Wednesday, December 28, 2016

MOJO-NES




I finally got some time to upload MOJO-NES to GitHub. MOJO-NES is a NES cartridge with no mapper support, so it can hold up to 32 KiB (PRG) + 8 KiB (CHR) ROMs. It was designed to host projects from the infamous The Mojon Twins (hence the name) and 1985alternativo.

As far as I know, it has already been used for the following NES titles:
  • Sir Ababol
  • Sgt. Helmet Training Day
  • Jet Paco
  • Alter Ego
  • Super Uwol
Not bad for such a simple cart!

Schematic and PCB have been designed using the awesome and free (as in freedom) KiCad. You can find the design files here. If you want to make your own cart, be warned that the PCB must be 1.2 mm thick (they are usually 1.6 mm thick). You will also need to flash the AtTiny microcontroller with avrciczz firmware to defeat the lockout chip (the CIC) inside NES consoles.

Since I completed this cart, I have also designed two more NES cartridges (the last one supports an extended version of MMC3, but is still WiP), so stay tuned for more NES cart awesomeness!