yogi
Offline
Jelly Stone park, MD USA

Hi I found Infiniteneslives 's projects over at NESDev a couple weeks ago. He has a redesigned Kazzo cart dumper board and a flash cart for several mappers.
http://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=7912
http://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=8808
http://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=10357

  The Kazzo is a USB cart dumper designed in the land of the rising sun, very cool. Their goal is dumping ROMs. INL enhanced the design, to add flashing from the cart edge. He also designed a flash cart that is configurable for a range of mappers. Keep in mind this is a one mapper repo cart, unlike the PowPak or N8. You order the mapper type you need (but if you have the CPLD tools you could change the mapper).
  His latest design is packed with advanced features for future versions (what caught my eye was the ATMega footprint that's mapped to the databus, I smell a midi synth) He also just ordered molds for NES cases, should be ready come spring.

http://www.infiniteneslives.com/products.php

   As i researched  his threads and his shop, I knew I had to order! What really hooked me is the Kazzo hardware can upload and download WRAM saves!
SO a few day ago my Kazzo and SXROM flash cart arrived. IT runs Pulsar and PR8 flawlessly!!! The best part is with the Kazzo I can move Saves back and forth between Nestopia and my NES. Also works great with my NTRQ and cajoNES+ carts so it's not just for his flash carts.
  For the finial nail, the Kazzo/INL retro-dumper board is 20 bucks and the SXROM flash cart is less, depending on your options!
I will be getting another SXROM cart very soon! Each of Neil's titles will have a separate cart!!!!!  \o/
Yogi
EDIT Anago 062 WRAM:
I was having a problem with Nestopia and dumped .sav files.
The problem was in the script that is used by the Anago.exe software for wram access. This software package is from the original Japanese project, so there is a language issue with the docs.
What I saw was: I could download and upload the Pulsar 32K wram.sav fine, but this bin would not play correct in Nestopia.
After looking at the mmc1_surom.ag script I reasoned that it was using an even/odd access to the 4 wran banks: bank 0,2,1,3. This may be needed else where but doesn't work with Nestopia!?!
So I changed the order to 0,1,2,3 which I guess is the manor that Nestopia saves the wram. Work great!!!
Not sure how to host my modded script file, but will find a solution asap!
EDIT WRAM how-to:
Just posted a how-to for Pulsar and INL's SXROM and sav files.
NOW with the modded script attached for DL:
http://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php? … mp;start=0
Hope this helps!
Yogi

Last edited by yogi (Dec 15, 2013 12:43 am)

kitsch
Offline
matt's mind

thanks for posting this here!  this is good news

very good news

yogi
Offline
Jelly Stone park, MD USA

Yes! I've been playing with it last few days, so very happy!
Yogi smile

katsumbhong
Offline
Taichung, Taiwan

OMG....

stargazer
Offline
SLC, UT

This is amazing! Forgive me, but can someone tell me exactly which configuration to buy if I want to run Pulsar? I get that it's SX rom, but which memory configuration?

Also, yogi, how long did it take for yours to ship?

yogi
Offline
Jelly Stone park, MD USA
stargazer wrote:

This is amazing! Forgive me, but can someone tell me exactly which configuration to buy if I want to run Pulsar? I get that it's SX rom, but which memory configuration?

Also, yogi, how long did it take for yours to ship?

Hi stargazer.Under the MMC1 CHR RAM board list, add the "MMC1 SXROM" to cart. If you want 'fully assembled' pick the Flash upgrade, the '256K for CHR Ram boards'. (This one is twice as big as the Pulsar ROM so when you 'split' the .nes you will need to double the 128K PRG.)
If you don't want the Kazzo, you could contact INL and he has offered to pre-flash the board for people.
My order took about a week, maybe a little longer. BUT it seemed like allot longer wink

One finial note: INL's software is mainly for flashing, but he is improving it and said he intends to add ram dumping. The software from the original Japanese project Anago, does dump WRAM saves, but it's having problems with the SXROM's 32K. The GUI handles the 8K SNROM just fine, but for larger bank-switched ram you have to use the command line interface to set the wram read for 4x 8K..
AND so far, my dumped 32K Saves are not 100%, some of the Insterments and Echo table data is corrupt. I'm still trying things so we'll see; the Kazzo/USB/XP is fiddle-ie. 
Oh Yea, grab the docs and software from INL's site and check out the How-To link he has there, very helpful! Have fun!
Yogi

Last edited by yogi (Dec 13, 2013 5:43 am)

stargazer
Offline
SLC, UT

Thanks for that reply yogi. I'll probably pick up just the cart for now. It's insane how little this costs.

Is the flasher software cross platform at all, or just windows? Will I be missing out a ton if I just want this for Pulsar?

Kris k
Offline
BK

Yeah just grabbed that cart flasher and 256kb SXROM flash cart. Can't believe how insanely cheap this is, I really think it's going to lower the entry bar for new NES development and music creation.

Analog
Offline
Ciudad de méxico, MX

This is amazing.

Limitbreak
Offline
Arizona

Ok guys, I apologize in advance but I'm going to need a little bit of spoon feeding here. I've been looking at NES flash carts and I've been entertaining the idea of experimenting with Pulsar (admittedly because it's reportedly similar to LSDJ) but I read that Pulsar doesn't have a save function? How does that work? And do these carts have the ability to save files...?

I think I'm missing something here.

EDIT: I've found the right boards. Now to research Pulsar some more.

Last edited by Limitbreak (Dec 13, 2013 7:22 pm)

Analog
Offline
Ciudad de méxico, MX

yeah,  I'm on the web page and don't really know what I'm buying, LOL.

We need some spoonfeeding. I just want the kazoo and a ready to go pulsar cart. Really don't know which combo to buy.

Care to elaborate? thanks in advance for your time guys.

Limitbreak
Offline
Arizona
Analog wrote:

yeah,  I'm on the web page and don't really know what I'm buying, LOL.

We need some spoonfeeding. I just want the kazoo and a ready to go pulsar cart. Really don't know which combo to buy.

Care to elaborate? thanks in advance for your time guys.

http://www.infiniteneslives.com/aux7.php

I believe that's the right page man.

yogi
Offline
Jelly Stone park, MD USA
Limitbreak wrote:
Analog wrote:

yeah,  I'm on the web page and don't really know what I'm buying, LOL.

We need some spoonfeeding. I just want the kazoo and a ready to go pulsar cart. Really don't know which combo to buy.

Care to elaborate? thanks in advance for your time guys.

http://www.infiniteneslives.com/aux7.php

I believe that's the right page man.

Very good. I should have been clear.
goto the "MMC1 CHR-RAM Option" on the drop down list pick the SXROM option (only one choice for SXROM).
With this board you can supply you own flash chip or add the Upgrade.
I recommend the upgrade, NO assembly required just supply the case!
Goto the "Full Flash Upgrade" and select the 256K or 512K (for CHR RAM board)"

Yogi

yogi
Offline
Jelly Stone park, MD USA
stargazer wrote:

Thanks for that reply yogi. I'll probably pick up just the cart for now. It's insane how little this costs.

Is the flasher software cross platform at all, or just windows? Will I be missing out a ton if I just want this for Pulsar?

Right now INL's is up to Win 7, but there is a port to linux. There is a very long thread @ Nesdev.org for the Kazzo and the flash carts,

yogi
Offline
Jelly Stone park, MD USA

In my first post I mentioned that I was having a problem with Nestopia and dumped .sav files.
The problem was in the script that is used by the Anago.exe software for wram access. This software package is from the original Japanese project, so there is a language issue with the docs.
What I saw was: I could download and upload the Pulsar 32K wram.sav fine, but this bin would not play correct in Nestopia.
After looking at the mmc1_surom.ag script I reasoned that it was using an even/odd access to the 4 wran banks: bank 0,2,1,3. This may be needed else where but doesn't work with Nestopia!?!
So I changed the order to 0,1,2,3 which I guess is the manor that Nestopia saves the wram. Work great!!!
Not sure how to host my modded script file, but will find a solution asap!
Yogi
EDIT: here is a how-to
http://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php? … mp;start=0

Last edited by yogi (Dec 13, 2013 9:38 pm)

yogi
Offline
Jelly Stone park, MD USA
Limitbreak wrote:

Ok guys, I apologize in advance but I'm going to need a little bit of spoon feeding here. I've been looking at NES flash carts and I've been entertaining the idea of experimenting with Pulsar (admittedly because it's reportedly similar to LSDJ) but I read that Pulsar doesn't have a save function? How does that work? And do these carts have the ability to save files...?

I think I'm missing something here.

EDIT: I've found the right boards. Now to research Pulsar some more.

Pulsar does save your song data by virtue of the battery backed ram. You don't do any thing, the cart just remembers the current state of your data when you turn off your NES.
The Kazzo allows access to this Ram so you can save and  transfer the bin image to an emu or another cart.