SIMM programmers are now available for the Mac ROM-inator II customizable Macintosh ROM SIMM. If you’ve been waiting for your opportunity to go nuts with ROM hacking, here it is! With a ROM-inator II and this SIMM programmer, you can tweak the Mac’s lowest-level firmware to your heart’s content. Get one now at the BMOW Store.

• Tired of the pre-programmed ROM disk image in the ROM-inator II? Replace it with a new one!
• Want to know what happens if you put a Mac LC ROM in a Mac IIci? Download the archive of stock ROM images and try it.
• Ready to make your own ROM hacks? Use 68K disassembly tools and your favorite hex editor to patch a “universal” ROM like the Mac IIsi, and see what crazy things you can accomplish. With the right tools and plenty of patience, you can change the system icons and fonts, change the startup behavior, modify system sounds, and much more.

The programmer is a USB peripheral, and connects to your PC with a standard USB B Mini cable (not included). The programmer utility software provides an easy GUI for updating the contents of the ROM SIMM’s flash memory. The utility program is compatible with Windows 7 or later, but you can make it work on OSX or Linux if you compile the software for yourself. It’s based on Qt and should be easily portable.

The programmer board has an integrated on/off switch for convenience. Please connect the USB cable and insert the SIMM into the socket before switching the power on. Hot-plugging the ROM SIMM or the programmer itself may cause damage. Yes, I am paranoid.

You may be wondering why the programmer PCB is a 6-sided flying saucer shape. In order to fit within the standard 10 x 10 cm area used by many PCB manufacturers, I had to rotate the SIMM socket 45 degrees and place it on the diagonal. The microcontroller and other components all fit within the space on one side of the socket, so I deleted the region of the PCB on the other side of the socket rather than leaving it empty. But that left a rather awkward-looking truncated triangular thing, and it offended my design sense. After some thought, I decided to redefine which way was “up”. I turned the diagonal into a new bottom, and clipped the third corner to match the other two, resulting in a completely unique board shape.