simple Universal MegaROM Mapper for Konami/ASC8/ASC16 (Unimapper)

Enlighted (6436)

16-05-2022, 13:26

I think hardware released by Konami are limited to 512kB for SCC cartridges (we have to add chips just to manage the writing) and until 128kB for the sound Cartridge.

By mcolom

Champion (320)

16-05-2022, 20:58

Very nice solution with the GALs!

By gdx

Enlighted (6436)

17-05-2022, 02:57

3 GALs are less efficient and probably more expensive than 1 CPLD.

By Pyhesty

Expert (97)

26-05-2022, 09:55

"3 GALs are less efficient and probably more expensive than 1 CPLD."
ver 3
2 GALs for 128-256kB ROM Konami/Konami SCC/ASC8 and 128-512 ASC16
3 GALs for 512kB Konami/Konami SCC/ASC8
ver 2
2 GALs for 128-512kB ROM Konami/ASC8(fix page 0)/ASC16
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GALs - for fun and hard, cpld - universal

By Wierzbowsky

Guardian (3648)

29-06-2022, 20:30

I am glad to inform the MSX community, that the Unimapper cartridge project's files have been released into RBSC's Github repository:

https://github.com/RBSC/Unimapper

If you are willing to commercially produce these cartridges, please contact the RBSC's coordinator. Feel free to check the readme.txt file for more info.

By gdx

Enlighted (6436)

30-06-2022, 01:52

Are there Konami8 of 512kB Roms?

(I prefer to say Konami8 than Konami4 like ASCII8, Zemina8, etc.)

By Manuel

Ascended (19678)

30-06-2022, 07:52

There are 2 mappers used for Konami games: one without SCC and one with SCC, both using 8 kB blocks. So, in openMSX we call them Konami and KonamiSCC.
The name "Konami4" and "Konami5" make no sense at all, if you ask me, so we never use that anymore since like 15 or 20 years ago.
Konami is possible, but a bit redundant as there are only 8kB block variants.

By gdx

Enlighted (6436)

30-06-2022, 10:17

Koreans made Konami8 and Konam16 MegaRAMs several years ago. Konami16 didn't exist but that's because they made a Konami8 like mapper but with 16K segments. There are also ASCII8 and ASCII16, then Zemina8 and Zemina16. So why not put the 8, behind the Konami like for the others? When nothing is put, it makes uninitiated want to say: "Which Konami mapper?" KonamiSCC is okay because there is no Konami16SCC.

Manuel wrote:

The name "Konami4" and "Konami5" make no sense at all

It makes sense if every mappers are named in the same spirit (ASCII1, ASCII2, etc) but it's not evocative.

By l_oliveira

Hero (534)

29-07-2022, 02:54

Konami 4 because 0x4000 is the base address for switching banks
Konami 5 because 0x5000 is the base address for switching banks

I understand the names they gave (it was probably the folks who made the CJS MSX2 emulator who came up with these names) but I agree with you these are bad names.

By Tisse

Expert (66)

23-09-2022, 13:43

This might be a stupid question, but I'm quite new to MSX so bear with me :-) Will the Unimapper in Konami SCC-mode work as the Popolon Sound cart and activate SCC-sound in the games that support it?

I'm looking for something to play the Melancholia-patched version of SD Snatcher with - it requires 128kb RAM + optional SCC-chip, but when I tried with Open MSX + the Popolon Sound Cartridge (that I first thought would work) I can only get SCC-sound but not the extra RAM. (I can start the original version of SD Snatcher with that cart though). When I try with the cart named "Memory Mapper 512kb" the original won't start but the patched version works (without SCC sound, ofcourse).

So I think I would like a physical version of the same cart as OpenMSX Memory Mapper-cart. Would that be the same as a Unicart in ASCII16-mode?