NES Games on Flashback 1 - Possible?

[gnnash]

Hello,

 

I recently got an original Flashback at a thrift store (come on, for $5, who could resist?) I was big into Atari hardware back in the day, but haven't worked with anything recently after I had to give up my consoles for space. I was horrified to have found out that the Flashback was built of an NOAC design, but alas I can see why they did such in the interest of cost.

 

I do have quite a few NES games, but not my console. I have gotten all the fun out of the Flashback that I probably will ever get, and would like to tinker with it to play some NES games on, mainly to prove its possible And yes, I do realize there are issues with compatibility on NOAC designs.

 

Has anyone been able to do this, and what points did they use to soldier in a cart port? I know Curt Vendel did this once, but he is hard to get ahold of (understandibly, as I hear he is working on a FB3.) I have attached a picture of the top (bottom?) of my board. It seems that the secondary rom card soldiered into place would hold many of the soldier points, but I do not know which are which.

 

Hope to be able to pick up an FB2 at Target on black friday for $17, if my store has one in stock. At least I know I can mod that for a 2600 cart port.

[Hornpipe2]

A few have asked before ( http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=76204 and http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=74717 ) but I don't think anyone's done it - aside from Curt, who had a cart port on one while developing it.

 

You might look at the links on the bottom of my post on that first topic - you can find the pinout of the chip, and that of an NES cart connector. Wire those two up, disable the on-board ROM, and it might just work.

[mstulir]

A few have asked before ( http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=76204 and http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=74717 ) but I don't think anyone's done it - aside from Curt, who had a cart port on one while developing it.

 

You might look at the links on the bottom of my post on that first topic - you can find the pinout of the chip, and that of an NES cart connector. Wire those two up, disable the on-board ROM, and it might just work.

 

Just to expand a bit on what Hornpipe2 said...

 

Curt & I each have a dev unit with a cartridge port. We did display the dev units at the Philly Tech Expo in 2004 (which was the first public display of Flashback) and the 2006 vgXpo. The boards in the dev units are not the same as the production units.

 

Flashback (unlike Flashback 2) was not designed to be modded. The design team has not released any technical information on the FB board to the point, and I do not see that changing anytime soon.

[brendano]

I contacted Curt trying to pursue this very same mod but I came to a dead end. You can read all about it in this thread: http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...0&p=1098546

 

I wish that this mod would be completed by someone. Mabye somebody has done a similar mod on another NOAC unit and we could use pictures of that mod as a starting point. If anybody has any ideas I'd love to hear them.

[jaybird3rd]

I'm starting to think that it might be a better idea to simply gut the FB1 and use its case for classic gaming related projects. I'm thinking of using one of mine as an enclosure for a MultiJoy-8 interface.

 

Another possibility is to get a VERY small-form-factor motherboard like the Epia PX 10000 and make a compact little emulation machine out of it:

 

 

(If this board doesn't fit, I'm sure there will be an even smaller one someday that will).

[gnnash]

Your ideas intrigue me, but someone near and dear is getting me a Flashback 2 for christmas (shh... I don't know it yet.) I'll forget about the FB1, probably even throw it away. Unless, of course, you want the case for your ultra-secret projects

[PacManPlus]

I'm starting to think that it might be a better idea to simply gut the FB1 and use its case for classic gaming related projects. I'm thinking of using one of mine as an enclosure for a MultiJoy-8 interface.

 

Another possibility is to get a VERY small-form-factor motherboard like the Epia PX 10000 and make a compact little emulation machine out of it:

 

 

(If this board doesn't fit, I'm sure there will be an even smaller one someday that will).

 

 

I just got my hands on one of these motherboards... and I have an 8Gb Compact Flash card (and an IDE adapter). My original idea was to put this in a FBII case, but now seeing it in front of me, it might even fit in the FB1 case! I'll either report back here on my findings or make a new thread in this forum... Stay tuned

 

Bob

[jaybird3rd]

I just got my hands on one of these motherboards... and I have an 8Gb Compact Flash card (and an IDE adapter). My original idea was to put this in a FBII case, but now seeing it in front of me, it might even fit in the FB1 case! I'll either report back here on my findings or make a new thread in this forum... Stay tuned

 

Bob

Cool! It'll probably be a challenge to make it fit in the FB1 case without at least cutting down some of the support posts inside the case, but it should fit inside the FB2 case for sure. Either way, I can't wait to see what you come up with!

 

Also let us know what you think about the board's overall performance. I'm especially curious about applications like emulation and media playback.

Edited January 2, 2008 by jaybird3rd

[PacManPlus]

...Started a new thread about this as to not continue to hi-jack this one.