OriginalJohn Posted February 13, 2022 Share Posted February 13, 2022 Hi Team, I did something the other day. I wanted to dump a recently purchased game and searched for solutions. During this search I came across the Atarimax programmer and a DIY called 'ColecoVision Cartridge Reader'. I love doing DIY projects so the former appealed to me and I got to work. Being someone that can never leave things alone, I wanted to modernize the software. After about a year of working on it ('working on it' means messing with it on and off with long periods of inactivity) and with a BIG help from the programming forums here on AtariAge, I was able to finally come to a point where I was happy with the results. So I present to you, the updated ColecoVision Cartridge Reader software. The original name was bland and begged to be catchy, so I dubbed it 'CV cartScanner'. Like the original project, the code is published, GPL 3.0'd for everyone to download and update (if you are so inclined). My hope for this is that 'the community' will embrace the project where current and future developers can improve on the code and make something that is easily accessible to everyone. Did I mention I can never leave things alone? I wasn't satisfied with the resulting jumble of wires and components that were spaghetti over my breadboard. It was just way too ugly and it hurt my heart to look at it. It needed to have proper hardware (It's ColecoVision after all!) so here it is: I made a run of these in case anyone was interested. You will receive a 'tested before being sent to you' CV cartScanner pcb housed in a rugged ABS case, a usb cable and an instruction card. $49.99 plus shipping in the USA. Original project: https://github.com/MHeironimus/ColecoVisionCartridgeReader Revision project: https://github.com/CVcartScanner/ScannerSoftware Enjoy! 6 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rietveld Posted February 13, 2022 Share Posted February 13, 2022 I am interested Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OriginalJohn Posted February 14, 2022 Author Share Posted February 14, 2022 (edited) I was all caught up with explaining what I did and didn't explain what it can do. Support for 32k, 64k, 128k, 256k and 512k. I was unable to test 64k and 512k games as I don't have any, but they should work 'in theory'. You can view the hexadecimal results after a 'scan' to see the fun behind the scenes. Saving in .rom format to add to a multi-cart or save in your roms folder. Launch the results with your favorite emulator automatically after a 'scan'. The cartridge connector was soldered a few mm above the pcb in order to make sure the games make the most contact possible. I found that reading my vintage cartridges were more successful when I did this vs when it was flush. I'm sure AtariMax is faster, but here are some benchmarks for reading different sized cartridges. 32k read time = ~38s 128k read time = ~2m 10s 256k read time = ~4m 23s Thanks -John Edited February 14, 2022 by OriginalJohn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+lawdawg710 Posted February 20, 2022 Share Posted February 20, 2022 On 2/13/2022 at 9:47 AM, OriginalJohn said: Hi Team, I did something the other day. I wanted to dump a recently purchased game and searched for solutions. During this search I came across the Atarimax programmer and a DIY called 'ColecoVision Cartridge Reader'. I love doing DIY projects so the former appealed to me and I got to work. Being someone that can never leave things alone, I wanted to modernize the software. After about a year of working on it ('working on it' means messing with it on and off with long periods of inactivity) and with a BIG help from the programming forums here on AtariAge, I was able to finally come to a point where I was happy with the results. So I present to you, the updated ColecoVision Cartridge Reader software. The original name was bland and begged to be catchy, so I dubbed it 'CV cartScanner'. Like the original project, the code is published, GPL 3.0'd for everyone to download and update (if you are so inclined). My hope for this is that 'the community' will embrace the project where current and future developers can improve on the code and make something that is easily accessible to everyone. Did I mention I can never leave things alone? I wasn't satisfied with the resulting jumble of wires and components that were spaghetti over my breadboard. It was just way too ugly and it hurt my heart to look at it. It needed to have proper hardware (It's ColecoVision after all!) so here it is: I made a run of these in case anyone was interested. You will receive a 'tested before being sent to you' CV cartScanner pcb housed in a rugged ABS case, a usb cable and an instruction card. $49.99 plus shipping in the USA. Original project: https://github.com/MHeironimus/ColecoVisionCartridgeReader Revision project: https://github.com/CVcartScanner/ScannerSoftware Enjoy! I'd like to get one from you if possible???!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OriginalJohn Posted February 20, 2022 Author Share Posted February 20, 2022 12 hours ago, lawdawg710 said: I'd like to get one from you if possible???!!! Hello, Absolutely (and for others that are reading this): All you have to do is send me a PM with your request, including your address. I'll respond with the actual (actual) shipping costs with a few options for you to choose from and will include a total for each. Just to confirm, the most current software and instruction downloads for this can be found on my github repo here. Thanks! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chart45 Posted February 21, 2022 Share Posted February 21, 2022 are you working on an autodetection for megacart rom size Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OriginalJohn Posted February 22, 2022 Author Share Posted February 22, 2022 8 hours ago, chart45 said: are you working on an autodetection for megacart rom size Hi, I think that it's possible change it so that instead of using a fixed size for each read, the read would just start. At the end, null data would trigger a 'finished' condition. Anything is possible and I think it'd make it even easier just to have one button. I'll keep it in mind for the future! Thanks, John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tursi Posted February 22, 2022 Share Posted February 22, 2022 You won't get null data, the data will just repeat. This makes size detection a little more tricky (at least if you want to avoid false positives, since it's not uncommon for pages to contain common code/data). For my dumper I just wrote a PC tool that checks for duplicated or empty data and truncates on that. It tries to be a little bit clever about it and may work with any dump. I tested it pretty heavily. This is a windows project (with Windows exe), but it should port to Linux or Mac rather trivially as it's all stdio. fixDump.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OriginalJohn Posted February 24, 2022 Author Share Posted February 24, 2022 Hi Team, I was finally able to get 64k and 512k tested and there's a bit of good news and insufficiently good news See what I did there? So for the good news, 512k reads properly so those of you out there with a Wizard of Wor cartridge can rest assured that it can be read. For the insufficiently good news, 64k does not read properly so I'll be looking to fix this in a future update of the software. Meanwhile, I will be looking to purchase a 64k cart so that I can use it to test things out as I go. Unfortunately, attempts read Boxxle, Jewel Panic, Arcomage, Space Shuttle and possibly Utopia(if it changes from 32k to 64k) will fail. Sorry if I missed any other 64k game. I apologize if this is disappointing (I know it is to me) but I will be working towards a solution when I can obtain a cart and update the code. Thanks everyone! John 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OriginalJohn Posted May 13, 2022 Author Share Posted May 13, 2022 Hi Gang, I recently updated the windows front end and 'sketch' for the cartScanner hardware. For those of you who have a cartScanner, please download and update via this link. There is a new .pdf in the instructions folder on how to update the cartsScanner hardware. Changes include optimizations (30% speed increase) and support for 64k Pixelboy 'Activision' cartridges (Jewel Panic, ArcoMage, Boxxle, *Space Shuttle still in dev, *Utopia still in dev, both possibly 64k). This should round out the support for existing bankswitch schemes. Thank you! John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPR Posted May 13, 2022 Share Posted May 13, 2022 Awesome! Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+evg2000 Posted July 31, 2022 Share Posted July 31, 2022 PM sent Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OriginalJohn Posted November 16, 2022 Author Share Posted November 16, 2022 Hi Team, I've received a few inquiries on this lately and wanted to mention that I have these available. Thanks! - John 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+evg2000 Posted November 16, 2022 Share Posted November 16, 2022 I just want to say I bought it about 6 months ago and it's a great device! And John is great about support and answering questions. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MMarcoux66 Posted November 16, 2022 Share Posted November 16, 2022 9 hours ago, evg2000 said: I just want to say I bought it about 6 months ago and it's a great device! And John is great about support and answering questions. I've heard great things and ordered one from John yesterday. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MMarcoux66 Posted November 19, 2022 Share Posted November 19, 2022 Just wanted to say that I received mine today and it works really well. I like the interface better than the Atarimax version and it was able to dump a cart that I was having issues with. If you are on the fence, I can say I do not regret my purchase and highly recommend. Thanks John! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rog3037 Posted March 8, 2023 Share Posted March 8, 2023 John, I would very much like to buy one of the CV cartScanners. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OriginalJohn Posted March 10, 2023 Author Share Posted March 10, 2023 These are still available, I sent you a message. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+evg2000 Posted March 10, 2023 Share Posted March 10, 2023 this scanner is great. so far i’ve only had one cart it didn’t work with. the new space shuttle cart. not sure if it uses a special memory layout or what. but really a great product Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OriginalJohn Posted March 10, 2023 Author Share Posted March 10, 2023 Thanks! I didn't have any success with the space shuttle cart either, so it's just a matter of figuring out the bank switching scheme. I plan on giving it a go in the near future! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted March 10, 2023 Share Posted March 10, 2023 The bank switching scheme is the same as Boxxle. I usually refer to it as the "Activision PCB" bankswitching scheme, because it was originally designed for Activision cartridge casings. So if you get it to work with Boxxle, it should work with Space Shuttle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OriginalJohn Posted March 13, 2023 Author Share Posted March 13, 2023 (edited) On 3/9/2023 at 10:20 PM, evg2000 said: this scanner is great. so far i’ve only had one cart it didn’t work with. the new space shuttle cart. not sure if it uses a special memory layout or what. but really a great product Hi, with some help from Pixelboy, We've determined that BlueMSX and ColEM will not run space shuttle. I'm pleased to say that CoolCV will run the file. So, if you use the '64k Alt' button to 'scan' the cartridge and use it in CoolCV it should work. If it does not, there are flashing instructions in the file you downloaded from my Github page. After Re-flashing the cartScanner, try again. As always, if anyone has any questions or needs any help with their cartScanners, please reach out to me directly - I'd be happy to help. Edited March 13, 2023 by OriginalJohn 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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