Famicom Dragon Quest 3 Translation NOOB Question

Black IcE

Black IcE

Earl's Long Lost Brother,
15 Year Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2005
Posts
922
- Bone Head NOOB Question Alert -

I have a Famicom Dragon Quest 3 cart that I would like to attempt an English conversion on. When people do this, do they use the PRG rom from the US release or is there some super obscure retranslation that I am not aware of ? I can only find translation patches for the Super Famicom version. Any guidance on this would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
GohanX

GohanX

Horrible Goose
20 Year Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2001
Posts
12,507
You need the us rom, there is no fan translation. The catch is that the us version uses more memory than the jp dq3 board so it's not a direct swap. The easiest thing to do is use a DQ4 PCB.
 
Black IcE

Black IcE

Earl's Long Lost Brother,
15 Year Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2005
Posts
922
GohanX said:
You need the us rom, there is no fan translation. The catch is that the us version uses more memory than the jp dq3 board so it's not a direct swap. The easiest thing to do is use a DQ4 PCB.
Click to expand...

Is the difference that the US release uses 8k of SRAM vs 6k for the japanese release ?

Also, if I read correctly, is the SRAM in the CHR rom chip? If so, I imagine doing a conversion to something else is not terribly feasible.

Just trying to understand since I am newer at digging to NES hardware.
Here is what I am looking at for info.

JP Release: http://bootgod.dyndns.org:7777/profile.php?id=1527
US Release: http://bootgod.dyndns.org:7777/profile.php?id=1273
 
Last edited:
Opethian

Opethian

Basara's Blade Keeper
10 Year Member
Joined
Dec 22, 2009
Posts
3,669
the PRG rom on the US is 512k that wont fit on the DQ3 PCB
 
ggallegos1

ggallegos1

Cholecystectomy Required.,
10 Year Member
Joined
Oct 1, 2013
Posts
5,157
Shoot a message to HeavyMachineGun, he makes a bunch of these translation carts and has sold a few DQ3 famicarts
 
HeavyMachineGoob

HeavyMachineGoob

My poontang misses Lenn Yang's wang
10 Year Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2011
Posts
5,848
Finally, a thread I actually know.

I don't think there exists a fan translation for FC Dragon Quest 3, the US version Dragon Warrior 3 is fine.

As stated above, Dragon Quest 3 is 2Mbit / 256Kbit (board SNROM), Dragon Warrior 3 is 4Mbit / 512Kbit (board SUROM), both use CHR-RAM so ignore it. To put Dragon Warrior 3 onto a Dragon Quest 3 board is very simple.

SNROM -> SUROM Conversion (mapper 1):
Bend up pins 1, 2, 24, 30, and 31 (or cut tracks 2, 24, 30 and 31)
Solder pin 2 to hole 24 (A16)
Solder pin 24 to GND (OE)
Solder pin 30 to hole 1 (A17)
Cut track from MMC1 pin 11 to WRAM pin 20
Solder pin 31 to pin 11 of MMC1 chip (A18)
Solder pin 20 of WRAM to Ground (CE or CHR /A13)

Dragon Warrior 3's board uses one of the unused upper CHR address lines to control the bankswitching on the 4Mbit PRG ROM, in this case the upper 2Mbit half of the ROM.

The instructions are written assuming you're using a 27C040 or similar EPROM.
 
Last edited:
Black IcE

Black IcE

Earl's Long Lost Brother,
15 Year Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2005
Posts
922
This is awesome, thank you. I believe I do have some 27C040 chips around, so I will get this done in the next day or so and post up the results!
 
HeavyMachineGoob

HeavyMachineGoob

My poontang misses Lenn Yang's wang
10 Year Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2011
Posts
5,848
... Should probably mention this now. When the instructions call for GND, you can get ground at pin 16 on the EPROM and pin 14 on the WRAM chip (the Static RAM connected to the PRG ROM). Remember, ignore the CHR-RAM.
 
GohanX

GohanX

Horrible Goose
20 Year Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2001
Posts
12,507
HeavyMachineGun said:
Finally, a thread I actually know.

I don't think there exists a fan translation for FC Dragon Quest 3, the US version Dragon Warrior 3 is fine.

As stated above, Dragon Quest 3 is 2Mbit / 256Kbit (board SNROM), Dragon Warrior 3 is 4Mbit / 512Kbit (board SUROM), both use CHR-RAM so ignore it. To put Dragon Warrior 3 onto a Dragon Quest 3 board is very simple.

SNROM -> SUROM Conversion (mapper 1):
Bend up pins 1, 2, 24, 30, and 31 (or cut tracks 2, 24, 30 and 31)
Solder pin 2 to hole 24 (A16)
Solder pin 24 to GND (OE)
Solder pin 30 to hole 1 (A17)
Cut track from MMC1 pin 11 to WRAM pin 20
Solder pin 31 to pin 11 of MMC1 chip (A18)
Solder pin 20 of WRAM to Ground (CE or CHR /A13)

Dragon Warrior 3's board uses one of the unused upper CHR address lines to control the bankswitching on the 4Mbit PRG ROM, in this case the upper 2Mbit half of the ROM.

The instructions are written assuming you're using a 27C040 or similar EPROM.
Click to expand...

I never figured this out back when I was doing them, I just went the easy route and grabbed a DQ4. Then I used the DQ3 board to make DQ1.

BTW Black Ice, if you need any DQ 3 or 4 carts I still have a few laying around. At one point I was going to start selling translations like HMG but I decided I was too lazy and just made some for myself.
 
HeavyMachineGoob

HeavyMachineGoob

My poontang misses Lenn Yang's wang
10 Year Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2011
Posts
5,848
This is just me being a nerd, but my favorite board for Dragon Warrior 1 on Famicom is SJROM.

http://bootgod.dyndns.org:7777/profile.php?id=1265

Small CHR ROM, big PRG ROM, MMC1 and battery. It's very similar to the board used by Dragon Warrior 1 NES.

http://bootgod.dyndns.org:7777/profile.php?id=54

If there had been a sort of Dragon Quest 1 re-release with MMC1 and battery for FC, I think it would have used SJROM.

But yes, it's very easy to use the more common SNROM board for DW1. The CHR-RAM socket will take a CHR-ROM, but anything bigger than 64Kbit / 8KB needs the additional CHR address lines wired up. DW1 uses 128Kbit / 16KB for its CHR ROM.
 
Last edited:
Black IcE

Black IcE

Earl's Long Lost Brother,
15 Year Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2005
Posts
922
It it wired up and it works great. Not a super clean wire job, but not the worst I have seen either...

2me3fc8.jpg


Thank you for the information and the help. I think the next one I have on my radar is Lagrange Point as I want to listen to the music.
 
HeavyMachineGoob

HeavyMachineGoob

My poontang misses Lenn Yang's wang
10 Year Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2011
Posts
5,848
Lagrange point requires no rewiring. Just burn the game to a 27C040, remove the old PRG ROM, drop in EPROM, done. Keep in mind though, the board is single sided and therefore fragile. The cart shell is also prone to cracking, don't be rough.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top