Odyssey 2 Killer Bees and Nimble Numbers Ned

[+swlovinist]

Hope this post is okay.   I recently won a Goodwill auction that included 2 pre production/prototype Odyssey 2 Games.   I have seen the Killer Bees Label before, but have not seen any pre production cart for Nimble Numbers Ned.   Using an Atarimax USB dumper, I have included the games below as I need help from others to see if there are any differences than the released games.   Enjoy! 

Killer Bees 11.12.82.bin Nimble Numbers Ned Show Sample May 82.bin

[Tempest]

Nice!  From those dates I'm thinking that they're probably the same as the final, but I'm not an O2 expert by any means.  The text 'Show Sample' on NNN is interesting, I wonder if it refers to a CES show?

[+swlovinist]

I got referred to this site to compare files https://www.diffnow.com/compare-files 

There was differences from what I uploaded versus the released files

Nimble Numbers Ned was released in September 82 I do believe so there was time to change some things I suppose 

Edited May 29, 2021 by swlovinist

[williamc]

Have you been able to run these ROM files in an emulator?  O2EM gives me a blank screen with some zeroes on it, and I haven't been able to get Odyssey2 emulator working at all in MAME.

[trapperkeeper]

There's no data there.  The code looks like its from the device used to dump them, and also the code is far too big.  Killer bees and NNN are 8k and 4k carts and these files are 32k.

[+swlovinist]

12 hours ago, trapperkeeper said:

There's no data there.  The code looks like its from the device used to dump them, and also the code is far too big.  Killer bees and NNN are 8k and 4k carts and these files are 32k.

I used the Atarimax cart to dump them.   I can try redumping them here using that process again, but I dont know if it will have any different result.   The Atarimax only has one setting so there are not alot of options using this way.  Any other alternative options?   Alternative ways of trying these roms?

Odyssey 2 Killer Bees November 12 1982.bin Odyssey 2 Nimble Numbers Ned Show Sample May 1982.bin

[trapperkeeper]

Nope that's even worse.  All the dumper code is gone and those files are even more empty.  Better off to taking the chips out and reading them directly.

[+swlovinist]

On 11/4/2021 at 6:42 PM, trapperkeeper said:

Nope that's even worse.  All the dumper code is gone and those files are even more empty.  Better off to taking the chips out and reading them directly.

Thanks for the feedback.   This will have to be a project that I work on at a later date.    

[Tempest]

Unfortunately if you're going to start dumping prototypes you're going to need to invest in an EPROM dumper.  I have an old one from when I was doing stuff like this but it needs DOS and a parallel port to run so I have it hooked up to my old DOS PC.  Reading the chips directly is really the only way to get a perfect dump.  I've found full cartridge dumpers to be rather hit and miss.

[Dutchman2000]

22 hours ago, Tempest said:

Unfortunately if you're going to start dumping prototypes you're going to need to invest in an EPROM dumper.  I have an old one from when I was doing stuff like this but it needs DOS and a parallel port to run so I have it hooked up to my old DOS PC.  Reading the chips directly is really the only way to get a perfect dump.  I've found full cartridge dumpers to be rather hit and miss.

Correct.  I use an EPROM programmer to dump ROMs.