Simple one-time cartridge dumping...

[Bisqwit]

I have got this NTDec cartridge. Famicom compatible.*




It has been bugging me for a long time, that there is no dump of this cartridge in the Internet yet.
If I were to do it myself, what would be the most inexpensive way to do so?

The cartridge contains five NES games: Legend of Kage, Goonies, Urban Champion, Arkanoid and Galaxian, and a main menu which contains music ripped from a game I have never heard of, Ninja Hattori Kun. (I found it with my music search engine.)

*) And the game console. NTDec brand Famicom clone. The console appears like a Famicom, but it makes PAL video signal. They were popular in Finland when NES was popular.

EDIT: Changes in image URLs due to network issues.

[Drag]

Sorry, I can't answer your question or anything, but:

music search engine

...this is extremely interesting to play with.

Edit: Now that I think of it, if you have access to a powerpak or something, you could give Chris Covell's tape dump program a whirl.

[Bisqwit]

Edit: Now that I think of it, if you have access to a powerpak or something, you could give Chris Covell's tape dump program a whirl.

Reference to "inexpensive", though not obviously, implied that I don't have any fancy NES hackdom related hardware such as PowerPak.

[TmEE]

if you got a EPROM burner and soldering skill then you could get the chips off and dump them. It is probably what I would be doing.
...but you don't seem to have such an option.

[Bisqwit]

if you got a EPROM burner

Nor something like that. But I can solder.
I also have a small stock of some generic 74-class ICs, some resistors and some capacitors and stuff like that. No circuit boards though.
Would it be possible to e.g. somehow wire a portion of the cartridge to a parallel port in a PC and access the data through the parallel port by sending proper signals, using a customized program in DOS?

[Dwedit]

There are lots of other multicarts that use music ripped from Ninja Hattori Kun.

[Bisqwit]

There are lots of other multicarts that use music ripped from Ninja Hattori Kun.

No doubt.

[TmEE]

It would not be hard to build a small LPT expander to read back those EPROMs.
You would need some 574 for address lines and perhaps 139 for address decode and there you go.

[Bisqwit]

Hmm. Some day I should make an inventory of which ones I actually have. I have got these from a friend who used to work in a company that produces telephones, in the early 1990s. I don't entirely even know whether these all work. :-)
Haven't had a lot of use for them. Therefore, not much experience about using them, either.

EDIT: At least I found a few 74HC139Ns..
Doesn't look like I have a 574 here. I've got plenty of 139s and 138s, many 238s, 393s and 373s, a few 245s and 244s, a random 245, 266, 125, 204, 374 and a few 00s, 04s, 74s and 32s.

[TmEE]

374 will do too, its pinout is less convenient though

[Bisqwit]

374 will do too, its pinout is less convenient though

That's great.
I have to admit though, I have no idea how that chip would be any helpful :-/

[kyuusaku]

Forget using parallel registers to dump a simple ROM, just use a counter...

You can either set the LPT to input mode, which you must take precaution with (either series resistors or connect only after safely initializing the control register), or use old-fashioned "nibble mode".

For input mode: you need two 74HC4040, a '4040 and '393, or three '393 (or use a spare control bit or two).

For nibble mode: a '4040 and '157/257 will do, use the data bits as extra address lines.

Use either LS/HCT parts or the inputs will possibly require supplemental pullups. Most LPT today output 3.3V CMOS which is LVTTL compatible, but will not swing high enough for a 5V CMOS input.

If you don't have any suitable counters go with shift registers (you can feed it a LFSR sequence to still dump fast), if you don't have shift registers make them out of parallel registers, do anything to minimize the wiring.

[TmEE]

http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/4/21/ ... pander.jpg

That is pretty much waht my EPROM dumper/burner is, except I got a PPI there for more control and 16bits support.

EDIT: Parallel registers also allow programming of flash chips as you got to juggle between different addresses, which you cannot with counters.

[Bisqwit]

http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/4/21/ ... pander.jpg

That is pretty much waht my EPROM dumper/burner is, except I got a PPI there for more control and 16bits support.

So you're using the D0..7 lines in the LPT port as both input and output? Does that really work? Hmm...

As I don't want to try soldering off the ROM chips from the board (I don't have a solder sucker or whatever the name of that device is, and without such thing it's quite difficult to remove such multilegged components), I should need to interface with the cartridge as whole. (Which also means going through the mapper circuit.)

[HardWareMan]

CaH4e3 used a long time Pasofami. Simple shematic, suitable for most cartridges. In addition, all software are ready.