I'd like to convert, that's my sin

voilà voilà...

I have a nice shelf with many Neo AES games on it, but some titles like Metal Slug or Neo Bomberman miss me so much. I'm familiar with soldering, so i think i'd be able to make convert carts from MVS to AES, all i need is someone to explain me!

I know that many specialists of conversion do this to earn money, but as far as i'm in France, i won't kill anybody business making one or two carts for my own...

Hope that any "sensei" will listen to me and be moved by my freakin english :o)

See ya Neo fans!

Well, no one has explained it to me.. at this point I could do it, if I could figure out how to get INSIDE the cartridge. I think that all electronics nuts should have the information they need to do the job. Id be willing to post it if I had it, and I would have it, if I could get into my modded carts without wrecking them.

EXACTLY!!!
how the hell do you open a cart!!?!?!?!?!
i have broken two soo far!

Im guessing that there is some sort of a small plastic tool that you move around the side of the game like a zipper, its logical... Jeff, give us your secrets to opening them up!!! PLEASE?!

Originally posted by Dreamh2o:
Im guessing that there is some sort of a small plastic tool that you move around the side of the game like a zipper, its logical... Jeff, give us your secrets to opening them up!!! PLEASE?!

Click to expand...

Some secrets are better left unsaid. Cart conversion is like a black art (few know it, few have mastered it) and unless you stumble across the information , the chances of someone telling you is slim at best. Imagine how worthless these converted carts would be if everyone was making their own.

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NeoLord
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They would be worth $50 -75 less... (Jeffs Job fee) but once you made them they would still be worth more to those people who cant do it or dont want to do it... for $50 Id say that Jeff is a good deal, since the headache of breaking a cart isnt worth it... but then, knowing, and doing it for fun, that is differant, even if I knew Id still make Jeff do it most of the time. System mod's now that I want to be able to do, when and where-ever.
An unreleased converted cart will always be worth the Sac + the MVS used, minimum, they cnat devalueate to less then that.

Hey I just had a really cool idea... though impractical... wouldnt it be cool to have a switch and keep all the chips for the scac cart along with the mvs converted cart... like a 2 in 1 game, that you could switch back and forth (no killing the sac) You would basically have to have one switch connect and discconect the pins on ever chip each time you wantted to switch over to a differant game, hence making this a nightmare. But a cool thought none the less.

Originally posted by Dreamh2o:
They would be worth $50 -75 less... (Jeffs Job fee) but once you made them they would still be worth more to those people who cant do it or dont want to do it... for $50 Id say that Jeff is a good deal, since the headache of breaking a cart isnt worth it... but then, knowing, and doing it for fun, that is differant, even if I knew Id still make Jeff do it most of the time. System mod's now that I want to be able to do, when and where-ever.
An unreleased converted cart will always be worth the Sac + the MVS used, minimum, they cnat devalueate to less then that.

Hey I just had a really cool idea... though impractical... wouldnt it be cool to have a switch and keep all the chips for the scac cart along with the mvs converted cart... like a 2 in 1 game, that you could switch back and forth (no killing the sac) You would basically have to have one switch connect and discconect the pins on ever chip each time you wantted to switch over to a differant game, hence making this a nightmare. But a cool thought none the less.

Click to expand...

That's an interesting idea! It would probably work.... I say cart conversion is a black art
because few are willing to discuss it. It would be interesting to read about the procedure, tho'!

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NeoLord
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I was just trying to explain how to open a cart and to make things easier, I'll take a couple pictures and draw some arrows - it will be easier with pictures

As for dual-carts - been there, done that. The biggest issue here is room in the cart. There isn't enough physical room to double-stack every rom, so you would have to use any open sockets if you had them, then rewire the crap out of the cart -- not really a fun job, and definitely not worth the extra work to save yourself a couple bucks.

Conversions are not a black art - all you need is an understanding of a few logic IC's, rom addressing, and just know how the Neo fetches data, and you're set to go. Explaining all the in-and-outs are not something that can be easily done in a faq. Yea, I could tell you to solder a line here, set this jumper, remove this resistor, etc., but what would you learn? Each job could be different (some with similarities). Putting Metal Slug on a FF3 cart is different than putting MSlug on a Sam 2 cart. There are many revisions of game boards, and each set has it's own benefits and limits. If you want to do them yourself, the best way to do it is jump in and see what happens.

When people do ask me questions (specific questions), I generally try to answer them. However, I don't answer emails like "Can you tell me how to convert a cart?" I already wrote one book, I don't want to do another.

Jeff

PS: The book mentioned above is "Teach Yourself Visual C++ 6 Online in WebTime", published by SAMS -- you can find it at Amazon.com -- sorry, shameless plug

Ok Jeff, i see... You're right saying that i won't learn anything by having you on the phone explaining the way you convert carts.I thought that converting carts were a more "standard" operation.

Anyway, we resolved that i won't become an electronic freak in the next few years, but my collection is still in need of games like metal slug or neo bomberman...

Should we exchange some e-mails Jeff, to see if you could sell me convert carts?

Thanx for the reply, see ya :o)

Knowing how to open the carts, and an explaination of how the neo works with the data, and function of each type of chip would be a usefull faq for the person who was willing to dabble a bit... I think its worth trying a few cheap carts just to say i did it... but the first step is opening the case.
My first attempt would be trying to duplicate Jeffs Gururin convert that I already own, but making it identical to the already made cart.
I used to love those Radio Shack electronics 200 and 300 in one kits as a kid, Iv had every one of those darn things. My parents hated them, because for the $40 I would always end up taking the parts out of the board, and soldering them together in a nest of parts to make a portable radio or some crap like that (no board )

Vince,

You should try to email nicozzzz@infonie.fr or adol@club-internet.fr , they may be able to do the conversion job for you.

To Jeff:


My friend owns your book! LOL

I was just saying thatit seems like some people in the know (with the exception of you ; you care enough to post a reply) are not willing to part with their knowledge of cart conversion to people like DreamH2o and myself (remember Mullin's FAQ? I wonder if he could actually convert carts); we want to learn! I have some knowledge of eletronics, and it could prove to be a very exciting project! I'd rather learn from you anyway!

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NeoLord
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[This message has been edited by NeoLord (edited January 04, 2001).]

Would these pictures be a good guide to cart conversion:

http://neonewsmagazine.bizland.com/10.jpg

http://neonewsmagazine.bizland.com/cart1.jpg

Notice the wiring...

Images courtesy of Adol.


(I decided to make these pictures into links; they were too large and would eat into Shawn's bandwidth.)

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NeoLord
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[This message has been edited by NeoLord (edited January 04, 2001).]

Good pics!

BTW, putting the images in the message does not chew up bandwidth because they would still be read from your site.

BUT, those were a little big, and I am sure some souls would take a few minutes to download them! Thanks for being courteous!

Is that a Shock Troopers conversion on a SS2 board????



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Keith

Originally posted by JMKurtz:

As for dual-carts - been there, done that. The biggest issue here is room in the cart. There isn't enough physical room to double-stack every rom, so you would have to use any open sockets if you had them, then rewire the crap out of the cart -- not really a fun job, and definitely not worth the extra work to save yourself a couple bucks.

Click to expand...

What about a Multi-Cart like is made for Vectrex or Atari 5200 with every game on one cart. They must dump the games onto special chips, I guess. Obviously they don't have a separate rom in there for each game.

Anthony

I'm not sure which cart was used for a SAC in that conversion (Adol would know better than me. ).

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NeoLord
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[This message has been edited by NeoLord (edited January 04, 2001).]

That's probably a Sam 1 or WH2 set of boards, or something along those lines... However, notice that whoever did the convert (MAS?) had to add a couple edge contacts to the board -- not a very good idea. Definately not worth saving a couple bucks on a sac cart. Those homemeade contacts can come off and then the cart is shot.

Jeff

Ah!

Thats the scan that Adol posted to DL's board a while back to show the inside of his ST cart from NGF!

He said it was a rats next inside!

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Keith