ToToTEK.COM

[RGB_Gamer]

After doing a thorough search here, google, and many living and defunct websites, I have some questions regarding famicom backup units. Here are the ones I have:




From left to right: Turbo Game Doctor 6M, FFE Magicard II Turbo, Venus Game Converter, Bung Super Game Doctor 4M

I just want to know some things about these units (besides the obvious like different companies that make them, and different memory capacity):

1. Is there any functional difference between these different units?

2. I have a bunch of games that I believe are specific to the Game Converter since on the case art, it says, "Disk Game For Game Converter)". I tried loading one of these games on my other units, but they don't work (keep on getting error 27, but the Game Converter doesn't do that). Do these units just not read disks from other units?

3. How were cartridge games converted to play on these kinds of units (other than the Nintendo Disk Writer). Can cartridge ROMs be converted for run on these kinds of units (I know that's wishful thinking but...)

4. Does there exist some sort of archive of games of this format, or do I just need to find actual disks?

[MottZilla]

As I remember hearing you'll have to find the ROMs the pirates hacked to run on the device. Basically games were just hacked to run on whatever hardware the device had in it which wasn't likely very complex. It may be possible that some of the device's functionality could be understood to create your own ROM hacks to run on it assuming you can write the files to a FDS disk the way they want.

The devices to me seem more like novelty items than practical devices to use. But I'm sure you know that and are just wanting to mess with them. Someone around here probably knows something about them, maybe even has some disk images.

[madman]

FFE and Bung supported different file formats. We've covered this and the conversion question on here before, look for some of my old Famicom backup unit threads and the FDS threads. There is no archive, at least not in the Western world. The disks are becoming increasingly harder to find as opposed to just bootlegged FDS games.

[kyuusaku]

I've already written about this pretty extensively here and on Cherryroms but here it goes again:

Of course there's a difference between them.

The oldest of those is the Game Converter, it's 1/2M and can play CNROM, UOROM and GNROM games. The Magic Card II Turbo (not by FFE) is also 2M and plays the same games. Game Doctor 4M plays those games but also has two more custom bankswitch modes: an enhanced CNROM mode which allows you to run up to 2M hacked games (16K banks) and a 4M mode which uses 8K banks. Games which use CHR-ROM must be hacked to use four 8K CHR RAM banks (just enough for CNROM/GNROM games).

Basically those units can play pretty much all Famicom games until 1987 and a smaller number of later games. The GD4M can play lots of hacked MMC1-like mapper games and a small number of hacked MMC3-like mapper games, but to overcome the lack of CHR RAM bankswitching, they must use the CPU to simulating bankswitching by shuffling around data. This causes graphical glitches all the time so the experience is nothing like running a real cart.

Turbo GD 6 can either have 2/4M of PRG RAM and 2M of dedicated CHR RAM. It also has all the previous modes of the older units, but the enlarged CHR RAM allows it to run more modern games which extensively use CHR ROM animation, granted all non CNROM, UOROM and GNROM games need to still be hacked. Games won't have all the screen flashing glitches like on a GD4M but hacked MMC3 games will still have glitches on split screen effects.


Game Converter disks work with all units since they're only CNROM, UOROM and GNROM games. The only disks that aren't compatible with other units are Magic Card disks, but Game Doctor disks work on Magic Cards. That Magic Card doesn't apply though because it's a clone, I can't remember if it plays real Magic Card disks.

Obviously a game hacked for the TGD6 will not work on other units.

Cartridge games were converted by dumping them with custom hardware (very easy to make a dumper that connects to a computer) then disassembling the ROM and tracing through the code, patching bankswitch functions to the work with the copier hardware. It's just common sense.

There are no archives of Game Doctor games online, except some ROMs that have been converted FROM Game Doctor disk format to iNES (.NES) ROMs and are in GoodNES. Hacks of more recent games (specifically TGD6 hacks) are extremely hard to come by on disk and don't work very well anyway. While the TGD6 has enough memory to play practically all games, the games must still be extensively hacked and some games are so optimized, it's just not possible to get them working without rewriting the game.

[RGB_Gamer]

Thanks for the info, kyuusaku.

I know what you mean; finding pirated FDS disks is no easy task. I have a stack of game converter format disks. Once I finally make an MGD1 to PC cable, I will be backing mine up. Hopefully one day, some other people will start to do the same.

Here's my FDS setup. Since my RGB NES obviously can't utilize the FDS system, I have my SNES + Super 8 + Game Converter + FDS RAM adaptor (in that order) stacked together. Doesn't look impressive, but it works



As you can see, I have a bunch of Game Converter disks (some of them even having color art). The yellow one on top of the SNES system is Copy Master.

[kyuusaku]

I've backed up hundreds of disks and can say for certain all Game Converter disks are just NROM, CNROM, UOROM and GNROM so they don't really NEED to be backed up or archived, they are already in every ROM compilation. The only difference is that some games are bad dumps and some have copyright information removed. Since those games don't require hacking, all you have to do is figure out the disk format which is super easy.

[CrackLtd]

Just a quick, well meant, tip: Don't hold the camera in your hands while taking a picture! Always use a stand and try making a good light.