Playchoice 10

PLAYCHOICE 10 BIOS HACK

If you have any suggestions, or bug reports, send me an e-mail at mailto:gamehacker@mchsi.com

This hack replaces the original bios chip on the Nintendo Playchoice 10 Motherboard to display the correct game name on the menu. The binary image will need to be burned into a 27C128 Eprom and placed into location 8T on the motherboard.

UPDATE! v1.1 BIOS is finally finished!

I have added an On-Screen name editor. So now, the BIOS chip is the only one you need.

If you cannot burn one yourself, you can order one from this site: Be sure to ask for v1.1

That's right, now you do not have to burn individual eproms for the 'name' chip. The Playchoice Motherboard has some Non-Volatile Ram built on to it. This is where the names can be stored. To enter the editor menu, trip one of the coin Switches, or the service switch inside the coin door. This brings you to the slot selection Screen.

Use the normal buttons, (Channel Select, and Enter) to select a slot. Reset will basically reset the game. When a selection has been made, the screen shows the slot name in an editor screen.

The 3 buttons operate a little differently here. "Channel Select" is used as a "Shift" key. "Enter" will move the cursor to the right. Pressing "Channel Select" AND "Enter" will move the cursor to the left. "Reset" will scroll the character up, "Channel Select" and "Reset" will scroll the character down. There are 2 presets on the left. (Default and Clear). So, if you move the Cursor under 'Default' and press "Reset" the Name will return to the default setting (SLOT 04) for example. Some may ask "why not use the other buttons as well" I wish I could. The Playchoice is basically 2 separate processors. One is for the menu, and the other is an 8-bit Nintendo. The menu is attached to the 3 buttons used here and the coin & service buttons. The 8-bit Nintendo section uses the rest of the buttons.

1. The original cartridge's name will override the custom name eprom from v1.0 AND the NVram name.

2. The custom name eprom from v1.0 will override the NVram name.

3. The NVram name will be displayed if no other name is found.

One thing to remember when disabling the original 'name': Remove the 8 pin id chip! I just recently forgot to do this, and thought I screwed up my program somehow.

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~~v1.0 BIOS~~

The menu WILL work with your original non-hacked cartridges without any modifications.

There are no on-screen instructions for each individual game. (Maybe in the future, but I doubt it)

The machine will NOT accept coins. It will be on free play only. Sorry, you can't make money off of this.

The 'attract mode' sounds can be enabled/disabled with the factory dip switch. (Switch 'G')

This has been tested on all versions of the Playchoice hardware.

Here are some screen shots:

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I have also created a visual basic program that will create the "Name" binary Image that can be burned into a 27C64 or equivalent eprom.

This Eprom will replace the old "name" eprom usually located at U3 or U4 on the cartridge PCB.

(Update: 2-11-2006) PC10Namer.zip ~~Visual Basic 6.0 Source~~

Here are some pre-made name images:

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This program will extract the images needed for the Playchoice 10 from a .nes file that is commonly used with NES Emulators.

~~ROMUTIL.ZIP~~ ~~Visual Basic 6.0 Source~~

NES Mapper Reader / Rom Fixer / Rom Splitter More info

Accesses: