7800fan Posted February 4, 2016 Share Posted February 4, 2016 Lynx has a rather odd address scheme mainly because the system doesn't access the ROM like most other games. It loads up to 64k into the RAM and then read it like normal. I thought I'd dump everything just for giggles and then compare with known ROM dump on the off chance I find an unknown variation, and to have personal backup copy of Zaku. 1: do I ignore all those funky stuff and try to treat Lynx cart the same way as reading an EPROM? 2: how would I find out the cart's size? Do I look for repeating pattern and chop it to size? 3: AUDIO pin have been used as extra address line, is there any game that may have used this line for use other than address? 4: /cart1 can be ignored right? (leave it high) Generally it's used for selecting additional chip like EEPROM or SRAM? 5: pin 34 SWVCC can also be ignored? Seems like it's controlled by the cart when it's being read? 6: anything else I need to know before I accidentally melt a game trying to dump it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+karri Posted February 4, 2016 Share Posted February 4, 2016 Yes (I love giving Kosh-like answers) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+karri Posted February 4, 2016 Share Posted February 4, 2016 And in case you are stuck there is always the Raspberry Pi based readcart.c in the https://bitbucket.org/atarilynxrepository. (contrib/blankcart/programmer) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7800fan Posted February 4, 2016 Author Share Posted February 4, 2016 Don't have a Pi. Was going to use Mega2560 to suck data. I have the cart, I just need to figure out the zig-zag pin and find a compatible PCB to solder it in, wire it to a 2x16 pin header then connect it to the Mega. I have the code mostly done, still need to test it when I have the board done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sage Posted February 4, 2016 Share Posted February 4, 2016 Discussed and answered before IMO just using the Lynx itself to read teh cartridge is the easiest way. Just one cable to solder and then only software issue. PS: DL the ROM from internet is much faster than ripping it ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+karri Posted February 5, 2016 Share Posted February 5, 2016 Discussed and answered before IMO just using the Lynx itself to read teh cartridge is the easiest way. Just one cable to solder and then only software issue. PS: DL the ROM from internet is much faster than ripping it ... Exactly my thoughts. I created a cart years ago that did just that and dumped the contents through ComLynx in Intel hex format. For obvious reasons I did not want to put the cart out in the wild so only a few copies exist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sage Posted February 5, 2016 Share Posted February 5, 2016 Yeah and if you use AUXDATAIO as additional pins, you will always get 2MB images. who cares if the original image was smaller, size doesnt matter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sage Posted February 5, 2016 Share Posted February 5, 2016 PS: why hex not srec? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+karri Posted February 5, 2016 Share Posted February 5, 2016 @sage I already had the code for hex Some nostalgic screenshots from 2009. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7800fan Posted February 5, 2016 Author Share Posted February 5, 2016 how does that work? Pass through cart for reading target cart or some way of loading program to dump the cart through serial port? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sage Posted February 5, 2016 Share Posted February 5, 2016 how does that work? Pass through cart for reading target cart or some way of loading program to dump the cart through serial port? As you might know, all code is executed from memory. thus as soon as the code has been started, one can remove the cart and reinsert the cart you want to rip. In my case the loader code is uploaded by comlynx to memory, and sends back the rom content. could run it from a flash cart, but why. there is nothing to rip anymore anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omf Posted February 6, 2016 Share Posted February 6, 2016 @sage I already had the code for hex Some nostalgic screenshots from 2009. Screenshot from 2016-02-05 22:15:07.png Screenshot from 2016-02-05 22:13:00.png and where do you get that program from ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GadgetUK Posted February 6, 2016 Share Posted February 6, 2016 and where do you get that program from ? If you read back a bit - Karri wrote it but didn't want to distribute it for obvious reasons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GadgetUK Posted February 6, 2016 Share Posted February 6, 2016 I agree the easiest way is to mod the lynx to allow cart to be changed whilst its on, and have some code read the rom and push to comlynx into USB on your PC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+karri Posted February 6, 2016 Share Posted February 6, 2016 Yes. You needed a modded Lynx for this technique to work. It was used by a few forum members to dump the rare proto carts. The ComLynx transfer took ages because of 9600 bauds. And you also need some extracting software on the PC side to build the binary from the dump. The strange thing was that only a few ComLynx - serial cables worked well enough. Most MAXIM chip based could be used for sending data to the Lynx but not for receiving data from the Lynx. In any case the run of these dumper carts was very small and I am out of them now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7800fan Posted February 6, 2016 Author Share Posted February 6, 2016 9600? suck my wiener I'll go with my original plan. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sage Posted February 6, 2016 Share Posted February 6, 2016 (edited) 9600? suck my wiener I'll go with my original plan. How many ROMs do you want to rip that this matters??? Edited February 6, 2016 by sage Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Mitch Posted February 6, 2016 Share Posted February 6, 2016 I'm assuming he wants to dump the ROM for all the games in his collection. I did that for my 2600, 7800, Jaguar and 800 games and found several previously unknown ROM variations. I'm guessing that is the same thing here. Mitch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sage Posted February 6, 2016 Share Posted February 6, 2016 sounds boring... unless he has some fancy prototypes. To my knowledge, there is only _one_ game which has variants. (Excluding prototypes or homebrews...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7800fan Posted February 6, 2016 Author Share Posted February 6, 2016 How many ROMs do you want to rip that this matters??? Some 90 I have in my collection. It's mostly to run compare to see if I can maybe find an obscure rom variation. And to get backup copy of Zaku PS: DL the ROM from internet is much faster than ripping it ... Never been able to find full Zaku anywhere on the internet. I doubt it's going to be made available when they may be planning another run soon. By having this one as backup I can reproduce replacement ROM if my copy goes bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sage Posted February 6, 2016 Share Posted February 6, 2016 Zaku will not run in emulation anyway. Yes, you are right. ZAku is not "available" on the internet. But not because nobody did backup copies. Its because we have an idea how much work has been put inside. And dont want to see illegal ROM copied sold on exxx etc. Every homebrew ROM which appeared is sold illegaly nowadays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7800fan Posted February 7, 2016 Author Share Posted February 7, 2016 http://atariage.com/forums/topic/151560-zaku-for-the-atari-lynx-official-thread/?p=3405922 This is why I wanted personal copy of Zaku in case mine goes bad. I have no plan to share the ROM as I want to support the creator. Other games are easier to replace (and many cheaper to replace from eBay) bur Zaku has no full public ROM for me to reflash with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GadgetUK Posted February 8, 2016 Share Posted February 8, 2016 Another way is to take an old cart connector off an old Lynx PCB, wire it up to a DIP pin header - 512Kb pinouts are available on a thread on here somewhere. Then just connect to EPROM programmer and dump as 27C040. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guitari Posted February 20, 2016 Share Posted February 20, 2016 Either that or trust that you are treating your copy of zaku in the right way, play the game, put it back in your lynx pouch and use the time you were going to use on making backups by going outside and looking at a tree, or the stars if it's night time. We're not all going to be here forever. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4ever2600 Posted July 14, 2018 Share Posted July 14, 2018 Any chance you could make a quick sketch of what this would look like? I think i get it, but just want to make sure... Another way is to take an old cart connector off an old Lynx PCB, wire it up to a DIP pin header - 512Kb pinouts are available on a thread on here somewhere. Then just connect to EPROM programmer and dump as 27C040. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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