Are these ROM cartridges and for what device?

Question

I picked up four of these (what I assume are) ROM cartridges for a console, in a Thai second hand market in Bangkok.

None of them have casings:

There are three different types, distinguished by the etching on the IC:

1. ‘K-105’ and ‘9503’
2. ‘K-105’ and ‘9507’
3. ‘5458A’

All modules have 23 contacts on both sides.

Both the ‘5458A’ and ‘9507’ have a crystal, which could be 32 kHz, judging by the size of it.

There are two ‘9503’ modules, and neither of which have a crystal - whether this is intentional or not, I don't know. Maybe the crystal was removed, but it would seem to be a coincidence that it was removed from both.

• What are they?
• What console, or device, are they for?

Answer 1

Just some guesses

• The boards seems to be identical
• Most definite 8 Bit
• Looks quite like ROM modules made for large quantity production
• Bend chip pins indicate savings down to the last sup penny.
• With 28 pins they're maximum 32 KiB EPROM or 64 KiB ROM
• If these numbers (9503, 9507) are manufacturing dates (the only identifiable TTL supporting this), then it's rather late for 8 bit machines.
• Cheap Chinese clones would of Japanese systems would fit that time frame
• The contour with the main 23 contact looks quite like a Super Famicom/SNES
• The additional edges (without contacts) visible on bord #3 fit the shape for Super-Famicom

Similarities with SNES cartridges:

• SNES cartridges have 2x23 connectors
• SNES cartridges have GND on the leftmost contact on both sides
• SNES cartridges have VCC on the rightmost contact on both sides
• SNES cartridges have A14 on the upper 4th contact; A 14 is on Pin 27 of a 256 or 512 KiBit ROM - both clearly connected here
• SNES cartridges have D0.. D3 on the lower contacts position 6-9 from the right
• SNES cartridges have D4.. D7 on the upper contacts position 6-9 from the right

Differences from (genuine) SNES:

• Nintendo only used 32 and36 pin ROMs

So my primary guess would be these are SNES compatible cartridges made as cheap as possible, probably Chinese clones.

Now that crystal puzzles me a bit. While the 74HCT04 may be used as an oscilator - and having the crystal across the first inverter makes it look like, I have no idea whet it is good for without seeing were the output leads to. It might be a good idea to unsolder the chips from one of the boards to capture all traces. This would as well reveal the remaining circuit around ROM and edge connector.

Answer 2

So I couldn't find much, but here it is.

The Phillips PC74HCT04P is apparently a TTL Hex Inverter, not sure how much help that is.

I also found this post, which claims that the 5458A is a cloned DSP-1, and that it is used in bootleg SNES cartridges. It has this picture:

For posterity, here is that post's text:

Here are some examples of bootleg carts from back in the day, with cloned CICs

(BootlegCarts.jpg)

The one on the left is a surprisingly good quality bootleg copy of Mario Kart - the board seems to be electrically a 1:1 clone of the SHVC-1K1B board that the real Mario Kart used - the CIC is the chip marked "TEN-E" at the bottom and the chip marked 5458A is a cloned DSP-1.

The board at the top right is a bootleg of Super Street Fighter II - the CIC here is the chip marked "CIVIC 74LS11" - which seems a strange choice since a real 74LS11 (which is a triple 3-input AND gate) is in a 14 pin package and not 16 - it's also using a 16 bit ROM which is why it needs the pair of 'LS257 multiplexers to select which byte to send to the console. Although the board has space for decoupling caps, they haven't been installed.

Both of these are running exact 1:1 copies of the original game ROM.

The final board on the lower right is a good example of a hacked up bootleg - the game is Hudson's J-League Super Soccer '95, but the code has been modified to operate without backup memory - the CIC here is marked "D1 9515" this board also has no decoupling caps and the ROM is a COB type covered with resin (AKA "glob-top").

The clone CICs are exact copies of the originals on a functional level

• I've removed them from bootleg boards and installed them into original Nintendo boards and they work exactly like the real ones.

So it's a bit sketchy, but it does seem like your cards are probably from old bootleg SNES cartridges. Though they look in pretty bad shape and I wouldn't put them in any machine that I cared about.