falkon

Can someone tell me how to take a game I own and turn it into a rom?

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thewisteron

Just download it from the web.

(sorry if that comment isn't allowed...)

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....the Wisteron was the strongest of all Morrowindl's demons, of any Shadowen birthed in the lapse of the Elven magic's use....

deftech

That comment is fine. As for how to backup your own......unless you have a really good technical background, I wouldn't worry about it. Here is a link to a picture of a Game Doctor machine that you need to back up the actual ROM off an NES cart to disk. Then there is still a lot of work you have to do to actually make it playable again.

Picture of Backup Machine

There are other machines out there, but this was a popular one. Mainly find them overseas.

--deftech

papajackow

Quote:

Originally posted by deftech Then there is still a lot of work you have to do to actually make it playable again.

Just out of curiosity, what else has to be done? Are there some address tweaks or something?

falkon

Thanks but it look like too much work:rolling: or I am too stupid to do it. I have a large collection and just wanted to back them up.

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deftech

Quote:

Originally posted by papajackow Just out of curiosity, what else has to be done? Are there some address tweaks or something?

It's been a long time since I've read up on it. But basically, NES games have different chips in the Cartridge. One is the EEPROM that contains the game. But in order for the Game ROM to work, the nintendo has to know what is on the other chip. This other chip contains some sort pattern of addresses (i think there are about 300 different ones that have been used in the 1,000 odd NES games out there). The game backup machines don't copy this info over, so you pretty much have to create this in order for the ROM to actually be playable. If you don't get it EXACTLY right, the game will not function correctly. That is why some poorly coded ROMS, like many Excitebike ones that are out there, don't play properly.

I know this isn't 100% accurate info, like I said it's been years since I've read up on this technology. There are many NES enthusiast sites out there with correct information though if you are truly interested. You can even create your own NES games if you are a good enough developer. And if you master this process, you can even crack open an old NES cartridge, put in a blank EEPROM, and copy the homebrew game onto the cart.

--deftech

thewisteron

Falkon,

You do understand that people have already created playable roms so you don't have to, right? Don't ask me where to get them though....not allowed on the forum. Email me if you need more info.

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....the Wisteron was the strongest of all Morrowindl's demons, of any Shadowen birthed in the lapse of the Elven magic's use....

falkon

Quote:

Originally posted by thewisteron Falkon, You do understand that people have already created playable roms so you don't have to, right? Don't ask me where to get them though....not allowed on the forum. Email me if you need more info.

Yes...I just like to tinker with stuff and thought I would see if this was a good project for a weekend. I see now that is too involved and I will find something else to occupy my time. Thanks for all the good info.

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uzziah0

I understand you can legally get a ROM to run with an emulator on you PPC if you own the cartridge.
Can you purchase just the right to play the ROM on a PPC without going out and buying the cartridge?
Hmmmmmm. Maybe?
I just checked the Nintendo site, and it looks like they don't have anything to say about emulators and ROMs, other than a link to report sites that post Nintendo ROM.

deftech

Quote:

Originally posted by uzziah0 I understand you can legally get a ROM to run with an emulator on you PPC if you own the cartridge. Can you purchase just the right to play the ROM on a PPC without going out and buying the cartridge? Hmmmmmm. Maybe? I just checked the Nintendo site, and it looks like they don't have anything to say about emulators and ROMs, other than a link to report sites that post Nintendo ROM.

Although most websites have that statement as a disclaimer, it is still a VERY, VERY gray area. Anyone saying that it is completely legal to do this is just speculating based on similar comparisons (like ripping MP3s, for instance). Because just about every ROM around the web was illegally pirated, it is unlikely that these will ever be legally purchased. However, I can imagine that Nintendo (and possibly 3rd party companies like Konami, Capcom, etc) might one day offer either ports of their old games to the PC. Or else they might one day offer a "universal" emulator for NES games and convert many of the old games to ROM format at the actual copyright holder company. I doubt any of this will ever happen, but you never know. Many companies have made a killing off old retro-games.

--deftech