2600 Rom Comparisions and Dumps

[Hiccup]

2 hours ago, Rom Hunter said:

Photo's of the dumped media and the dump tools weren't attached or mentioned in the early days of ROM dumping, but nowadays it's always shown which cart was dumped and how.

You can find scans of the correspinding media on our game page.

Looking on this page, I see various images, but its not clear which boxes and carts go together, and which carts were dumped. Also, where can the dump tool info be found?

2 hours ago, Rom Hunter said:

Dumper's name doesn't interest me all that much.

Is that info recorded anywhere, even if its not high-priority?

Edited November 12, 2022 by Hiccup

[Rom Hunter]

4 hours ago, Hiccup said:

Looking on this page, I see various images, but its not clear which boxes and carts go together, and which carts were dumped. Also, where can the dump tool info be found?

Is that info recorded anywhere, even if its not high-priority?

The box scans and end label scan that follow up a cart scan belong to that cart.

In this case, both boxes carry the first cart shown and the box of the last cart shown is still not found.

The ROM belongs to all carts shown on the page (in most cases different label variations of the same cart contain the same ROM).

Dump tool info is not shown in our database and a dumper's name or scan donator (if known) can be found in our archives.

Edited November 12, 2022 by Rom Hunter

[Hiccup]

1 hour ago, Rom Hunter said:

The box scans and end label scan that follow up a cart scan belong to that cart.

In this case, both boxes carry the first cart shown and the box of the last cart shown is still not found.

The ROM belongs to all carts shown on the page (in most cases different label variations of the same cart contain the same ROM).

Dump tool info is not shown in our database and a dumper's name or scan donator (if known) can be found in our archives.

Thanks. Seems to be like the info is not necessarily all linked-up and complete at the moment. So I'm thinking there may be some benefit to making use of the dat-o-matic database system.

Edited November 12, 2022 by Hiccup

[Schitti]

On 11/10/2022 at 12:03 PM, Thomas Jentzsch said:

What exactly do you mean here? Atarimania is documenting if a ROM has been dumped.

That is not completely right. Atarimania also offers roms on games that are not dumped. If a rom is not available, then unfortunately Atarimania offers the rom from the original game there. (include the "wrong" Screenshots).

A note in this case would be beneficial.

Anyway, it gives the visitor the impression that the game is already dumped.

 

That's why I find it problematic to see Stella and Atarimania as 100% sources.

 

That's probably not the case with Rom Hunters Collection. There he's documenting correct (i think).

Edited December 5, 2022 by Schitti

[Rom Hunter]

5 hours ago, Schitti said:

Atarimania also offers roms on games that are not dumped. If a rom is not available, then unfortunately Atarimania offers the rom from the original game there. (include the "wrong" Screenshots).

AFAIK only if if the ROM is identical to the original.

Can you please show me an example in which this is not the case?

 

I'm curious to know.

Edited December 5, 2022 by Rom Hunter

[Schitti]

49 minutes ago, Rom Hunter said:

AFAIK only if if the ROM is identical to the original.

Can you please show me an example in which this is not the case?

 

I'm curious to know.

 

Too idle to pick out several now.

Sure, you can only use the dumps made available to you by other users. Maybe some don't know the exact differences. It is not your vault.

 

Examples?

Of course I didn't write down the examples I noticed. (... and there are some)

From memory, i remembered HES' Ghostbusters. You've replaced the rom in the meantime.

 

You can check Pyramid War from Suntek

 

 

 

[Rom Hunter]

1 hour ago, Schitti said:

You can check Pyramid War from Suntek

 

 

 

Thanks, Schitti.
 

Indeed: Suntek's Bermuda, Galactic, Pyramid War and Tom Boy carry the Suntek logo on screen, while the Rainbow Vision carts carry the title on screen (or so we assume).

This is a tricky one, because Suntek cartridges are identical to Rainbow Vision cartridges and AFAIK all the other Suntek and Rainbow Vision twin titles contain identical ROMs.

In this case, you can only tell by showing its box and proving the cart truly belongs to that box (which in many cases is impossible to proof) and even then it's still not certain.

For example, War 2000 from Home Vision has two different versions: one with the Dimax logo on screen and one with the Home Vision logo on screen.

But the cartridge and the box look exactly the same.

That's also the reason why I have two different Rainbow Vision - Suntek versions of the Bermuda and Galactic ROMs in my collection (and I'm still looking for the alternate versions of Pyramid War and Tom Boy).

But I will make a note of this in our database asap.

 

Edited December 5, 2022 by Rom Hunter

[8-Bit Goat]

Hi, all. Recently got a Retron 77 and starting experimenting with some ROM dumps of my carts. My Quest for Quintana Roo cart (Sunrise, NTSC) has a different checksum than the existing dumps. Possible alternate version?

 

Edit: Looks like only a byte or two difference. Bad dump? Bit rot? Actual change in the program? I don't know.

 

Quest For Quintana Roo rom-8374e1cc408a05019457dfbc13fdf088.rar

Edited March 13 by 8-Bit Goat

[Thomas Jentzsch]

26 minutes ago, 8-Bit Goat said:

Hi, all. Recently got a Retron 77 and starting experimenting with some ROM dumps of my carts. My Quest for Quintana Roo cart (Sunrise, NTSC) has a different checksum than the existing dumps. Possible alternate version?

 

Edit: Looks like only a byte or two difference. Bad dump? Bit rot? Actual change in the program? I don't know.

The two different bytes are unused. They are repeated from the code directly above. Probably the master EEPROM was previously used for an older version, where the code was two bytes longer.

[8-Bit Goat]

Ah, okay, thanks!