This has just arrived: A flash cart (multi-cart) by TeamEurope. I’ve been involved in the development in the very beginning and am very excited that it has finally has become reality. This is the kit that I’ve received upon special request:

I’ve requested a loose kit so I can put it together myself and also change the order of the games. The assembled PCBs look like this: EEPROM PCB (3in1) to the left, regular PCB (4in1) to the right. I’ve used new lead-free solder this time, that’s why it looks quite messy. The photos were taken between the second and third cleaning cycle.

I’ve programmed the EPROMS with the games in the order that I’ve bought them / where the barcode cards are available. The ROMs can be easily obtained from the nes_datach folder of the MAME Software List ROMs. Each EPROM has the space for four Datach ROMs. They need to be copied together with the binary copy command (copy /b).

Cart 1 / 4in1 / regular PCB:

1. Dragon Ball Z: Gekitō Tenkaichi Budokai (cards available)
2. Ultraman Club: Spokon Fight!! (cards available)
3. SD Gundam: Gundam Wars (cards available)
4. J. League Super Top Players (cards on archive.org)

copy /b "datach - dragon ball z - gekitou tenkaichi budou kai (japan).prg" + "datach - ultraman club - supokon fight! (japan).prg" + "datach gundam.ic1" + "datach - j league super top players (japan).prg" 4in1.bin

Cart 2 / 3in1 / EEPROM PCB:

1. Crayon Shin-Chan: Orato Poi Poi (no cards needed)
2. Yū Yū Hakusho: Bakutō Ankoku Bujutsue (cards on archive.org)
3. Battle Rush: Build Up Robot Tournament (cards missing)
4. Battle Rush: Build Up Robot Tournament – debug (see below)

copy /b "datach - crayon shin-chan - ora to poi poi (japan).prg" + "datach - yuu yuu hakusho - bakutou ankoku bujutsu kai (japan).prg" + "b-ai '93 battle-rush.ic1" + "b-ai '93 battle-rush GG.ic1" 3in1.bin

The carts work as expected and let me finally play all seven Datach games on real hardware.

Battle Rush: Build Up Robot Tournament

What’s so special about this cart when the system is emulated in MAME? Well, all of the games but one are emulated in MAME. The game Battle Rush: Build Up Robot Tournament is different from the other games because it needs an extra X24C01 EEPROM chip to save robot fighters that have been created in the Factory. Without this data, the actual game doesn’t start. Pictures of an original cart can be found here.

According to The Cutting Room Floor, a debug menu was left in the game. It can be accessed with the Factory menu item after applying the Game Genie code LAOXGAPP. The debug menu contains a faster robot build mode and a sound test. I’ve patched the code with the program Game Genie Guy! into the ROM (it also needs uCON64 for checksum fix and IPS patch creation). The patch works as expected in the fourth slot of the flash cart.

There is one more code that enables a password screen: IPOXGAPO. I haven’t programmed/explored that possibility yet though.
Update: A password generator can be found here.

3D printed case (2020-12-13)

TeamEurope has just released the design files for a catridge case on Thingiverse. The top covers come in multiple flavours (e.g. plain, with text, with holes for the switch and EPROM).