maybe the addresses of switching registers are altered
<@kevtris> it could be similar or totally different
<@kevtris> it was their way of saving money on asics probably, making one work for two different games
<@kevtris> it's interestnig how many fds to cart pirates there are of smb2
<@kevtris> at least 6 or 7
<@kevtris> with varying levels of quality
<@kevtris> (and hardware complexity)
<+tpw_rules> how do they vary the quality
some hangs after world 4
* Kane (~Kane@home.yarg.fr) Quit (Quit: Leaving)
some used 10 chips, and some only 2 witch smart connecting. I saw once a version with just single pal16l8 (without 4020 counter) but the top statusbar was moving with the background as mario walked
* Maylay (~gren@108-198-59-230.lightspeed.miamfl.sbcglobal.net) Quit (Read error: Operation timed out)
* Maylay (~gren@108-198-59-230.lightspeed.miamfl.sbcglobal.net) has joined #nesdev
End of #nesdev buffer Thu May 21 00:06:38 2020
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