Subject: Re: [stella] Dumping ROM images From: "Russell Babylon" <rbabylon@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2005 07:24:29 -0500 |
I say to keep things simple. Several years ago I made a cart reader from a 555, three 7LS161's and a 7400 NAND gate chip. I connected this to the parallel port of a PC and wrote some code using QBASIC, hey it was what I had. The 555 was set up as a one shot and was reset from one of the signal lines from the PC port, this was how I synced the PC to the cart reader. Using this I ws able to dump the ROMs for Sir Lancelot and Moon Sweeper. At the time the ROM image floating around for Moon Sweeper was only 4K, it is a 8K game and some folks were looking for Sir Lancelot. I can't remember the details, I will have to check my old PC to see if the program is still on it. It was nothing fancy but it worked. Russ ----- Original Message ----- From: "Adam Wozniak" <adam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <stella@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2005 8:39 PM Subject: [stella] Dumping ROM images > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > I got an email from someone new to the hobby, asking me how to dump ROM > images from carts. > > The first method I tried was a custom piece of hardware run by a > microcontroller. This is probably the most painful way to do this. > Connectors are hard to find (mine never fully connected; you had to hold > it and apply pressure), and you need to know lots about bankswitching. > I got mine working, but I don't recommend anyone ever do this unless > they really like programming microcontrollers and designing hardware. > > The second method I tried, which I recommended to this fellow, was to > pick up an old 7800 on E-Bay and mod it out with Stolberg's DEVOS. I did > this to my 7800 and I love it. It does still require some soldering, > and access to an EPROM burner. A special cable connects between the > 7800's right joystick port and the parallel port on a PC. > > Then I got to thinking, there might be another way to do this. > > (All hypothetical from here out, so please point out problems if this > isn't possible.) > > Take the same cable you use with a 7800 and DEVOS, and move it over > to the 2600. Make a new 2600 cart. This new cart copies a short > (less than 128 byte) chunk of code into the 2600 RAM, and jumps to it. > While we're running from RAM, we don't need to access the cart at all. > Pull it out. Insert a cart you want to dump. Tell the chunk of code > in RAM you're ready somehow (push the left fire button? Game select > button?). The chunk of code in RAM can now start reading the cart ROM > and dumping out the right joystick port. > > Is this possible? If it is, then someone like AtariAge could sell > ROM dumping kits with the RomDumper cart, the cable, and software. > No soldering required. > > Unanswered questions: Will inserting and removing carts cause any noise > on the bus lines? Can the reader code be made to fit into 128 bytes? > > - -- > adam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://cuddlepuddle.org/~adam > KG6GZR http://cuddlepuddle.org/~adam/resume.html > > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (GNU/Linux) > > iD8DBQFCMQ+EyvXf5Z0z5zERAj3uAJwPgkmFwv3mhRyJexhjTkmqFYCjRQCgwPbZ > y2inVAARc7e0shCyykLQRdk= > =vyLN > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > > > Archives (includes files) at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/archives/ > Unsub & more at http://stella.biglist.com > > Archives (includes files) at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/archives/ Unsub & more at http://stella.biglist.com
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