Is it possible to make an N64 translated repro?

[lev11]

The CIC on Japanese and US version of a particular game appears to be the same model, comparing some of the scans and data from here: http://n64.icequake.net/mirror/tcsr2001 ... index.html

So would it be as straight forward as on the SNES to remove the mask rom and fit a flashed eeprom?

http://www.mmmonkey.co.uk/star-ocean-translated-cart/

There's very little info on the web about this, I'm wondering if this is because it wont just work, or a suitable eeprom costs silly money?

[Jockel]

I don't think that it's possible. There have been very few N64 bootlegs, the most prominent example was Top Gear Rally. You'd have to find out how they did it there first.

[lev11]

I thought those were complete fakes, I meant changing out a ROM on a genuine Japanese N64 cart with an English EPROM version of the same game.

[Guspaz]

Everdrive 64 is probably the easiest option, considering the difficulty (impossibility?) of making N64 repros.

[yxkalle]

You can't find flash memories with the same kind of protocol as the maskroms Nintendo used in their N64 carts. There is no single off-shelf component you could replace the chip with and make it work. You would had to add a simple CPL inbetween the new flash and the N64 cart to do the translation. It's totally doable, but it wouldn't be cheap at small volumes, as you would need to make pcb's etc. It can be a tad hard to find documents about the protocol Nintendo used too, so some reverse engineering would probably be in place... Unless you can't get some info from one of the flash cart creators.

[Guspaz]

An in between solution might be something like what INL is doing for the SNES: a one-off flash cart that stores a single game at a time. They could be mass-produced, and while they'd cost a lot more than a SNES repro board, they'd be cheaper than an Everdrive.

Then again, there may not be much of a market for that. The N64 was a complete disaster in Japan. It sold less units (~5.5 million) than the Saturn or TG-16. As a result, there are a lot less games that came out in Japan but not North America compared to the SNES or NES, and there's not much of a homebrew market either.

[lev11]

Sorry for missing the replies, thanks guys.
Yes Everdrive would do the job, but wanted the actual carts to swap about I guess those INL type would do, if they ever did a N64 version and they were a fair bit cheaper than Everdrive.

@yxkalle, what is a CPL? I guess there's no chance of anymore making similar flash memories, (or at least SMD type) in the future?

[HalfCent]

A CPLD (which I'm assuming is the same thing yxkalle meant by CPL) is sort of like a small FPGA. Its programmable hardware that is able to keep it's programming between power cycles. In this case, it would act as a memory controller that mapping the original N64 ROM interface to whatever new flash chip you are able to source.

[yxkalle]

Yes, I meant CPLD. Thanks.