backing up and emulating

matttail

New member
forgive me if this is a stupid question, but I'm looking for a little advise. I'm planning on building a coders cable. Then I'd like to create a full backup of two games that I own and then be able to play them on my PC. Is this possible? And can someone direct me to a tutorial or give me an idea of the steps? Thanks!
 

matttail

New member
Thanks, I guess I'm a little old school here. If anyone knows, or knows a place I might look I'd appreciate the links/suggestions.

--Matttail
 

Ryanfaescotland

New member
What console are you thinking of?

I've been looking into this as well and this site may interest you http://supermagi.com/list.php?c=articles for some reason it doesn't let you in to anything other than the Mega Drive section without signing up (I presume signing up will allow you in to the others I haven't tried though)

Also here has some brief info http://www.emucamp.com/red/index3.shtml

There is also another site for making your own cart reader/writter for the Master System and how to convert old carts to blank re-writtables here http://www.smspower.org/smsreader/

Hope these helped!!!

If you can find a page similar to the SMS Reader one but for the Mega Drive I would be greatful for the link.

Same goes to all the Mods on here anyone know of any similar pages?
 

Ryanfaescotland

New member
Nice one Zach thanks for those hope you don't get the sack hehe

After some chat with a French Sega fan I got this link which shows some very interesting information

http://www.retrodev.com/transfer.html

Aparently using a homebrew cable made from a parrell cable and a Sega controller you can plug the sega to your computer. Then using software on a Mega CD you dump from carts across that wire.

Can anyone verify this? I think it sounds far-fetch but would someone really go to the effort of writting schematics for something made up? Well I'm watching 2 Mega CD's on Ebay just now so hopefully we'll know soon if it works or no.
 

Zach

New member
You would be surprised at the attention to detail a hoax can possess.
That being said, the only way to know is to try.
 

Ryanfaescotland

New member
Some of the sites you refered me to also mention using the controller port although I've lost which sites exactly (just done a lot of reading) but I'm almost 100% sure that the control port is an I/O port (Input/Output) so it is possible to send stuff out aswell as in through it.

Trying to use some of the terminology there as you may have noticed :) Looks like I've got a lot of reading ahead though since there is a lot of terms and visual aids I really don't understand.

I did have a wee chuckle at this line though:

"Now, as you've built this ROM copier, it might be a good idea to use it.
However, if you built this ROM copier purely so that you could burn yourself on the soldering iron, then you may skip this section."

:D Nice touch lol

I don't think Matttail is coming back so I'm jacking this thread and declaring it my own!
 

Zach

New member
I was actually pretty surprised to see the levels of humor present in Steven Hawking's books myself..

It pops up in the oddest places sometimes
 

Ryanfaescotland

New member
Ok I'm going to give it a bash.

Currently got my eye on 2 Mega Cd's which end in 1Day 2Hrs so I'll give the wire method a try but also interested in the homebrew dumper method detailed on one of the sites above.

Thankfully the instructions are UK based and not US which makes getting parts a lot easier, infact the instructions tell you to go to Maplin so that's what I've done. All together the total cost for parts is around £10* although tools like soldering iron, volt meter will set you back a bit more if you don't already have them.

The instructions say that they are so easy even someone with no previous electronics knowledge can follow them. Good. Although I hope to make them even easier so I'm going to try and document my expodition but I may give this up if it is too troublesome.

I'll keep things posted here incase anyone else is interested and if there is any questions feel free to ask :D

EDIT *Actually it's nearer £20
 
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Ryanfaescotland

New member
Sorry for the double post but I think it makes more sense here than an edit.

So I've done my shopping on [url="www.maplin.co.uk]Maplin.co.uk[/url] although I haven't actually went through the checkout. There is a Maplin about 10 min drive from my house so I'll go there to buy the stuff however I wanted to post this first to see if anyone notices any mistakes I might have made.

I've pasted the items described in the instruction into the picture on the 'remove' collum:

list1.jpg


The only ones I'm not too sure about are the 74 Series Logic items partticularly the 74 HC 4051 N which I have instead of the 4512B since Maplin says there is no such thing as a 4512B and searching on the net hasn't shown any.

Please comment on any mistakes I've made.
 

Zach

New member
Dude..

If it's not too late.
Take pics and document your progress. Maybe it's something I can publish as a cool how-to or project or something.
 

Zach

New member
Well that depends.. As long as you don't post anything linking to ROMS, ISO's or other illegal materials then you don't have to worry about anything.
 

Ryanfaescotland

New member
No it's not too late. Planned to go shopping today but a bit hung over so will probably go out tommorow instead. Was going to record my screen as I shopped but I think people will work out how to buy the parts online!

If I can't record I'll take pics as I go and with a bit of luck it'll lead to a working unit :)
 

alcoatjez

Capo di Tutti Capi
I don't think anyone here has that kind of knowledge.. Sorry

Or perhaps...
Since he's talking about using a coders cable: this is the way 99% of the Sega Dreamcast scene releases are done.
There is a guide on how to do this available here.
 

Zach

New member
And you're only what... Two weeks late?

My point still stands.. I haven't seen anyone here personally display this kind of knowledge.
 

Ryanfaescotland

New member
Ok didn't go out the house to get the parts today cause I really couldn't be bothered from my bed so instead I done some EBay-ing instead.

Got a Mega CD 2 and a MegaDrive 2 for £23 have a look here if you wanna see.

So I'll try the cable method next week at some point.
 

Ryanfaescotland

New member
So far things are off to a rough start. I ordered the wrong board so had to go to Maplin to change it then I came home and was away to get started but my soldering iron has decided to leave home without telling me. Can't find it anywhere so it's back to Maplin once the traffic dies down to buy another one >_<

Other than that I've started documenting what I'm doing so with a bit of luck it'll be a half deceint guide once I'm finished.

Still haven't got my Mega CD since I'm waiting to find out how much recorded delivery costs.
 

Zach

New member
Cool.. You taking pics too? And, are you gonna want to see your guide published like I mentioned? If it turns out to be a good guide it would definitely make a cool How To article for my readers.

You'd get full credit naturally, and have the right to republish it anywhere you want to.
 
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