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How can dump atari 2600 and 5200 ROMs with an eprom programmer?


Tayomayo

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Hello, I have had retro video game preservation no my mind recently, and am wondering how I could backup my atari 2600 and 5200 games with an eprom programmer. I'm fairly new to this kind of stuff, so if anyone could recommend an eprom programmer that is compatible with Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite, that would be awesome. Any answer is appreciated!

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No I don't have any prototypes, and but I prefer to dump the games myself because:

A. It's more reliable, (but not by much)

B. Most (if not all) of the games I want to dump are still under copyright, so I don't want to download/pirate them, and

C. It would just be more fun.

Edited by Tayomayo
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No I don't have any prototypes, and but I prefer to dump the games myself because:

A. It's more reliable, (but not by much)

B. Most (if not all) of the games I want to dump are still under copyright, so I don't want to download/pirate them, and

C. It would just be more fun.

 

What is more reliable?

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Probably none of the games you own have EPROMs in them. Instead, they have masked ROMs, which also include an inverter (for the 2600... can't remember exactly how the 5200 does this). For games larger than 4K (2600), the bankswitching logic is also included within the ROM chip. This makes reading the ROM more difficult, but not impossible.

 

Start by doing some research into the ROM sizes and bankswitching types. Then build a converter that will go between the game and the EPROM programmer (so the connections go to the right locations on each).

 

For 2K/4K games, there are ways to replace the masked ROM with an EPROM, but you need to add an inverter of one kind or the other for the chip select.

 

I can appreciate your not wanting to pirate the games, but there is very little difference, I think, between reading the chips yourself and downloading the exact same file.

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Don't forget that you will have to open the cart and de-solder the chips from the board to stick them in the programmer. And removing the screw from the cartridge will leave a nice hole in the label. It just doesn't make any sense unless you just like playing with electronics and are willing to risk damaging your carts.

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hmm, a lot of games have not been dumped.
It would be more helpful to explain the guy how it works and what what options are available, instead of asking why he wants to do this and to say that he should download it.

with a own dumped game you have 100 percent proof that it is the right file. ;) Otherwise, you have to trust the other :evil:

@Tayomayo: use the search function from the board and you will find several ways how to build your own dumper (more or less expensive). There are more than one way.

Edited by Schitti
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  • 2 weeks later...

My two cents. Years ago I tried to build exactly what you are trying to find. Bearing in mind that I have a degree in electronic engineering, my results were...well, there's a four-letter word beginning with S that fits the bill exactly.

 

After weeks of research and building and rebuilding and coding and recoding I managed to make a reader which would dump precisely 1 (one) cartridge out of my collection of over 400 (Tanks, I think it was). I never found out what it was about that ROM that made it work with my crappy reader, or why other ROMs wouldn't dump. In the end I gave up.

 

It should be entirely possible to do it, but only for carts that are not bank-switched (the data that comes out of the cartridge pins of a bank-switched cart is not the same as the data on the ROM, so the only way to read B-S carts is to crack the shell and read the chip directly) BUT there really is no point.

 

Copyright law, at least in the UK, says you are legally allowed to transfer media you legally own to another format. So if you own the cart you can download the ROM perfectly legally. And, trust me, it is way easier, more reliable, and leaves you with free time to actually play the damn games.

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