The plug-in adapters provided on this page allow the Retrode to interface with other video game cartridges. This is strictly bonus material with no official support whatsoever. All of these files are released into the public domain, so feel free to take them and build whatever FrankenMAME machine you want. I am not liable for anything you do with this information. All files can be opened in the freeware edition of Eagle.
Atari 2600
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| The 2600 adapter |
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| Schematic |
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| Board layout |
This adapter allows for the insertion of Atari 2600 cartridges in the Retrode’s SNES slot. Do not even think of using this with other devices than the Retrode. There is zero chance for it to work (what is a SNES CPU supposed to do with Atari code anyway), but certainly some chance to break stuff.
The interface is really simple, since the Atari 2600 cart only has 13 address and 8 data lines, VCC and GND, and that’s it. 2600′er cartridges do not contain a header (game title, etc.), so the filename will be generic.
Note: The circuit board thickness must be 1.2mm, and you want some nicer finish (gold?) for the contact pads. 1.6mm PCBs will wear out your SNES slot.
Eagle files
N64 / GBA
I am currently looking into a combined adapter for GBA and N64 games. Both of these systems use 3.3V instead of the Retrode’s 5V, so the hardware needs to be a little more sophisticated with voltage regulator, logic level translators and all. This is in a very early stage; I’ve only just figured out which parts might be suitable.
N64 support will probably be SLOW due to the increased amount of data. Ah well, we’ll see.
Virtual Boy
[JonY] managed to hook up his Retrode to his Virtual Boy cartridges. All it takes is a donor Sega cartridge and a solution made from a 2.5″ hard disk connector and the somewhat thinner pins from a PCMCIA/Cardbus connector. Eventually, he made a few cutouts in the cartridge case and put it all back in. Nice! Here is his pinout:
-------------------------------- --------------------------------------- Sega Edge Signal VB Edge Sega Edge Signal VB Edge -------------------------------- --------------------------------------- A1 gnd 1, 2 B1 N/A - A2 +5v 54 B2 N/A - A3 a8 15 B3 N/A - A4 a11 22 B4 a9 18 A5 a7 17 B5 a10 20 A6 a12 24 B6 a18 13 A7 a6 19 B7 a19 11 A8 a13 26 B8 a20 16 A9 a5 21 B9 a21 - A10 a14 28 B10 a22 - A11 a4 23 B11 a23 - A12 a15 30 B12 N/A - A13 a3 25 B13 N/A - A14 a16 32 B14 N/A - A15 a2 27 B15 N/A - A16 a17 34 B16 /C_OE (Output Enable) 35 A17 a1 29 B17 /C_CE (Chip Enable) 31 A18 gnd 33 B18 N/A - A19 d7 38 B19 N/A - A20 d0 39 B20 N/A - A21 d8 37 B21 N/A - A22 d6 42 B22 d15 40 A23 d1 43 B23 d14 44 A24 d9 41 B24 d13 48 A25 d5 46 B25 d12 52 A26 d2 47 B26 N/A - A27 d10 45 B27 N/A - A28 d4 50 B28 /LDSW (not used) - A29 d3 51 B29 /UDSW (not used) - A30 d11 49 B30 N/A - A31 +5v 36, 53 B31 N/A - A32 gnd 59, 60 B32 /CART_IN (not used) -