ToToTEK.COM

Cliffjumper · Joined: 27 Dec 2004 Posts: 4

Watch out, basic questions ahead. (Equipment: 64M cart, no CIC installed at the moment, no T-Connector, unmodded NTSC-US SNES)

Which type of roms will the romcart play natively (without a T-Connector), HiROM or LoROM? Is a T-Connector the only way to switch between the two? Is there a good list somewhere of games that are HiROM or LoROM?

Currently, I can't play games on my SNES at all. If I install a CIC-161 chip, will I need a T-Connector? I know that it's required for games with special chipsets, but I'm referring to plain vanilla ROMs, nothing fancy. Alternately, if I have a T-Connector, do I need to install a CIC chip?

And... I think that's it. Thanks for humoring a newbie!

FloBo · Joined: 19 Sep 2004 Posts: 61

Either you put another NTSC-cartridge in the back-slot of your T-connector (so that your SNES thinks, that your Cartridge is an original american WITH cic-chip) or you have to solder a CIC-chip onto your Flash-cart to play it without the T-connector.

Without a CIC (in your second cart or sodered onto your Flashcart), your SNES won't recognize the cart as native hardware and will thus refuse using it.

Any further questions left?

Cliffjumper · Joined: 27 Dec 2004 Posts: 4

Thanks FloBo, that's exactly what I was looking for.

I desoldered a CIC from an old NTSC-US Final Fight cart, and tried to put it in my romcart. However, this didn't seem to work. Are there different types of CIC chips? Or did I just mess up the transplant? (It's aligned properly on the board, but I'm worried about damage to the chip due to heat.)

Oh, and also, what's all this HiROM and LoROM business? I'm still not too clear on that.

Thanks!

FloBo · Joined: 19 Sep 2004 Posts: 61

Did you solder the chip onto your flashcart or did you only plug it onto your cart without any soldering? If so, it can't work (I tried this at first, too^^).
If you already soldered it onto your cart, you might have damaged it... for there are no different versions of US-NTSC-CIC-chips, it should have been the right one. But you have to be really very careful to prevent heating it up to much. Might be that you really damaged it... Sad

HiROM and LOROM shouldn't make any difference at all (at least to my knowledge). I played both Sim City (LoROM) and Secret of Mana 2 (HiROM) on my cart without having had any trouble.

Cliffjumper · Joined: 27 Dec 2004 Posts: 4

Thanks for the info! Very good guess by the way, I did just plug in the chip instead of soldering it. But I still might have damaged the chip. When desoldering, I used an alligator clip to drain off the excess heat on the first few legs, but after that, I got impatient and desoldered without using clips. I think I'll just assume the chip's gone bad, and wait for a new CIC chip from Tomy before I do any soldering. :)

I'm new to circuit board soldering. Any tips when I'm installing this CIC chip, to keep from damaging anything? Thanks!

DjoeN · Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2005 8:23 pm Post subject:

yes, solder a socket first.

Then you can pull in and out the CIC whenever you want Wink

Cliffjumper · Joined: 27 Dec 2004 Posts: 4

I was actually considering that! (Any idea where I could get a socket?) Only one thing bugs me though. However, Tomy mentioned in another thread that if you add a socket to the board, you can't fit the whole setup in a cartridge case. But still, not too critical of a detail.

If I still wanted to solder the chip directly to the board, does anyone have any recommendations (other than using alligator clips to drain off some heat) ? Thanks!

FloBo · Joined: 19 Sep 2004 Posts: 61

The only tip I can give you is: solder one pin. Then wait one or two minutes before soldering the next one. And so on. That's the way, I soldered mine and it works very well. (Just be a little more patient when doing soldering work^^).

Tomy · Site Admin Joined: 02 Aug 2005 Posts: 414

FloBo :
You look like solved your problem Very Happy

retrofan · Joined: 06 Aug 2005 Posts: 25

See this is the exact confusion that arises from lack of documentation/explanation. Nice product, bad documentation. The guy initially asked if he can run both hirom and lorom without the need of the t-adapter wich is where the confusion is.

I'm still not sure about this myself as of how hirom games affect the flash cart. Can someone confirm if the T-Adapter is needed for some hirom games or not ?

To make things even more confusing Super Flasher software has a note at the bottom of the programming window that states (quoting exactly):

"When play Hirom game with save, the back side slot on T-Connector must plug no save function cart."

(yes we know game with save support cannot have another save supported cart in the t-connector because the save locations will conflict with each other)

But why is hirom mentioned, does it imply that you need a T-Connector with another hi-rom game in when playing hirom rom's ? If not why would I leave in the T-Connector to play hirom games ? What about lorom games with save?

I know you need the T-connector for the cic bypass if none is in the flash cart and perhaps some custom chipped games. Just the way the above statement is formulated makes no clear sense and some people get confused.

Can Tomy clear this up for us...

Few thoughts...
Immagine how cheap would be for tototek to give an english speaking
person a free product to have him translate all their instructions or notes into clear understandable english.

How many of you geeks would take up this task ? Free flash cart for read proofing/correcting their product's documentation...

Deckers · Joined: 14 May 2007 Posts: 24

just because it's X-mas doesn't mean you can get present from everybody
Laughing

Tomy · Site Admin Joined: 02 Aug 2005 Posts: 414

T-Connector only use for CIC thing. And you're right "retrofan", if plugged cart have save , it will conflict Super Flash Cart save function.
Because when Super Flash Cart born, we tested lo-rom game with save game plugged. Save function work. So, software only mention Hi-rom game. But we can't test all games.

Maybe someone will think play lo-rom game with plugged hi-rom game, play hi-rom game with plugged lo-rom game. Then no need to care cart have save or not. Because save area is different.

But it is not. When play hi-rom game, $700000 area is rom, lo-rom game is save area. So, it can not. Also, if play hi-rom game with hi-rom save game plugged. Although, save area is same $306000. But you can think data inside the cart and super flash cart will be different. It will make conflict also.

So, plug non-save cart for both lo-rom/hi-rom game is the best way.