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Copying Cartridges

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Micom 2000

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I have a bunch of cartridges from numerous obsolete systems. Are there any methods one could use to copy these to disk, and then to your archives or cds ? The 8-bit systems which had a fdd would be easiest I imagine. but what about such as the Atari 2600 or the CollecoVision whose Adam only had a cassette drive. For even the regular 8-bit Atari, C64, TI99, or CoCo it could perhaps be a challenge.

I'm not really a gamer so possibly these things have been done by the intrepid gamer fans. I'm intending to get rid of most of my stuff over the next few years, but to hold on to a system only to play some specific games seems indulgent, when some one else would enjoy the machine more.

Lawrence
 
Most cartridges have a ROM or EPROM chip that holds the contents of the program. On older systems there is no copy protection. To read the contents of the EPROM you would remove the ROM or EPROM from the cartridge and put it in a 'reader' of some sort (EPROM burner).

Obviously the computer the cartridge was used with is capable of reading the contents of the cartridge. The technique for dumping the contents of a cartridge vary from system to system. For example, on a PCjr a well located piece of tape works wonders for disabling the machine reset that a cartridge causes when it is inserted or removed. If you boot DOS and then get the cartridge inserted without causing a reboot, you are free to read it.
 
If you don't mind the archive is not an exact copy of your cartridge, most cartridges for the mentioned systems are dumped and available as grey zone abandonware download. For the Atari 2600 and perhaps some more systems, there was a special cartridge copying device that let you duplicate a cartridge, and perhaps save it onto another media.

On Commodore systems, the main key is to prevent auto booting the cartridge. It can sometimes be solved by using a multi-port expansion board that lets you choose which slot is active. Insert a cartridge into one port, but let another, empty slot be active upon turning on the computer. Then change the active slot, which in theory should be safe to do while the computer is running, and you have access to the cartridge contents in memory without it automatically starting. There are other, similar methods too. A such approach doesn't require you to disassemble the cartridge and remove any socketed EPROMs.

Some cartridges have ROMs soldered directly to the board or unusual blobs, which no EPROM burner in the world is able to read. I used to have a second spare copy of Sega's Star Trek for the C64, and it held a very small circuit board with a small blob of black which inside was the ROM. Nothing like a regular chip. One wouldn't believe it works if one hadn't played the game from the cartridge.
 
As a 3rd/4th data point, I've dumped almost all of my CoCo cartridges, first to tape, and then copied them to disk. As mentioned before, all that was necessary was a strategically located piece of tape over one of the pins on the card edge connector from allowing the CoCo to detect/boot from the cartridge.

Also, from the library of dumped cartridges I've seen for the TI 99 emulator, I'm guessing that most of those cartridges have been dumped, as well.
 
As was mentioned, cartridges for those systems have already been dumped and are readily available if you know where to look or request. There are simple programs for the Adam that allow you to easily dump cartridges to data pack or disk (both of which allow you to have quite a few cartridges accessible from a menu), and there are similar things for the C-64, though those have been a bit more hit or miss. Regardless, if you plan on going the emulation route anyway, you obviously don't have to worry about access to what you own. It's already out there.
 
I'm in a process of offing my cartridge game systems which include also a Colecovision, Adam, and about 20 cartridges. I'm aware that many video game systems are available dumped for emulation. It was the much-lauded Colecovision ones which I felt I might not be able to get. There are also some gamepacks and other programs with the Adam. I haven't tested it yet. Other priorities engulf my to-do list.

I'm not really a gamer and when I tested the Colecovision it appears not to work. I get what appears to be a rollover of undecipherable text. I ran across some commentary that one sometimes has to beat-up the Colicoversion before it works. Does this onscreen response suggest what the problem might be ? Did it have any special RF converter like the Nintendo ?

Lawrence



Bill_Loguidice said:
As was mentioned, cartridges for those systems have already been dumped and are readily available if you know where to look or request. There are simple programs for the Adam that allow you to easily dump cartridges to data pack or disk (both of which allow you to have quite a few cartridges accessible from a menu), and there are similar things for the C-64, though those have been a bit more hit or miss. Regardless, if you plan on going the emulation route anyway, you obviously don't have to worry about access to what you own. It's already out there.
Click to expand...
 
Micom 2000 said:
I'm in a process of offing my cartridge game systems which include also a Colecovision, Adam, and about 20 cartridges. I'm aware that many video game systems are available dumped for emulation. It was the much-lauded Colecovision ones which I felt I might not be able to get. There are also some gamepacks and other programs with the Adam. I haven't tested it yet. Other priorities engulf my to-do list.

I'm not really a gamer and when I tested the Colecovision it appears not to work. I get what appears to be a rollover of undecipherable text. I ran across some commentary that one sometimes has to beat-up the Colicoversion before it works. Does this onscreen response suggest what the problem might be ? Did it have any special RF converter like the Nintendo ?

Lawrence
Click to expand...

Coleco cartridge images are easy to get, it's the Adam disk and data pack images that take more work to track down.

The ColecoVision has no special RF adapter. It's the standard TV/Game switch. You can use that same adapter that I mentioned to eliminate it. The Coleco's cartridge port is susceptible to dirt, so be sure to clean both the cartridge contacts and the cartridge receptor in the ColecoVision. That should solve any problems with the garbage display.
 
billdeg said:
ISEPIC for the C64...anyone used that?
Click to expand...

I've got an Isepic cart, but if I'm reading the OP correctly, I think it does the opposite of what he's wanting. What an Isepic cart does is dump the contents of memory out to a file (more or less). For example, if you were playing California Games with an Isepic cart in, you could save out each event as its own standalone executable.

I'd have to agree with one of the earlier responders; I suspect that 99.9% of these carts (especially if they are ones you purchased) have already been dumped. I know every Atari 2600 game is available in a roughly 3 meg zip file, etc.
 
Game cartridge = ROM

Game cartridge = ROM

Since a game cartridge is little more than a ROM/EPROM it seems to me that all you need to do is wire up a connector matching the cartridge to a DIP header and use your favorite EPROM burner to extract the data...
 
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