Category Archives: Repro-Tutorials

VRC4 repro questions & answers

Leave a Reply

Since the most questions people send me are about VRC4 repros I think its handy to have a dedicated post for some infos about them 🙂

If you want to convert a VRC4 game into another you need to rewire the VRC4 in some cases. Have a look at this chart:

Any VRC4 to VRC4b
Lift pin 3 of VRC4 (skip if coming from a VRC4a)
Lift pin 4 of VRC4
Solder pin 3 of VRC4 to PRG pin 11 (skip if coming from a VRC4a)
Solder pin 4 of VRC4 to PRG pin 12
Any VRC4 to VRC4c
Lift pin 3 of VRC4
Lift pin 4 of VRC4
Solder pin 3 of VRC4 to PRG pin 6
Solder pin 4 of VRC4 to PRG pin 5

Any VRC4 to VRC4d
Lift pin 3 of VRC4
Lift pin 4 of VRC4 (skip if coming from a VRC4a)
Solder pin 3 of VRC4 to PRG pin 9
Solder pin 4 of VRC4 to PRG pin 10 (skip if coming from a VRC4a)

Any VRC4 to VRC4e
Lift pin 3 of VRC4
Lift pin 4 of VRC4
Solder pin 3 of VRC4 to PRG pin 10
Solder pin 4 of VRC4 to PRG pin 9

Any VRC4 to VRC4f
Lift pin 3 of VRC4
Lift pin 4 of VRC4
Solder pin 3 of VRC4 to PRG pin 12
Solder pin 4 of VRC4 to PRG pin 11

If you don’t know what VRC4 board revision you have and the game you’re planing to do, have a look here: https://wiki.nesdev.com/w/index.php/Talk:VRC4

Please note that the letter after VRC4 does not mean a revision of the IC but rather revision of the PCB!

You rewired everything according to the chart and the screen still looks garbled?
You may need to remove or add some components to the PCB, namely a 1K resistor, a 1N4148 diode a 2K*8 SRAM 150ns (or faster) IC and a ceramic capacitor.

The SRAM needs to be pin kompatible with the MB8416A-15LZ:

These are the components that need either be removed or soldered in:

Games needing these components:

  • Crisis Force
  • Ganbare Goemon Gaiden 2: Tenka no Zaihou
  • Gradius II
  • Parodius Da!

Games that need these components removed:

  • Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa
  • Racer Mini Yonku: Japan Cup
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles I & II
  • Tiny Toon Adventures
  • Wai Wai World 2: SOS!! Paseri Jou

I think that should cover all questions 🙂 If not, just drop me a mail through the contact form, I’m always happy to help,

PS: Feel free to copy and share the info 🙂

Akumajō Special: Boku Dracula-kun (I’m Kid Dracula) – repro tutorial

6 Replies

Hello everybody!

I just did a repro of Akumajō Special: Boku Dracula-kun and documented the process. To make things easier for me I’ll call the game “Kid Dracula” in the following article 😉

Donor module

The best donor for Kid Dracula is Tiny Toon Adventures タイニートゥーンアドベンチャーズ .

It got the same mapper as Kid Dracula and needs just some minor rewiring.

You can use Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles チイーネーソ ミュータント ニンジャ タートルス oder Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Manhattan Project チイーネーソ ミュータント ニンジャ タートルス ザマンハッタンプロジェクト, but you’ll face some more modification of the donor with these.

Alll games are based on Konami’s mapper “VRC IV”.

You can use a Parodius Da! パロディウスだ！or Crisis Force クライシスフォース as well, but these games are pricey 🙂

Continue reading →

Legend of Link Repro tutorial – Famicom

5 Replies

Recently, I stumbled upon a fantastic hack for the Famicom/NES. After playing the games for several hours in an emulator I decided to build a cartridge for it to play the game on the actaual hardware.

The hack is called “Zelda – The Legend of Link”, made by infidelity.
You can find a lot of info and behind the scenes insights in the official thread: Click!

In this post I’ll show how I built the cartridge. If you got any questions feel free to ask me!

Continue reading →