--------------------------------------- Making a Genesis Copier to VB adapter By David Tucker (david.tucker@goliathindustries.com) --------------------------------------- The basic concept is this, you have to wire an adapter up to the VB cart to make it look like a genesis cart (the reverse can be applied to play games back on a VB). The easiest approach would be to take an old Genesis cart that you no longer wanted, remove the ROM, and wire up the cart to a VB edge connector. The only source I know of for VB edge connectors, is a real VB (ouch). If your not willing to cut up an existing VB for the edge connector, you can use thin 'solid' copper wires that can be pushed into the holes on the VB cartridge, than each time you change a cartridge you have to reinsert the wires into all the holes (a creative amount of hot melt glue would help keep the wires in the proper order for quicker swapping... To wire up the adapter, simple hook the wires from the Genesis cartridge to the corresponding pins on the VB cartridge following the pinouts of both cartridges below. The important lines are the 'data', 'address' and '/CS'/'/CE' lines. The ROM in the genesis cartridge is identical to the ROM in the VB (different size/pinout though), if it helps you can simply run the wires from the VB edge connector to the old holes where the ROM sat in the genesis cartridge. ------------------------- Genesis Cartridge pinout ------------------------- The cartridge pins are numbered A1-A32 and B1-B32, left-to-right, with the A row toward the back of the Genesis and the B row toward the front. The "i" and "o" labels describe whether a signal is an input and/or an output to/from the Genesis. Signals with an "o" are output from the Genesis to the cartridge. Signals with an "i" are input to the Genesis from the cartridge. N/A - not applicable to the current design... Pin Signal Pin Signal -------------------------------------- A1 -- gnd B1 N/A A2 -- +5v B2 N/A A3 o a8 B3 N/A A4 o a11 B4 o a9 A5 o a7 B5 o a10 A6 o a12 B6 o a18 A7 o a6 B7 o a19 A8 o a13 B8 o a20 A9 o a5 B9 o a21 A10 o a14 B10 o a22 A11 o a4 B11 o a23 A12 o a15 B12 N/A A13 o a3 B13 N/A A14 o a16 B14 N/A A15 o a2 B15 N/A A16 o a17 B16 o /C_OE (Output Enable) A17 o a1 B17 o /C_CE (Chip Enable) A18 -- gnd B18 N/A A19 io d7 B19 N/A A20 io d0 B20 N/A A21 io d8 B21 N/A A22 io d6 B22 io d15 A23 io d1 B23 io d14 A24 io d9 B24 io d13 A25 io d5 B25 io d12 A26 io d2 B26 N/A A27 io d10 B27 N/A A28 io d4 B28 o /LDSW (not used) A29 io d3 B29 o /UDSW (not used) A30 io d11 B30 N/A A31 -- +5 B31 N/A A32 -- gnd B32 i /CART_IN (not used) ----------------------------- Virtual Boy Cartridge Pinout ----------------------------- --------------------- - Cartridge Pinout - --------------------- Edge Con Rom Ram --- --- --- 1 (gnd) 3 27 (/WE) 5 (/NC) 7 26 (CS2) 9 (/NC) 11 2 (A18) 13 3 (A17) 15 4 (A7) 3 (A7) 17 5 (A6) 4 (A6) 19 6 (A5) 5 (A5) 21 7 (A4) 6 (A4) 23 8 (A3) 7 (A3) 25 9 (A2) 8 (A2) 27 10 (A1) 9 (A1) 29 11 (A0) 10 (A0) 31 12 (/CE) 33 (gnd) 13 (GND) 35 14 (/OE) 22 (/OE) 37 15 (D0) 11 (D0) 39 16 (D8) 41 17 (D1) 12 (D1) 43 18 (D9) 45 19 (D2) 13 (D2) 47 20 (D10) 49 21 (D3) 15 (D3) 51 22 (D11) 53 (+5v) 55 (pin 55-57) 57 (pin 55-57) 59 (gnd) ---------------------------- 2 (gnd) 4 (/NC) 6 20 (/CS1) 8 (+5v) 10 (/NC) 12 (/NC) 14 44 (/NC) 16 43 (A19) 18 42 (A8) 25 (A8) 20 41 (A9) 24 (A9) 22 40 (A10) 21 (A10) 24 39 (A11) 23 (A11) 26 38 (A12) 2 (A12) 28 37 (A13) 30 36 (A14) 32 35 (A15) 34 34 (A16) 36 (+5v) 33 (/BYTE) 38 31 (D15) 40 30 (D7) 19 (D7) 42 29 (D14) 44 28 (D6) 18 (D6) 46 27 (D13) 48 26 (D5) 17 (D5) 50 25 (D12) 52 24 (D4) 16 (D4) 54 (+5v) 23 (Vdd) 56 (pin 56-58) 58 (pin 56-58) 60 (gnd) ----------------------------- (ROM) Toshiba TC53x200 or equivalent mask ROM. Can be replaced with a 27Cx00 EPROM, or 29Wx00 flash ROM, where x is 2, 4, 8, or 16. 1 - /NC 44 - /NC Used for the 32mbit ROM... (would be A20) 23 - +5v 33 - /BYTE (Held high the chip is in word mode) 13,32 - GND (RAM) Cypress CY6264 or equivalent SRAM. Note - when reading the ROM, you should drive pins 3 and 6 high (+5v) and pin 7 low (gnd) so the ram does not interfere with the read operations.