TapeDump v1.0 - a tool to dump carts without extra hardware

jpx72 · Post by **jpx72** » Mon Nov 28, 2011 11:45 am

MottZilla wrote:we know enough to dump each game on the cart

That would be great!

MottZilla · Post by **MottZilla** » Mon Nov 28, 2011 1:15 pm

I was in a hurry as I have to leave soon but try this. http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JW6GADRY

Basically I modified the driver as I mentioned to bankswitch Rockman 1 into place and then the driver will continue on to try to dump the game as a TXROM game normally would. I think I did this correctly, try it out and let me know. If it works I'll make 5 more to dump the rest of the games.

jpx72 · Post by **jpx72** » Wed Nov 30, 2011 11:05 pm

Thanks, it's working like a charm! I'll let you all know how it ends!

Anyway I wanted to ask one thing, since the project of replacing the Game Genie rom with TapeDump is dead (and I have a glob-top GG anyway), I was curious, what about cutting the current for the cartridge slot between cartridge exchanges? I can cut the lines and insert a switch to my Famicom, turn off the power to the cartridge slot when pulling out the TapeDump cart and powering it back on after the dumped cartridge is inserted. Would this work? I'm starting to worry about my Rockman multicart, since I already killed one glob-top pirate with the swap-trick.
Thanks!

MottZilla · Post by **MottZilla** » Wed Nov 30, 2011 11:22 pm

Game Genie replacement ROM for the TapeDump is dead? Did Chris say it wasn't possible or just not going to happen or something?

I'm not sure if a switch like what you suggest would work or not since I'm not an electrical engineer. It's worth a shot.

jpx72 · Post by **jpx72** » Wed Nov 30, 2011 11:24 pm

Well I assumed it's dead because I haven't heard about it in a while... but I should not say dead, just currently not-worked-on.

ccovell · Post by **ccovell** » Wed Nov 30, 2011 11:53 pm

I'm not working on it right NOW, but that doesn't mean it's dead. Perhaps I'll have some more time as I have winter holidays from Dec. 23rd to Jan 5th.

infiniteneslives · Post by **infiniteneslives** » Thu Dec 01, 2011 12:29 am

jpx72 wrote:Thanks, it's working like a charm! I'll let you all know how it ends!

Anyway I wanted to ask one thing, since the project of replacing the Game Genie rom with TapeDump is dead (and I have a glob-top GG anyway), I was curious, what about cutting the current for the cartridge slot between cartridge exchanges? I can cut the lines and insert a switch to my Famicom, turn off the power to the cartridge slot when pulling out the TapeDump cart and powering it back on after the dumped cartridge is inserted. Would this work? I'm starting to worry about my Rockman multicart, since I already killed one glob-top pirate with the swap-trick.
Thanks!

Even if you did that I still wouldn't consider it "safe" in fact it might be worse. I'm not certain here but I'm imagining if damage is actually occurring it's because for a split second when pulling the cart you've broke contact with a power pin but some address/data pins are still connected. And in that situation normal power is removed but there is still the potential to power/ground some ICs through the address/data lines. and if you did that wonky things will happen and it's conceivable something could be improperly biased and burn out. I wouldn't think it's very likely but conceivable.

If my guess is correct you'd actually be making the issue worse by removing the Vcc for a few seconds vice a few milliseconds. But I'm not certain why your cart broke, it could have been coincidental and not related to hot swapping it, I'm only speculating really.

jpx72 · Post by **jpx72** » Thu Dec 01, 2011 12:39 am

Thanks for the info Chris!

infiniteneslives - Thanks for the opinion, I haven't considered the power at A/D lines. My pirate cart that is no longer working was the one in thistopic. Actually I managed to dump something, but after the sound stopped, I was not able to make this cart work. The console behaves like there's nothing inserted at all.

Guyver2011 · Post by **Guyver2011** » Fri Dec 02, 2011 12:21 am

part of Rom (this works!): http://zalil.ru/32179767

jpx72 · Post by **jpx72** » Fri Dec 02, 2011 12:30 am

NICE! I have at least this screen to remember the cart... Thank you!!!

MottZilla · Post by **MottZilla** » Fri Dec 02, 2011 2:12 am

Some more information about the Rockman Multicart. Thanks to jpx72 for dumping the data for me to examine to figure this out. Some bits are speculated until more testing can be done. PRG is probably concrete but CHR is a bit fuzzy. I think the upper nibble of $5010 and $5012 are related to CHR configuration.

PRG-ROM is a 16 Megabit / 2 Megabyte ROM with data arranged as follows:
Rockman 5 (256K)
Rockman 1 (128K)
Duplicated Rockman 5 Data (120K)
Menu Program (8K)
Rockman 2 (256K)
Rockman 3 (256K)
Rockman 4 (512K)
Rockman 6 (512K)

CHR-ROM is probably a 4 Megabit / 512 Kilobyte ROM:
Rockman 5 (256K)
Rockman 3 (128K)
Menu CHR (8K)
Duplicated Junk Rockman 5 Data (120K)

The upper nibble of $5011 most likely sets address lines on the PRG-ROM. The lower nibble of $5010 probably affects the effective size of the PRG viewable to the MMC3, 128K/256K/512K.

Upper nibble on $5010 is probably bit 1 set CHR-RAM Enabled, clear CHR-ROM enabled. bit 0 is probably a CHR ROM size 128K/256K switch.

The upper nibble on $5012 is probably CHR-ROM address lines.

Again I haven't confirmed some of this but I'm pretty sure that most of it should be correct.

Update:
Retrieved the Menu CHR and confirmed the data ordering.

Guyver2011 · Post by **Guyver2011** » Sat Dec 03, 2011 5:25 am

Help me! I have a cart "38 in 1". This cartridge much looks like "9999999-in-1 [p2].nes". The mappers same (looks like that). It is Difficult will add support of the mapper 213 in Tape Dump? Or other mappers, for instance 225 or 227? What mappers are used in multicartridges? The Interesting games are found in them. Chinese games and hacks...

In archive are found 2 Roms, "menu 38 in 1" and 9999999-in-1 [p2].nes

http://zalil.ru/32187747

Or will possible do in Tape Dump manual entering importances? The choice of the banks graphs and code...

Beside I was got pull out some graphics from my cart. I simply inserted and took out the cart in dendy (famiclon). And if I saw the necessary graphics - I wrote her. But with code so is not got.

ccovell · Post by **ccovell** » Sat Dec 03, 2011 7:02 am

Pirate multicarts' mappers have to be reverse-engineered by analyzing the menu code. That's something that any cart dumper has to get used to doing by himself (or with the help of some kind Samaritans). Look at Kevtris' homepage ( http://kevtris.org/nes/pirate.html ). That's a large part of his NES work: analyzing mappers so that carts can be dumped.

Guyver2011 · Post by **Guyver2011** » Sat Dec 03, 2011 8:09 am

But realy it is impossible study the mapper on working rom? If they alike...

It is impossible do something universal? Without assembly of the ready rom. But with possibility something save...

P.S. link is dead? http://kevtris.org/nes/pirate.html

Jeroen · Post by **Jeroen** » Sat Dec 03, 2011 9:43 am

Link works fine for me.