Reverse ROM (generic Nintendo cartridge)

[Voidboy]

I was playing a Nintendo Emulator the other day (the NESTICLE I believe) and noticed it just doesn't have the feel of that original good old 8 bit Nintendo. I figure since someone stripped a cartridge of its contents to make the ROM, there might be a way to make a device that could hold any game you put in it and then play it on the original NES.

I was thinking some kind of flash USB interface to load the ROM and actually have cartridge contacts on the other side to plug into the Nintendo.

I'm looking for all kinds of advice on this issue. I would love to take it past the thought-game process and actually construct one. I may need information on USB interface, cartridge hardware, etc... Any advice is more than welcome. What do you think?

 

[Jeff7]

Possible, but it's probably not been construced or researched because it wouldn't be profitable - you'd have either a Gameboy Advanced, or for about the same price, if not higher (to offset the small target market and research costs), a device that would let you play a game with poorer graphics, sound, etc...as if you could get good resolution on a tiny screen in the first place, but you get the idea.

 

[PrinceXizor]

Doubt he's talking commerical applications, Nintendo might have a small problem with someone marketing a product to run ripped ROM's on

On to the topic at hand. I think the issue is timing and latencies to best replicate the "feel" of the original NES. I preface this buy saying that I am no programmer, but I believe that there are issues involved when dealing with the whole microprocessor to memory to ROM, etc...BUS architecture and getting and not running the game at 100X as fast as it was supposed to.

Your solution seems to be one route to go (i.e. a mechanical simulator for the ROM) vs. the other solution, which would be a more robust/accurate virtual envelope to talk to the ROM and better simulate the timings of the original NES. Eh, just the meandering of a mind thats delved into this a little bit before (but again, I mention I am not a programmer by trade).

P-X