Atari2600 cartridge reader. Play your real cartridges on an emulator.

[Yoshiatom]

Cool!

 

If you make a GUI for this, you should have an option to either save the dumped rom or just make a tempory dump.

[keoni29]

I made a batch file to go with the commandline program. When you click it it dumps to a temporary file and then launches the emulator. When you drag over a rom it writes it to a cartridge. Only works with my battery backed ram cartridges.

 

I also wrote a batch file for writing all roms in a directory to a battery backed ram cartridge with room for multiple games.

[+RichG1972]

I'm just happy that he built the thing as he did, I don't need to suggest a bunch of extra goo-gaws, I mean why can't you guys just be happy that he came up with the idea for a cart reader at all instead of putting extra things out there that would make it to your preference and picking it apart and saying it needs something more?

It's not something he HAD to do but rather something he wanted to. That's like putting ketchup or seasoning on a dish the chef worked his ass off preparing while he is standing there without tasting it first. It's an insult to him. Now I know most of you are gonna fail to see my point. But a lot of people make that mistake, they change something or suggest a change before even trying a product AS IT IS.

After all do you not test drive a CAR in it's original form before you buy it? What do you think Atari and Activision and IMAGIC did when they came up with a new game for the Atari 2600? They brought in kids to test it out on to see if the game was even releasable to the public. Food for thought.

[keoni29]

Project necrobump
You can follow the progress on hackaday.io where I post regular updates!

 

New hardware
Features
- Snappy ARM processor
- USB connection to your PC instead of serial
You can use it with your laptop/ new desktop motherboard that may not have a serial port.
- Fully 3d printed enclosure
- Small form factor

 

New software
Features:

- GUI application written in python with QT
- Dump atari2600 game cartridges to a temporary file or choose a filename and save permanently
- (Auto)Launch emulator
- Bankswitching support

Bankswitching support can be extended by user if they know python

- Open source! View on github.

 

[CX40Hero]

I still find it strange that you cannot edit posts after a certain timer runs out . Oh well.

Here is a picture of what my second prototype will look like. I saved an atari2600 from the garbage and took out this piece of plastic. The switch is also original, but I don't know what to do with it yet. It looks cool though. The case comes from an old CD drive. Now I have to solder up the guts.

 

Edit: On the right picture you see it's it's a bit skew and it leaves a gap on the top. That is because it is not secured in place by screws.

 

[keoni29]

Here are some more pics of the device. As you can see it's designed to sit on a desk with the cartridge pointing straight up.

 

 

 

 

[israelg]

Very nice, but most of the people will prefer to play the cartridges on a real console or the opposite just using roms on the emulator,

 

For me the controller is the most important part of the retro feeling, the other parts are less important (to me)

[MrMaddog]

If this works on a RPi then I can repurpose my dead non-working 2600s...

[israelg]

You can instead put a camera to recognize/identify the cartridge when you insert the cartridge and then load the correct Rom from your hard disk,

 

It will have similar effect, but not good for dumping usage...

[israelg]

The same way the parking lot identify the car registration id and opens the parking gate