RETRO PIRACY

>>2861964
OG POST FOR THE LAZY:

Ever wonder where your old console ~*{ROMZ}*~ came from? Chances are, some nerd in 1992 imported a game copier from china for like, $700 and ripped his carts for you. Thousands of games, sitting on dialup BBSes years before anyone started coding the emulators to run them.

Super futuristic copier features included:

-several megabytes of high speed RAM to store your ROM file during playback. Don't pull the power though, or you'll have to reload the entire game though...
-the floppy drive! Chrono Trigger took a while to load since you had to swap four whole disks that the game was split across. For the extra-baller, copiers were available with parallel ports you could hook up to your dope 386 DOS machine, which sped up file transfers considerably.
-cheat codez!
-barely-comprehensible chinese GUI!

As late as 2008, before cheap (and awesome) flash carts started coming out for nearly every retro console, these old copiers were still THE way to play translations and other hacks on the original hardware. A used Game Doctor SF3 could be had for 35$ and would run ~95% of SNES games. You just had to find some disks and figure out the shitty DOS software that would convert/split your ROMs back to whatever long forgotten interleaved format the stupid thing used for some reason.

>>2861964
that's pretty neat actually, what games does it not play?

>>2862106
Nigga what? Can you not read?

It plays all games. It literally rips rom images from games or plays back rom images already ripped games. It is console specific as well.

>>2862106
Extra chip games (SA-1, FX, etc.) don't work, except for DSP1 if you bought the extra adapter. I haven't heard of a non-chip game not working that wasn't a bad ROM dump or sloppy hack/translation. The GDSF7 was special in that it was also able to circumvent SRAM-based copy protection in games like Super Metroid and Earthbound without any patching of the ROM

>>2862125
Also, the GDSF7 is the device that the Star Ocean no S-DD1/96Mbit hack was developed on, as it was expandable to 128Mbit. I think the hack is playable on a few modern flash carts like the SD2SNES and Powerpak

Does anyone know where I can score those packs of SNES/Genesis scene roms that used to be on blackcats? Sadly I didn't get them when I migrated to a new seedbox and I haven't been able to locate them.

>>2862231

why not just download the games you want to play individually? chances are that you're not even gonna touch 95% of the ROMs in those packs.

>>2862235
I have fun looking at the intros, reading nfos, all that stuff. I'd love to some day be able to check them out on the actual hardware.

>>2862140
>I think the hack is playable on a few modern flash carts like the SD2SNES and Powerpak
It is, at least for the SD2SNES.

>>2862125
Some devices let you use the DSP from any old cart that has the chip instead of an extra adapter.

>>2862282
Yep. Something about how the DSP chip functioned alongside the ROM made it really easy for copiers to work with. Doesn't work with any other chip type though, no matter what's been suggested online since the usenet days.

>>2862305
I think the DSP just uses the extra pins on the sides of the cart and just passing these through does the trick. I've heard the hurr durr stories about being able to run a game with other special chips if an original cart of the same game is in the system. Never bothered to try. I guess if you want to use save states or slow mo it might not be totally useless but I suspect save states with custom chips has major issues.

>>2862231
I found the Snes stuff plus a pack of Genesis trainers. Can't link to them directly but you'll find them easily enough. Shit's interesting to go through.

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/8r4xe46lt1exu//Prototopia

File: Superufo-Pro-8-SuperDrive-for-SNES-SFC.jpg (24KB, 400x400px) Image search: [Google]

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>>2862490
The newer Super UFO Pro 8 pushed the "custom chips work!" lie pretty hard and I saw too many people fall for it and get stuck with what's probably the worst flash cart available. The UFO P8 is literally the guts of a 90s-era copier with some extra firmware code to adapt the SD slot. You have to manually load a ROM from SD to the RAM bank like it was coming off a floppy disk.

Please guys, get an SD2SNES or Everdrive instead and save yourself the headache.

>>2864023
I never saw UFO lie about custom chip support but I saw plenty of people not understand how it works. You are correct that such people should get a flash cart not a copier. They will never dump games and don't have original carts with the custom chips required to use on UFO. The UFO is also overly complicated if you just want to download and play ROMs.

>>2861964
YES!!! I have a Professor SF/Game Doctor 6. Love that thing. You have to show me how to do the Gotek Floppy Emulator upgrade. Because, sooner or later my floppy drive will give out on me. Perish the thought!

>>2864136
God-tier piracy! I bow in reverence to you.

>>2864136
>loading 10 floppies to play a game
I put an emulator in my MGD2 and I still won't do that.

>>2864138
It's the same as doing the PC floppy emulator upgrade

>>2861969
Interleaved memory design was commonly used in copiers because it sped up access to the slower DRAM chips being used. Why use slow chips? Well, duh, because it was cheaper! These interleaved game ROMs caused all sorts of headaches for early emulation developers. Today, thanks to more purist ROM collections like No-Intro, GoodSets, TOSEC, etc, you hardly ever see the old jumbled up ROMs in the wild.

>>2864136
>this is a thing
>but everdrive ng is not

>>2864948
Interleaved memory was used because 4 bit chips were much cheaper. When emulating a 150ns ROM with 100ns RAM speed isn't an issue.

>>2864256
Okay. But, how do you do the PC floppy emulator upgrade?! Got any links that even a noob can understand?

Does anyone have information on old ROM groups from back in the day?

For instance:

http://www.snescentral.com/article.php?id=1002

>It was leaked onto the BBS scene in August 1994 by the group "The Accumulators"

I was too young in the early nineties to be into stuff like that, but it intrigues me to think about how people got prototypes of games back then before they were released. Were these pre-release dumpers typically people who worked for magazines? Shop owners who were sent previews? The programmers of the games themselves? Typical collectors/pirates with the right contacts in said groups?

I know the answer is probably "it depended," but I'd definitely be curious to know more about the early days of beta procurement. Nowadays it is mostly just old things on ebay or Yahoo that were held onto by shops/editors/employees from back in the day who are either clearing house or realizing that some collectors are actually interested in old junk.

>>2865750
It's as simple as:
1. unscrew copier screws
2. open copier
3. take out old drive
4. put in new drive
5. close copier
5. screw copier screws back in

As far as I can tell, no jumpers need to be switched. The hard part is dealing with the software to partition and load up the USB drive. Apparently, the software below is miles better than what's on the CD that comes with the drive emulator:

http://www.ipcas.com/support/usb-floppy-emulation-download.html

My plan was to use the onboard copier disk format and load ROMs through the parallel port with UCON64, circumventing the windows partition software totally.

>>2865767
>miles better
Not really. It's much easier to stick the usb stick in a PC, write your images to that, and plug it back into the emulator when you're done. With a little bit of glue the entire process of converting, splitting, building file systems and printing a TOC becomes almost drag and drop.

>>2866105
What I was saying, the software I linked to is less janky than the original chinese software.

As for loading, yeah my plan is faster in the sense that the floppy emulator isn't the primary transfer medium. It's there to hold saves, a handful of favorites and to keep dust out of what would otherwise be an empty drive bay.

Check it: SD card booting FreeDOS holding entire ROM library. Batch file stitches a file menu that sends the selected game to UCON64 to be converted and transferred over the parallel cable. Keeps ROMs in *.sfc until they're to be run, keeps LFN, no TOC, instantly swapable with SD2SNES cart.

>>2866568
You could dump the saves to the computer with ucon64 as well. Your emulator literally is just there to keep the dust out.

>>2861964
I just blew some money on an everdrive 64 v.3
Did i do good?

That shit was kinda expensive

how would I go about ripping a GB/C cartridge? I have a XXX in 1 with the Vietnamese Pokémon G/S/C translations from my childhood.

can't seem to find the G/S ones online.

>>2864948
Actually GoodSets actually make it a point to leave bad and unknown dumps in, I find it interesting honestly. Though GoodSets seem to be pretty much phased out in favor for NoIntro and TOSEC sets these days anyhow.

I just spent last night batch converting every single American SNES ROM from SMC format to UFO (with ucon64 in DOS) so that they'll stop giving me loading errors... So far so good.

File: dsc02684.jpg (277KB, 532x399px) Image search: [Google]

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>>2867905

Well its the best, most hassle-free way to play N64 ROMs on the console, so yeah. Wouldn't want to be using Zip disks, let me tell you.

>>2868338
Dumb question, but what is the difference between regular floppies and Zip Disks? Because I only found out about the latter recently

>>2868442
Zip was a high capacity floppy disk format popular in the mid-90s to 2000s before cheap burnable cd/dvd became came on the scene. Original disks held 100mb, later ones held 250 and 750mb. Drives came in ATA, SCSI, parallel, etc., so could connect with nearly everything. Expensive, but still cheaper than other high-cap portable solutions of that era.

Regular 3.5in floppy didn't hold as much, but were much more ubiquitous as we all know. Legacy support, came standard with nearly every PC, cheap disks

stay clear of zip disks. period.

google what the "click of death" is.

fuck zip drives for real.

>>2868512
this - zip/jaz drive disks were pure shit

>>2867905
did you order it directly from krikzz? if so, yes. cause the latest ones for sale can ship with custom region swapping cic chip preinstalled

>>2868442
A lot of music machines like Akai sampler and Roland would use Zip discs w/ SCSI. They were great on the Mac if you were saving art projects and needed to transfer between school and home or just needed that extra space without a bulky SCSI external HD. They were great for storing games or app installs. These were taken over by the CD-R. A regular floppy was 1.4mb. So you'd get 100x+ the storage on a Zip.

>>2867959
Look up the Ben Venn dumper. Apparently it has good support (as in it supports at least some flash-based carts while the Retrode does not). Maybe send the guy who produces it an email to see if he thinks it will work. Dumping carts can be a bit of a crapshoot (at least based on my experience with trying to dump prototypes) and I imagine it could get just as sticky with pirate carts.

>>2868338
That thing looks really uneccesarily complicated.

>>2868442

Zip Disks, Compact Flash, etc are used by dope producers to make fresh donuts on that chill tip most every sesh.

Standard floppies basically had a smaller storage capacity and aren't compatible with dank beat machines giving daps to Dilla when hittin the pads.

Floppies: Ultima, Wizardry, Zork
Zip/Compact Flash: Telnet, Purple Dialect, UsNatives, Ill Clinton etc

>>2864136
What exactly is going on with that machine. What are those cards in the cartridge?

>>2862241
It works on the PowerPak

>>2864136
omfg hahahaha
this is actually real? I had no idea they made a MGD for Neo-Geo.

>>2865127
Darksoft is working on a Neo-Geo flash cart.

>>2868927
it's actually not:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBXRYuHRGi4
I'd love to get one for fun

>>2868041
Using a vintage pc that takes more than a few minutes to do that is taking authenticity too far

>>2868442
Too many differences to list but the key one is the media isn't floppy.

>>2869427
>that guy who doesn't know what MAME is

duh

>>2864023
I saw this exact same post in a different thread, same image too. Is this copypasta or shilling

>>2868556

fellow AKAI MPC sampler user here... I salute you.

>>2869769

obvious shilling is obvious

>>2869769
Neither. The guy just doesn't like the thing and it was relevant.

>>2869784
Yep, I got a hate-on for the UFO. Even their copiers were pretty junky at the time.

As for shilling, I'll push any flash cart over the Pro 8. Get an SD2SNES or an everdrive or a powerpak. Hell, there's even nice things to say about the chinese everdrive clone and that old tototek cart that only worked with a parallel port.

>>2870332
Did you by any chance buy one thinking it could play games with special chips without the original cart? Or did one touch you inappropriately? You really do have a hate-on for them.
Personally I never had any problems and use a 7 in my main machine. Would be nice if the memory was upgradeable and it had a parallel port but is nicer I saved some money 20 odd years ago.

>>2869587
what are you even talking about with this reply

>>2869427
whats the situation with darksoft's cart? I haven't checked up on it forever.

Is it gonna be one of those "choose which game to burn, and wait 15mins" carts?

I'm in a bit of a dilemma here.

I have a bunch of retro consoles but unfortunately I don't have many games left (family gave them away without my permission). So I'm looking into getting flashcarts, and was looking at the everdrive ones. Are there any cheaper alternatives/DIY projects of the same quality as the everdrive stuff?

I would prefer to play on real hardware since I have quite a bit of consoles, but buying all the everdrive flashcarts for would cost me at least $850 CAD plus extra cost for RGB modding a few consoles etc.

Because of that I was looking into converting one of my older computers into a mame/emulator machine instead, but I'm on the fence about it. One advantage is that it would it would take up a lot less which would be nice.

>>2867959
Reiner Ziegler has a diy dumper on his site. Some Spanish dude sells a dumper/flasher on Tindie. Cheaper than building it yourself.

>>2871924
Which consoles? For GB(C) there are DIY flashcards. There are usually Chinese versions of the everdrives on AliExpress.

>>2872280
Although I'd rather have the genuine product to support the guy, if the chinese versions are significantly cheaper I might go with those. Are there any disadvantages or are they 1:1 clones?

>>2871924
No. If any doofus could put together a cheap high quality flash cart no one would buy EDs. However if you have a basic understanding of the electronics involved and the necessary skills/tools there are options. Alternatives like repros or multicarts using donor or off the shelf parts can be made quickly, easily, and cheaply for many systems.

>>2872301
I do have soldering/SMD experience. I was just enquiring if there were any active/recommended projects or products out there similar to the everdrive, as I didn't find many in my initial searching. I'm surprised more affordable retro console flashcarts aren't more of a popular thing given the resurgence of the 'hobby'.

>>2872330
Nope. Still nothing. Building something like an ED is far beyond the skills and resources of your average hipster. Designing one is a whole other story. Anyone who can't afford $100 for an ED certainly can't afford the tools required to make one. And if you shop it all out it costs as much as an ED to make. Funny that.

>>2870946
Of course it is going to work that way, it is a fucking flash cart, not a multicart.

He's lightweight developing it between other projects, like CPS3 RAM modules.

>>2871924
Sounds like you should just spend $175 on a Retrofreak and call it a day.

>>2872292
Not sure about the gameboy clones but the Super Everdrives are identical. He signed a deal with a company to produce them for them but to only sell them in China. This really lowers the price. Technically they're not allowed to sell outside of China but can't stop the chinks on AliExpress.

The GB everdrives can't update to the latest firmware so I'm guessing the internals changed and Krikzz just sold the old versions for the Chinese market. Not wanting to have a new Super Everdrive situation on his hands.

>>2872301
Look up Reiner Ziegler. It's not that hard to create his intel flashcard. If you don't have a friend with the right hardware to build it it's pretty much cheaper to just buy Everdrives.

>>2872952
>intel flashcard
Topkek. Your googlefu is not strong.
Ironically the guy has a pic of some other guys SNES flash cart that would cost a few bucks to make.

>>2862118
Unless it's using some futuristic FPGA, it ain't gonna be playing EC games

>>2868492
>>2868442
Bascially the only alternative to holding to several diskettes for daily backing up of data(like my school projects back in the day) until USB thumbdrives totally overtook them.

Too bad , it died hard and fast, it wasn't well supported by PC retailers/makers like Compaq, and it got corrupted just as easily as 1.44MB diskettes. Think most users just bought an external Zip or Iomega drive because their retailers didn't sell any rigs that had an interal one.

My 1st Zipdisk lasted about a year of frequent use, cost like ~16 USDs, and could "only" store 50MB. That's compared to my 1st thumbdrive which cost about the same and stored 128MB, and it's still alive after 13 years!

>>2875098
>only alternative
Not even close. Superdisks and CDs had a lower cost per mb years before you got that thumb drive. Even a Jaz probably did. A 128MB thumb drive was maybe a convenient way to carry around some files.

>>2877352
There were no Superdisks in nigger asia. and if you mean CD-RWs. They were fucking slow and the drives were still expensive. How rewriteable are CD-ROMs?

>>2877370
I'm not sure what part of nigger asia you come from but I saw them in nearly every Asian country I visited at the time. By the time you got your 13 year old USB stick CD writers cost fuck all. You could get a DVD writer for under $100 and that would probably do RAM. There were so many alternatives available in between floppies and USB sticks that at least one of them must have found it's way into your village.