{ "version": "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1.1", "title": "shane.jeocities.org", "home_page_url": "https://shane.jeocities.org/", "feed_url": "https://shane.jeocities.org/feed.json", "description": "Homelab, retro hardware, game dev, and the birds in the back field.", "language": "en", "authors": [ { "name": "Shane" } ], "items": [ { "id": "https://shane.jeocities.org/fixing-rgb-output-on-the-neo-geo-cd/", "url": "https://shane.jeocities.org/fixing-rgb-output-on-the-neo-geo-cd/", "title": "Fixing RGB Output on the Neo Geo CD", "summary": "I recently bought an RGB SCART cable for the Neo Geo CD, I figured it’s all I needed to get super high quality Neo Geo CD video working with my Open Source Scan Converter (an upscaler). It didn’t work at all and I just assumed it was a faulty cable or my Neo Geo CD was busted, it still worked with S-Video and Composite so not a big deal. I somehow missed a paragraph of text on the ordering page that says the Neo Geo CD needs CSync mod in order to get a proper RGB signal.", "date_published": "2019-03-25T22:25:00+00:00", "tags": [ "guide", "hardware", "neo geo", "neo geo cd", "repair", "cables", "composite", "csync", "luma", "mod", "ngcd", "open source scan converter", "ossc", "rgb", "s-video", "video" ], "content_html": "

I recently bought an RGB SCART cable for the Neo Geo CD, I figured it’s all I needed to get super high quality Neo Geo CD video working with my Open Source Scan Converter (an upscaler). It didn’t work at all and I just assumed it was a faulty cable or my Neo Geo CD was busted, it still worked with S-Video and Composite so not a big deal. I somehow missed a paragraph of text on the ordering page that says the Neo Geo CD needs CSync mod in order to get a proper RGB signal.

\n

\"\"

\n

BEFORE WE GET STARTED A SMALL WARNING:

\n

The CSync guide I was linked to didn’t end up working for me in the end and I’m not 100% sure why, I did manage to overcome this by using a different source to get a proper sync though. I’m not sure which version will work for you but I am now using Sync on Luma and it works and looks great!

\n

The link brought me to this blog post about how to do the CSync Mod: https://www.retrorgb.com/ngcdcsync.htmlI also did some cursory research on the subject and found that the OSSC needs some specific settings to make even a modded Neo Geo CD output correctly.
\nSpecifically in “Sync Options” Menu:

\n\n

Here is a video of me being super dreadful at Samurai Spirits 3 captured with the Camlink through RGB SCART on the OSSC:

\n

http://retro.supermegabyte.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2019-03-20_16-22-35_1.mp4

\n

So let’s get started!

\n

For reference here is the unmodified underside of the video/power board:

\n

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\n

Cutting Traces:

\n

\"\"

\n

I’m not a big fan of cutting traces on boards, but the RGB stuff seems genuinely broken on Neo Geo CD, even with these traces cut, the other video options will still work.

\n

To cut the traces, simply take a hobby knife/blade and cut along the red marked lines, being careful not to cut too deep. If you have a multi-meter you should check that the lines don’t have continuity, if you don’t and you have issues later, check back on this step.

\n

Wiring for Luma Sync:

\n

\"\"

\n

We are going to get our Sync signal from our S-Video port, for context, S-Video has two useful pins, “Chrominance” and “Luminance + Sync”.

\n

I’m not really an expert on video signals but from reading up and testing it out it seemed safe enough to try and it worked!

\n

Solder the wires to the above points. Luma is the correct voltage so there is no need for a resistor here.

\n

\"\"

\n

You should be getting a super clear picture without any issues, but if for some reason you are not, first make sure your OSSC settings are correct if that doesn’t work perhaps try the Csync method below.

\n

Wiring for Csync:

\n

DISCLAIMER: This method did not work 100% for me, I got signal, but very dark!

\n

\"\"

\n

Simply solder some wire to the above points. We are getting our CSync signal from the third pin from the left on the bottom row. The voltage from this pin is 5v and the the RGB pin should be outputting 3.3v so we need to put a 470ohm resistor on between the two.

\n

\"\"

\n

You should be able to get a signal on your OSSC, if not, first make sure your OSSC settings are correct. If it’s still not working and you have not tried the Luma method above, try that, if it isn’t working after that, I’m afraid I won’t be of much help =S

\n

Here is a video showing you what was happening for me:

\n

http://retro.supermegabyte.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/vid.mp4

\n

If your image is too dark, consider doing the Luma mod instead. If you happen to have any information on why this method can produce dark screens, please let me know in the comments below or on Twitter @TheShaneOBrien

\n" }, { "id": "https://shane.jeocities.org/mod-your-playstation-1-with-an-arduino/", "url": "https://shane.jeocities.org/mod-your-playstation-1-with-an-arduino/", "title": "Modding a Playstation 1 with an Arduino", "summary": "I have managed to collect quite a few Japanese Playstation games the past year, my favorite probably being Parappa the Rapper.", "date_published": "2018-12-02T16:16:00+00:00", "tags": [ "guide", "hardware", "playstation" ], "content_html": "

I have managed to collect quite a few Japanese Playstation games the past year, my favorite probably being Parappa the Rapper.

\n

I picked it up in a BookOff in Ojima, Japan for 108 yen, that’s about 80 cents, Complete in Box with all extras too! Here in Ireland a CiB PAL version goes for about 45 euro! So, I started thinking about picking up an NTSC Playstation 1, problem was that I already have 4 Playstation 1’s!

\n

I used to work in a tiny games shop on Talbot Street called GameZone, it’s long gone now, but people would drop off their PS1, pay 50 or 60 irish pounds, some dude would come pick a batch of PS1’s up and a few days later drop them all off modded. I never took advantage of it at the time and despite being super curious, I never asked what was actually involved.

\n

So, now in 2018, I know it involves a bit of soldering, and that happens to be a skill I’m slowly developing so I was thinking of picking up a modchip, I’ve seen a few on eBay and surprisingly there are still a lot of chips out there for PS1, PS2 and others like GameCube, and they are quite cheap too!

\n

I thought to myself, “wouldn’t it be cool to make my own modchip? It totally would” then, already frustrated with future me trying to figure it out, I went to Github and “modchip playstation” and stumbled across PsNee.
\nPsNee is a fully Open Source modchip for PS1, it’s stealth, which means it can defeat the DRM on newer PS1 boards and games and, importantly, it runs on Arduino!

\n

It does use Arduino Pro Miniwhich is a bit less user friendly, but not by much. It allows a person to play backups and imports and it does it’s job wonderfully, I’ve played all of my Japanese imports so far and I’ve even burned a few Fan Translations to boot!
\nSo with that, lets get straight into our guide.

\n

Stuff you’ll need:

\n\n

Preparation:

\n

Take apart PS1

\n

\"\"

\n

\"\"

\n

\"\"

\n

\"\"

\n

I forgot to take these before I did the mod, so please ignore the Arduino and extra cables!

\n

Identify which board you have

\n

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\n

You can see on image below, we’ve flipped the board over and in the red circle on the underside of the motherboard says “PU-18”. This might be in a different location depending on the model,but you can cross reference it with images in the zip file from the PsNee Github project.

\n

Mark where the wires will go

\n

This isn’t required, but the points are SO SMALL that it really doesn’t hurt. There are plenty of times I find all the points I need, then blink and suddenly they are gone again. Take your sharpie, open the diagram that matches your PS1’s board and just mark beside the solder points you will be using with a dot. Make sure you mark the green PCB and not the solder joint.
\nThe diagrams aren’t exactly uniform, but you can use them to locate the solder points you need, here’s the PU-18 points for example, they’ve put color coded dots over each solder point, some diagrams will have the wires soldered on.

\n

!!! PLEASE USE THE ZIP FILE + DIAGRAM FOR THE MOTHERBOARD IN YOUR PS1 !!!

\n

\"\"

\n

Flash the Arduino

\n

\"\"

\n

\"\"

\n

\"\"

\n

This part is super easy. First, open your Arduino IDE and open the PsNee.ino file.
\nScroll down to the part where it says “Choose your hardware!” and uncomment the line that says “#define ARDUINO_BOARD” by deleting the two forward slashes beside it. It should look like:
\nIf you happen to have a PU-41 Motherboard, you must also uncomment “#define APPLY_PSONE_PAL_BIOS_PATCH”
\nAll that’s left to do is to connect the Arduino to your PC and flash the code!
\nYou might now be noticing that the Arduino Pro Mini doesn’t have a USB port on it, well, that’s what the FTDI is for, hook up a usb cable to it and insert it into the Arduino with a bit of force ensuring a good contact like so:
\nIt’ll light up, windows will detect it and you’re almost good to go!
\nIn the Arduino IDE, we need to set the IDE to know which board we are using, so click tools and select the Pro from the Dropdown and select the correct voltage of the Arduino you bought:
\nFinally, click the check mark to verify the code is good and when it comes back saying everything is ok, this is signified by it saying “Done Compiling” and not throwing any errors, click the arrow beside it to send it over to the Arduino.

\n

Installation:

\n

Solder

\n

WARNING

\n

\"\"

\n

\"\"

\n

\"\"

\n

\"\"

\n

\"\"

\n

Some of the points on these boards are TINY, if you’re not confident in your soldering skills I’d recommend getting a soldering training kit, or taking apart some old broken piece of tech and just trying to solder wires onto points with that until you’re a bit more confident in your skills. For example here is two points, right next to each other beside a standard AA Battery for scale.

\n

The key is to not panic if you bridge two points, just relax, clean the tip of your iron, and try separate them in the middle, desolder braid is super useful for this, but you also need to be careful with it.

\n

So with that handy warning out of the way, lets get started.
\nIf you can, I find it best to use matching wire colors as the diagrams, if not, it’s no big deal, but maybe use a bit of tape / sticker to label each cable so you can remember what is going where.

\n

What I do is, cut the cables to roughly the length of the PlayStation board, this is more than long enough in most cases and gives you some room left over in case you need it.

\n

Then you start by re-tinning the solder joints you will be using, this is just adding a bit of your own solder to the blob that’s already on the board, there are a few reasons you do this, the main one being that the solder from the factory sometimes melts at much higher temps than the stuff you have at home so mixing some of yours in makes it easier to work with.

\n

Lay your wire on the board, if you cut them as I described above you should have more length than you need, hold one end of the wire in your non dominant hand, the soldering iron in the other.

\n

There’s two trains of thought, either melt the solder joint first, then move the wire into the molten blob while the iron is still touching it, hold it for a sec to let wire heat up, remove the iron and let it set. Or the more “proper” place wire on top of blob and press iron down on wire until heat passes through and melts blob. Either way is fine and works in my book, whatever your preference.

\n

I will say to take EXTRA care here and make sure you are soldering the correct places.

\n

Here’s what mine looked like once I had all wires in place, the PlayStation I modded had a PU-18 Board:
\nI put the other ends of my wires through any hole in the board for slightly neater cable management. The hole pictured is nicely located for where we will stick the Arduino when we seat it back in the case.

\n

The next step is to solder the cables to the Arduino Pro Mini, we have already flashed the Arduino in a previous step so once this step is complete, we are ready to go. It is important to make sure the correct cables get soldered to the correct spots, there is a table on the PsNee Github page that looks like:
\nHowever make sure you reference the actual table as it may change in the future. You can see how mine is soldered here:
\nWith this, we should be ready to test!

\n

Testing

\n

Testing is fairly straight forward, the steps you should follow:

\n
    \n
  1. Test a disc from the consoles original regions.
    2. \n
  2. Test a disc from any other region.
    3. \n
  3. Test a burned disc (if you want that sort of thing).
    4. \n
\n

I would again recommend testing against a know working disc, as you want to be absolutely sure any problems that occur are with the chip and not the way the disc was burned.

\n

\"\"

\n

\"\"

\n

\"\"

\n

\"\"

\n

\"\"

\n

In the gallery above the first two pictures are me testing out my PAL copy of Wipeout, followed by me testing out my Japanese copy of Parappa! I’m using a Cotton Bud / Q-Tip to hold down the “lid closed” button to get it to read.

\n

Hopefully your games boot and all goes well, if not I’m really not sure how to help, I’ve never had this fail, first port of call would be check the Github Issues page and do a quick Google for “PsNee installation issue” or something like that.

\n

Worst case scenario, throw a comment below and I’ll see what I can do, but no guarantees!

\n

Tidy

\n

\"\"

\n

Once you have it working, we need to fix that Arduino down so it isn’t just loose inside the console.

\n

I happened to have a random piece of rubber, with some sort of prepared glued surface on both sides, probably from a router or some other smart device so I used that, but failing that I don’t see a reason why a Command Strip or something wouldn’t work.

\n

I’d hesitate to hot glue it in as, again, something could potentially go wrong down the line and removing hot glue is 100% zero fun!

\n

Here’s what mine looks like stuck in:
\nAnd, well, I guess that is that! It’s a little involved, but you can now say that you made your own PlayStation modchip!

\n" }, { "id": "https://shane.jeocities.org/virtual-boy-stand-fix/", "url": "https://shane.jeocities.org/virtual-boy-stand-fix/", "title": "Virtual Boy Stand Fix", "summary": "Hey there! I’ve been quite busy since the last post with little time to work away on my games D=I managed to pick up a pretty cheap Virtual Boy and some games, it works great!", "date_published": "2018-11-22T18:45:00+00:00", "tags": [ "hardware", "nintendo", "preservation", "repair", "virtual boy" ], "content_html": "

\"\"

\n

Hey there! I’ve been quite busy since the last post with little time to work away on my games D=I managed to pick up a pretty cheap Virtual Boy and some games, it works great!

\n

I am genuinely impressed with the level of 3D and just how clear and crisp the graphics are, especially the tiny text! I was having a great time playing Red Alarm, an amazing Descent-ish like game but the stand was a bit more wobbly than expected!

\n

Upon further investigation I noticed the plastic “Medallion” at the center of the stand was a bit cracked and missing a little part on the top. It finally kicked the bucket when I tried snapping the Virtual Boy into the stand with the legs open (oops).

\n

I got out the calipers and some paper and started tracing and measuring and whipped up a 3D model of the piece, didn’t get it exactly right first try, I made the screw holes too tight, but the second worked perfectly!

\n

I’ve had mine in use now for a few days now and it’s holding up quite nicely, the Virtual Boy currently lives on my desk right beside the 3D Printer so it’s been given a proper shake about too and yet to show any signs of stress!

\n

Here are some comparison pics

\n

\"\"

\n

\"\"

\n

\"\"

\n

Whenever most people find out I have a 3D printer they immediately give the “yeah but it’s not actually made anything useful” spiel and yes, while 90% of everything I’ve printed is useless tat, it’s stuff like this that makes it all worth while for me and each one only takes an hour to print!

\n" }, { "id": "https://shane.jeocities.org/fix-glitchy-famicom-disk-system-sprites/", "url": "https://shane.jeocities.org/fix-glitchy-famicom-disk-system-sprites/", "title": "Fix Glitchy Famicom Disk System Sprites!", "summary": "You might remember my glitchy Mario from a previous blog post. Basically I thought my copy of Mario 2 was just old and glitchy, but it appears that it’s actually the Famicom Disk System RAM Cart that was causing the issue!", "date_published": "2018-07-23T17:12:00+01:00", "tags": [ "famicom disk system", "guide", "hardware", "nintendo", "preservation", "repair" ], "content_html": "

You might remember my glitchy Mario from a previous blog post. Basically I thought my copy of Mario 2 was just old and glitchy, but it appears that it’s actually the Famicom Disk System RAM Cart that was causing the issue!

\n

\"\"

\n

I googled it and found this particularly useful blog post by synt4x and I’m here to confirm that this works super well! It’s worth noting that the particular FDS Board I have is a HVC-FMR-03.

\n

As syt4x explains in their blog, the PRG lines of the FDS RAM Cart seem like they receive some interference, so by adding in a 9pin 4K7 Resistor Array to these pins, we help ensure there’s no signal interference.

\n

I ordered my 4K7 Resistor Array from a seller on Aliexpress, it took close to two months to arrive so probably try find some a bit closer to home if you’d like this fixed quickly!

\n

The actual soldering job is quite easy:

\n
    \n
  1. Bend the first pin on the Resistor Array (RA) up.
    2. \n
  2. Line up the remaining pins:\n
      \n
    1. RA Pin 2 to FDS Pin 6
      2. \n
    2. RA Pin 3 to FDS Pin 7
      3. \n
    3. RA Pin 4 to FDS Pin 8
      4. \n
    4. RA Pin 5 to FDS Pin 9
      5. \n
    5. RA Pin 6 to FDS Pin 10
      6. \n
    6. RA Pin 7 to FDS Pin 11
      7. \n
    7. RA Pin 8 to FDS Pin 12
      8. \n
    8. RA Pin 9 to FDS Pin 13
      9. \n
    \n
    3. \n
  3. Put a bit of tape on top to hold it in place while soldering.
    4. \n
  4. Solder the above pins to each other.
    5. \n
  5. Solder some wire to RA Pin 1 (I used 30 AWG wire)
    6. \n
  6. Solder other end of wire to the above spot on the FDS Board
    7. \n
\n

Here’s another couple of pictures to get a better idea:

\n

\"\"

\n

\"\"

\n

\"\"

\n

Here are the results!

\n

\"\"

\n

\"\"

\n" }, { "id": "https://shane.jeocities.org/neo-geo-cd-controller-replacement-switches/", "url": "https://shane.jeocities.org/neo-geo-cd-controller-replacement-switches/", "title": "Neo Geo CD Controller Replacement Switches", "summary": "Hey there!", "date_published": "2018-07-17T17:09:00+01:00", "tags": [ "3d print", "controller", "hardware", "neo geo", "neo geo cd", "preservation", "repair" ], "content_html": "

Hey there!

\n

So I recently receive a pretty busted up NGCD and a couple of games, the power port seems wobbly and RGB doesnt pipe out.

\n

I also received two NGCD controllers, both of which had directional input issues. I learned online that you can take the pads out of working switches and pop them into broken ones.

\n

I ordered a second controller from eBay and conveniently missed that it was untested and also had one busted switch.

\n

Nevertheless I had enough to get two working controllers, but gutting old ones really bothers me, at some point in the future there wont be any left right?

\n

Well I started reading up about them and learned that whatever switches they use have stopped being made or were never available for the public. During my repairs I noticed that its the tension from the spring that actually presses the button. So I looked up the nearest microswitch I could find, the RACON8, I bought a few on the off chance they’d just work but nope.

\n

The RACON8 switch actually fits perfectly where the old NGCD switches fit, which is great, but the main problem is the surface area of the actual button, and the tension required press it, the old NGCD spring is not enough to press it by itself…

\n

\"\"

\n

So I got to thinking, there’s a little white bit of plastic that the stick presses against, which in turn pushes on the spring, which then exerts enough pressure on the switch.

\n

Well I though, if I could extend that bit which holds the spring in place on the white piece of plastic to physically press the button, while still giving enough leeway to the stick, we’d have a viable alternative to fixing the NGCD controller which doesn’t involve gutting them.
\nSo behold!

\n

\"\"

\n

It feels great, I’m a big Windjammers fan and can play just as well using this compared to my “og switch” controllers. The only bad thing about it is that it no longer gives that ultra satisfying click, but other than that, have had zero issue throwing curves etc.

\n

You can buy RACON8 switches pretty readily from anywhere that does stuff like that.

\n

You can grab the plastic gate bit(?) from my thingiverse here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3007837

\n" }, { "id": "https://shane.jeocities.org/replace-screen-lens-buttons-on-game-boy-color/", "url": "https://shane.jeocities.org/replace-screen-lens-buttons-on-game-boy-color/", "title": "Replace Screen Lens + Buttons on Game Boy Color", "summary": "I recently purchased a Pokemon themed Game Boy Color, the one with Pikachu and Pichu on the screen. It is a bit beat up, some scratches on the screen and the Dpad and buttons were a bit squishy and soft, nothing we can’t fix though and we can give it a little bit of a clean too. First things first, you need:", "date_published": "2018-07-04T17:01:00+01:00", "tags": [ "game boy", "game boy color", "guide", "hardware", "nintendo", "preservation", "repair" ], "content_html": "

I recently purchased a Pokemon themed Game Boy Color, the one with Pikachu and Pichu on the screen. It is a bit beat up, some scratches on the screen and the Dpad and buttons were a bit \"\"squishy and soft, nothing we can’t fix though and we can give it a little bit of a clean too.
\nFirst things first, you need:

\n\n

I got my Screen Lens and Button bits from Deadpan Robot they arrived super quick and they look and feel great.
\n 
\nFirst up is to take any game you might have out of the Game Boy Color, then remove the battery cover and\"\" any batteries. The six screws you see on the back require the Nintendo tri point screwdriver, remove them and set aside.
\nGently lift the back plate up, the left battery contact is attached to the main PCB and slots out of the plate as you lift it up.
\nWith the back of the Game Boy Color PCB exposed, it’s a good opportunity to clean the seam around the Game Boy, get really into the crease all around it, it’s got some gunk there, guaranteed.
\n\"\"Other gunk magnets are the link cable port, the volume dial, the headphone port and the power switch. Gently rub away any dirt, use a cotton bud + isopropyl alcohol to clean the audio jack and link cable port.
\nWe need to get under this PCB to get at the screen and buttons, using the philips head screwdriver, unscrew the three screws holding it in.
\nGently lift the PCB out, being aware that the screen is held in place with a light adhesive and is attached to the PCB by a ribbon cable.
\n\"\"Underneath the PCB you will find three silicone button pads, you should remove these and, if you are replacing them, throw them out, or, if you are cleaning them, rub the little black contacts with some isopropyl alcohol, but be sure to flip them over for a clean as I guarantee they are covered in gunk!
\nWhile you’re at it, clear any other dust, it tends to gather around the bottom where the audio jack and speaker holes are, also check the speaker itself, the plastic film should also be pretty dusty.
\nTake the buttons out and get an alcohol wipe in there and give it a good scrub, things tend to get especially gross in there!
\n\"\"Removing the screen is very simple, you just have to be careful, ideally you’d use a plastic “spudger” to gently lift it away from the adhesive, but I used a sharp pokey tool on the four corners and very gently lifted, it sounds bad, but its just the screen coming away from the adhesive edges.
\nOnce the screen is loose, gently lift it out and place it somewhere flat, and that you will not be able to accidentally scratch or otherwise damage it.
\n\"\"We need to remove the old lens, it’s held on by some pretty strong adhesive, so if you care about keeping it, use your fingers and gently apply force along the top two corners. Again you will hear a pretty “plastic getting mangled” sound, but it’s just the sound of the screen lens coming away from the adhesive. If you don’t care about the old lens, get a screwdriver or something pokey and push the screen lens from the LED light hole, it requires much less pressure to get it to budge.
\n 
\n\"\"Time for some more cleaning! Flip the Game Boy Color over, and start cleaning gunk out from the edges of where that screen lens sat. Prepare the new screen lens, to save yourself a headache, do not take off the back screen lens protector until you absolutely have to, if you get a finger print on the back, you’ll be staring at it forever. Pull the adhesive strip off the screen lens and sit it into the recess where the old one used to sit. Gently apply pressure all around the edges using your thumbs.
\nThe only important part now, is gently reinserting the LCD screen, but before you apply pressure to it, while it’s seated back in it’s place, turn the Game Boy Color over and make sure you line it up in a nice way, as it’s not a 100% perfect fit.
\nMake sure you put the silicone buttons contacts back on, lay the PCB board in place, at take note of the non screw holes in the PCB, there are plastic pegs, sticking up from the faceplate that sit back into these, they are a little tricky to realign if you are not paying attention to them and it’ll make the DPAD feel weird if not lined up right!
\nScrew everything back in, remember that battery contact! It slips through the backplate, so don’t force it. Pop in a game and enjoy the perfect screen and those super satisfying unused buttons!
\n\"\"

\n" }, { "id": "https://shane.jeocities.org/adding-games-to-the-fds-stick/", "url": "https://shane.jeocities.org/adding-games-to-the-fds-stick/", "title": "Adding Games to the FDS Stick", "summary": "I’ve written this guide mainly because I had just a little bit of trouble figuring out the FDS Stick, I’ll try keep it short.", "date_published": "2018-06-11T17:00:00+01:00", "tags": [ "famicom", "famicom disk system", "fds", "fds stick", "guide", "hardware" ], "content_html": "

I’ve written this guide mainly because I had just a little bit of trouble figuring out the FDS Stick, I’ll try keep it short.

\n

Long story short, I expected it to be as easy as plugging it in, a folder pops up, drag games to folder and plug into the RAM Cart and off you go…

\n

Adding Games:

\n

Plug in the FDS Stick and run the software, it should look like this:
\n\"\"
\nIf you see “not connected” where the “256M” is, plug your FDS Stick into a different USB Port, click Disk, then click back to Flash.

\n

Click “Add…” then browse to the folder you store your FDS game backups and select a game, you should see something like:
\n\"\"
\nYou MUST click “Apply” for this game to be written to the FDS Stick, if you do not and take the FDS stick out of the port, nothing will have changed.

\n

Likewise, if you click “Remove” on a game you MUST click “Apply” for it to take effect.

\n

Once you hit “Apply” and the progress bar fills up you are good to go! Unplug your FDS Stick from your PC and plug it into the Famicom RAM

\n

Cart:
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\nIt is important to keep it accessible as you will need to use the button.

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If you add just one game, the FDS will boot straight into it.

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However, if you add more than one game, you will be presented with a game list:

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From here, simply select the game you wish to play and it will boot up.
\nSome game require loading both “sides” of the Game Disc into RAM before you can play, Zelda is one such title, so when you boot it up you get this screen:

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\nThe Japanese text under the Zelda logo is asking you to insert “Side B” of the Game Card, this is where our button comes in handy.

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One click of the button changes the loaded Game Card to “Side A”

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Two clicks of the button changes the loaded Game Card to “Side B”
\nHolding the button ejects the Game Card.

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It is important to remember that the FDS Stick is a Famicom Disk Reader Emulator, the games are not modified in any way, and still wait for the hardware signals that tell it the Game Card has been ejected, turned over and reinserted.

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It is also important to note that if you are already on “Side A” and you press the button once, it will read as you having ejected the Game Card, turned it to “Side A” and reinserted it.

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It does not retain any contextual awareness of what side was previously inserted, so if like me, you though, just pressing the button once would “flip the disk” you are wrong!

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Anyways, with this knowledge, when you are at the above screen in Zelda, simply press the button twice and you will be greeted with a black screen that says “Loading” and eventually you will end up here:
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\nHave Fun!

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Potential Issue:

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One thing I have noticed is that there is no way to Load “Side B” first. For instance, Super Mario Bros. 2 is entirely on “Side A”, however, “Side B” contains a whole other game, Volleyball. In a regular FDS Drive, you would just load “Side B” facing up and it would boot straight into Volleyball.
\nIf you have any questions please contact me on twitter!

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