O/T? Reprogramming SNES Cartridges

[CD_Vision]

I apologize if this is the wrong place to ask, but if someone can direct me that would be so awesome.

I can't explain why, but playing games on emulators is somehow not as cool as playing the real things. The games I want to play are Dragon Quest 5&6, using the translation patches made by DeJap, etc. I can play these just fine on my emulator, but it would be oh-so-cool to get this data written into a cartridge.  These two games were never officially released in English so I can't just go out and buy them.

I'm aware of various cartridge copiers that were out on the market, and that would probably do the job too, but what I really want is someone who can take a real cartridge and replace the code in the EEPROMs with the data from these two games and sell it to me.
If anybody knows someone providing such a (strange, admittedly) service, please let me know!

[Trenchbroom]

SNES didn't use EEPROMs.  Real ROMS were used--program burned in once and unchanging after that point.  That's why the games had to use a battery to keep codes, save points, etc..

There may be an EEPROM cartridge out there that allows you to "burn" a game and use it in the original machine but I have never seen one.

[Howard_Casto]

It's not that simple.....  all snes carts are not the same....  the eprom size is different and each company has special chips (capcom has q-sound for example)  The only hassle free way to do it is via a developer's cart which can approximate all of these special chips and have the proper eprom sizes sent to the console.  

Besides that, there are only two people in the world that make real snes carts:  you guessed it.... nintendo of america and nintendo of japan.

Nintendo doesn't sell blank carts and old carts are read only (i think at least, not positive on that one).  Besides.... the tools required to do all of this are so expensive anyone willing to do this would probably charge you about 100 bucks, which is what a developer cart costs.  

Besodes all of that, what you wish to do is illegal (honorable intentions or not), and most people who have the proper tools would be game developers, which wouldn't risk pissing off nintendo to sell you a cart.  

[CD_Vision]

Sorry, no, what I'm asking is totally possible. Here's an example:

http://cgfm2.emuviews.com/sfcdev.php#ins

this requires a little higher level of technical knowhow then a controller hack, so I was hoping to solicit some help. I don't see a legal issue with this if I own the japanese carts.

[AtariYoungin]

I have done this with and NES Cart.  It does take a lot of work, but the only "tool" is an eprom burner. And a soldering iron...but thats besides the point. Im not sure how the SNES carts work, but on the NES each cart uses a certain mapper. And to make your own cart, you need to find a doner cart that uses the same mapper, take out the rom chips, put in your own with a little rewiring. And pray....hope this helps.

And in case your wondering, the game I made was a Earthbound Zero cart

[Cave]

I think this is what you need, kinda pricey though.
http://www.tototek.com/pio/main1/SUBMENU/PARTS/LINKS/OS/superflash.htm

It works like those GBA linker cartridges i think.

Cave

[Howard_Casto]

Sorry, no, what I'm asking is totally possible. Here's an example:

http://cgfm2.emuviews.com/sfcdev.php#ins

this requires a little higher level of technical knowhow then a controller hack, so I was hoping to solicit some help. I don't see a legal issue with this if I own the japanese carts.

I'm well aware... Still know what I'm talking about, sorry.  

Read the others comments which back up what I've already stated.  

The legal issue is backup copies of anything are illegal at this point as are altering original game code that is copyrighted by someone else.  

[DarkKobold]

Legalities aside - What you are asking is going to be a pain in the arse. The Real question is "why bother?" You can play the games on an emulator, and plenty of SNES to PC controller adaptors work. Even if you did do all the soldering, you still need a programmed prom, which requires an expensive programmer, to do the job correctly.

I doubt Square-Enix would come after someone for selling a single cartridge to you. They are too busy with FFXII and FF:Advent Children to give a crap about some piddly dink old snes game.

It would probably be easiest to hack the actual cartridge, patch the IPS to the rom, and then use that with a new eprom. The question is, is it worth destroying a perfectly good copy of your game?

[CD_Vision]

Cave thanks, that Tototek link is exactly what I needed!!!

Oh, and DarkKobold... the original post states why I don't want to use the emulator.

[DarkKobold]

Sorry, missed that part!