See *gasp* the insides of an MVS cart

[arfink]

OK, I am posting this info because I think it is disgusting how the guys at the Neo-Geo.com forums won't even talk to noobs, most especially about anything related to game conversions/mods.

OK, here is the cart we are going to dissect today:

http://personal.stthomas.edu/arfink/152127.jpg

It's cheap and was a large-meg game for it's time- perfect for hacking and/or rom switching. You know, to make youself a personal copy of something reealy hard to find, like Ghostlop.

OK, here it is with the cover off, I don't think I need to tell you that you need to remove the screws first (oops, I just did!)

http://personal.stthomas.edu/arfink/152328.jpg

There are two PCB's inside, the top one contains the program code, the bottom one contains the graphics code. I think there is a sound code bank somewhere too, but I'm not yet %100 certain which board it's on.

Top PCB: http://personal.stthomas.edu/arfink/152425.jpg
Bottom PCB: http://personal.stthomas.edu/arfink/152502.jpg

You'll notice that everything is DIP package, and that all the mask rom chips are common pinout PROM's- easily replaced with eeproms or flash chips. There are even some open spots which you could fill with other chips you need. You will also notice that all the chips on the board are named, just the same names as they get in the MAME rom sets. C1,C2, V1,V2, etc...

Basicly (and I have yet to try this, you do it at your own risk for now...) if you wanted to swap games, you would remove the old chips and put in new ones with the same pinout (burned with your faveorite game code, of course). The labeling of the chips makes things pretty easy, just make sure the pinouts match up. HOWEVER, I do not know how picky the NeoGeo is about max. chip sizes, and this most likely will not work with the "Giga Spec" games which use bankswitching to exceed the normal 330 Meg maximum game size.

When I have finished a complete conversion I will finalize all this info- If you know anything about this, please comment and/or correct me.

[atari2600a]

Hold down the shutter button on your camera, but don't press it all the way down. This will focus before you take the shot. Your pictures are hard to look at.

[arfink]

Sorry, I used a webcam to take the pictures.

No shutter speed thingees here, just bad focusing because the camera is crap. I'll try and get some better shots up soon.

[atari2600a]

If you want, I can pop open my Super Sidekicks 2 or my Metal Slug 4 & take some pictures for you...

[Skyone]

*ahem*

Nice pictures, I always thought they were bigger than that (the PCBs.) Of course, nice info.