Blockbuster Pokémon Snap Kiosk Restoration

[frostedfires]

I recently bought a snap kiosk for a pretty good price. I have a friend who lives near me and owns a car wrap shop. He said he could print me the decals if I can make them and size them correctly. I used some references online and chatgpt to recreate the decals. This unit came with the tv and controller but no system. I plan on hooking up a N64 and splitting the video to the TV and to a PC inside. The PC will then take a screenshot and print to a Brother VC-500W sticker printer when the button on the front of the kiosk is pressed. I got all the programming done for that part. I’m currently removing the glue residue on the sides which is super stuck. I have one side done but it used a whole bottle of goo gone and my fingernails haha. For the N64, I know the original kiosk had a port on the front which you could plug your own game into. If I add second cartridge slot, how would I wire that up so I can make it run 2 games? The original kiosk would reboot if a game was plugged in…

 

[Kowabungus]

For the N64, I know the original kiosk had a port on the front which you could plug your own game into. If I add second cartridge slot, how would I wire that up so I can make it run 2 games? The original kiosk would reboot if a game was plugged in…

I'm not sure how they did it in the original kiosk, but I'd assume it was just some sort of signal switching circuit.
Someone else may be able to come up with some type of easier multiplexing or microcontroller thing (or maybe something n64 specific that I'm not aware of)
But with my background in analog audio (specifically modular synthesizer design) I've used a lot of bilateral switch chips like the 74HC4066 before. I believe there's similar chips that contain more than 4 switches so possibly look into that as well. But you could use multiple of those wired up to each cart connector's data lines and then have a primary switch that supplies the control signal to all of the switches of the cart you'd like to select, and cuts off the switches from the second cart (so that only one of the carts is active at any given time).

Something like this crude diagram I drew up:

I'm sure you could probably also automate that primary switch with some simple code or something that swaps the cart connector upon inserting a game if you're trying to get as close as possible to the original behavior you mentioned.

 

[frostedfires]

Thank you for this information. There’s a part of me that wants to maybe even skip the

I'm not sure how they did it in the original kiosk, but I'd assume it was just some sort of signal switching circuit.
Someone else may be able to come up with some type of easier multiplexing or microcontroller thing (or maybe something n64 specific that I'm not aware of)
But with my background in analog audio (specifically modular synthesizer design) I've used a lot of bilateral switch chips like the 74HC4066 before. I believe there's similar chips that contain more than 4 switches so possibly look into that as well. But you could use multiple of those wired up to each cart connector's data lines and then have a primary switch that supplies the control signal to all of the switches of the cart you'd like to select, and cuts off the switches from the second cart (so that only one of the carts is active at any given time).

Something like this crude diagram I drew up:
View attachment 44398

I'm sure you could probably also automate that primary switch with some simple code or something that swaps the cart connector upon inserting a game if you're trying to get as close as possible to the original behavior you mentioned.

I appreciate your help. I will look into this and if it seems too complex I might just mount the n64 so it faces the slot on the machine and you can put the games in that way. Would surely be cool to have it built in though and allow two ways.

Looking at the slot most are ground connections, I would need pin 2, 6, 17, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 31, 34, 42, 45 (for ever drive support), 47, 48 and 50. That’s a total of 15 data lines. So would need 4 of those chips set up. I will do some research and see.

Edit: I’m also not sure if anyone wants a commission, but I would pay handsomely if someone could wire up and test a prototype with a pinout for me to use. That way I can leave the n64 slot attached and just wire to the underside of the board to the prototype. I can leave the demo snap game in the system and wire up this prototype to the second slot. Just food for thought.