Page 1 of 1

Copiers

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 4:25 am
by xensyria
Please could someone tell me the process involved to use a NES Cartridge copier to get a file , and the format of that file, in terms of byte order, interleaving, PRG and CHR banks etc.
Thanks in advance.

Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2005 6:29 am
by kyuusaku
By "NES Cartridge copier", I assume you mean Famicom Game Doctor or clone. They cannot backup games, all the games were dumped via PC interfaces and written to Famicom disks the same, Famicom copiers can't even function without the Famicom Disk RAM adapter inserted. Byte order is little endian just like the original games, PRG always comes before CHR, no interleaving.

Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2005 2:44 am
by xensyria
I mean the method that gets files from NES/Famicom Cartridges. How many different copiers were/are there and do they all dump in the same way?

Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2005 8:01 am
by kyuusaku
You must elaborate. "Copier" denotes being able to backup but more importantly COPY as in play. If you're just looking for a solution to backup games, then you're simply looking for a backup device/"dumper". There are no commercial units that do both. There is the PasoFami/ChamelonUSB setup which is AFAIK the only commercial backup device. There is also CopyNES and probably a few dozen other homebrew "dumpers" that solely dump (and possibly write NROM NVRAM cartridges)

Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2005 8:16 am
by Quietust
kyuusaku wrote:There is also CopyNES and probably a few dozen other homebrew "dumpers" that solely dump (and possibly write NROM NVRAM cartridges)
CopyNES does not solely dump - if the parallel port cable is not connected (or if you choose the "play" option within the client software), it functions exactly as an ordinary NES.

Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2005 7:18 pm
by kyuusaku
It's sole copying function is backup apart from the mentioned NVRAM "devcart" feature...

Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2005 2:59 am
by xensyria
I'm sorry - I didn't know - what I meant was basically what format would a file be in if you dumped it from a NES or Famicom cartridge - would there be any headers etc, what would be the default filename and extension, and would it be different under different machines dumping it, also the PRG/CHR bank order and the byte order - this last has already been answered though.
Thanks for you replies - and I'll try to be more clear.

Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2005 11:23 pm
by tepples
If you dump it from a cartridge, you get one file with PRG ROM and one file with CHR ROM, no headers or footers. Controlling the bankswitching is the responsibility of the NES-side dumping software, but they're always sent in increasing order from 0 on up. Putting together the data from the NES and building an iNES or UNIF ROM is the responsibility of the PC-side software.

No, I don't know what software is shipped with a completed CopyNES system.

Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 2:56 am
by xensyria
Thanks

Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2005 8:08 am
by kyuusaku
Kevin H has the PC side software on his site. Not too useful without a CopyNES but it's 100% QBasic so it's open.