I’m one of the builders of this OSCR and I just wanted to say thank you so much for the kind words and visibility for this project! We’re so glad you’re enjoying it! You did such an excellent job of covering what an OSCR is in this video; I’ll definitely be sharing it whenever somebody wants to know more about what I’m working on. 😊
@@johndrippergaming Yes, but it's not as straightforward as choosing them out of the menu, and they won't be auto-recognized. There are some aspiring developers in the project Discord channel that can assist with reading the contents of multi-carts.
@@XVa-uj8m Sadly there are too many pins on a Jaguar cartridge for the current HW5 Arduino to support it. With newer revisions of the OSCR in development that are moving away from the Arduino Mega 2560, there may one day be a Jaguar cartridge adapter.
Not only that, but the PS3 is _technically_ 'retro'... And that deals me psychic damage. Personally I think we need to reevaluate the criteria for such things... In early gaming _every_ generation represented a quantum leap over the previous, so delineating 'retro' by generations or simply just the passage of time made sense... However, if we look at the past two decades, nothing after the PS2 has made such an advance. This is why I insist that until something drastic occurs, the PS2 is the last "retro" console, and everything after that is still contemporary, with only incremental improvements in the quality of the experience.
"Imagine if Microsoft shipped you a entire extra processor just to run Excel" reminds me that while you can now use Python (alongside VBA) in Excel, that code _has to execute_ on Azure. 🤦♂️ Anyway, happy V-Day! V stands for Veronica in my book!
5:27 For such a bright, sunny personality, you are the queen of dirty looks . Love this vid. Thanks for all you do. I tell all my friends: "Linux is awesome, and so is Veronica!"
Yep, but the optical discs are even more important. Thankfully, I think it's possible to dump anything from the PS3 and older at this point, some of them are really easy like the Saturn and PS that can be done in a regular computer from RetroArch. Some are a little harder like the Dreamcast where it's just a cheap SD card adapter and disc to dump any of them. The Wii and PS3 are a little harder as they require that you have the system jailbroken to do. But, once you've done that, it's not that hard. That being said, the carts can be damaged over time, even if you don't use them, so backing those up for posterity is also a good idea. It's not a bad idea to use a combination of checksums and something like quickpar to repari minor damage and just run that on some sort of regular basis.
Not affiliated with the project in any way, but the hiding the txt files on the sd card is most likely to, well, hide them. de-clutter the sd card contents so it's easier to find the file you dumped between all those files.
Really interesting Veronisode I enjoyed this. I've never owned a cartridge based console. My C64-C is the first machine I've owned that takes one. I have a KF device for that for the games
I never actually used them, but between 1985-1988, in Finland, a radio program called sth like 'Silicone' sent computer code on the airwaves for listeners to record on their tape decks. You then put the tape into your early computer cassette drive to use it. Listeners made their own programs also. No wonder as this started in 1982 as a different project for citizens' edutainment benefit, we got Nokia phones and text messaging going first here - there was already a user base for tech stuff. Early PC mags always listed code to make your own programs, create drivers or tinker with stuff. Commodore 64 cost as much as a TV back then, and my first 486 machine the same amount as my first car, Datsun 100 A.
Nice one, Veronica! I saw my OSCR video peeking through one of your screen grabs... it's a neat and very useful device! Re hidden files, I think the advice to hide them is just to help navigate the folder structure without all the extra file clutter when you're reading the card... at least that's why I hid all of my files. Re building one from scratch - there's a lot of soldering in the OSCR with all of those cartridge slots, but it's totally doable for less experienced folks, and it's great practice! And if you want some help improving your soldering skills, you should come out MGC 2024 next month and attend the gameBadge workshop - we focus on teaching soldering skills and you'll walk away with a cool pico-based handheld game system to boot 😁
Thank you so much for the comment! The workshop sounds like a lot of fun- I'll look into it as I figure out travel plans. BTW, thank you for your videos on MiSTer- you've been a big help as I've learned more about the ecosystem.
Fun fact: I built one of these a few years ago and while dumping my copy of Golden Nugget 64 the checksum didn't match. After talking to Sanni we discovered that the original dump was bad and had been for a long time.
I really want one of these but $200-300 is a bit much for me right now Will definitely keep my eye out for different versions of this especially if there's one that can write to reproduction cartridges
Kits are about $100 if you want to DIY it. The soldering is pretty easy if you get the SMT components preassembled, which adds about $10-20 to the cost depending on if you want RTC or not (most people do not need RTC). It does take a few hours to do it all though. Also, assembled prices will be dropping soonish as well, likely to around $130-150.
》Its concept is something similar to that one employed with expansion cards connected to ISA/EISA/VLB/PCI slots throughout data bus, the same modular architecture we still see nowadays but, as you've said, it used be much more appropriate for actual implementation during that technological transition from the 70s to the 80s.
I like this video and your enthusiasm! Thanks! I found this channel after you posted something on the OSCR Discord today. The only thing I would have liked to see you mention in some way was how to update the firmware on the OSCR, this is basically my only 'quirk'/con with the OSCR. Would have been nice if the new firmware could just be copied onto the SD card and be loaded from the OSCR menu. But I can't have it all and thus far I'm quite happy with my OSCR. One question I have is how you knew that for N64 cartridges it might be better to turn it on in 3.3V mode before inserting the cartridge to avoid the possibility of the 5V spike. I didn't find this in Sanni's userguide or I might just be reading past it. I'm looking forward to more of your video's, like how you mentioned that you would do a video about fixing your NES. That one is looking quite bad, so I'm curious what you will be doing to it.
> Would have been nice if the new firmware could just be copied onto the SD card and be loaded from the OSCR menu. The ATmega line does not support this. It has to be programmed by another device. The only way to implement this with the current architecture (the ATmega/Arduino Mega) would be to have another device boot first and look at the SD card for an update, and if found update the main device before booting it. I am currently working on an updater to make updating easier, but it will still require a computer. > how you knew that for N64 cartridges it might be better to turn it on in 3.3V mode before inserting the cartridge to avoid the possibility of the 5V spike The wiki page on Automatic Voltage Select.
Great hardware for preservation. However, the disclaimer made me want to comment on who owns what. Unfortunately, even back then at the cartridge games, we didn't own the games. we owned basically a license to use the media on its designated console. Even if you did dump your own games that you bought with your money, you still wouldn't be allowed to play the resulting roms in anything but its designated console. Just reading the first pages of my Sega Game Gear games' manuals, one can see that they give you the license to play the game only on the Sega Game Gear console in its intended way. Just to clear that "i bought it, so i can do it" thing. They did cover even this back then with a blanket statement about the cartridge's use.
OMG, core memory unlocked! I, too, left the NES running for DAYS so as not to lose my progress in Super Mario Bros 3. It was devastating when the dog ran by excited about something, got tangled in the controller cords and ripped the console out of the entertainment center. The NES Satellite was a godsend, for that reason!
That is so cool! Although it seems a hint excessive to me to have a separate device with its own display, controls and memory card slot, instead an accessory gadget that just has the cartridge slots and a controller, that connects to your PC via USB or whatever and then just have Linux drivers/tools for operating the thing.
Sometimes you need a toaster, sometimes you need an oven. You can do a lot more with an oven, including making toast, but sometimes a specialized tool is the most efficient.
First off, thank you! I'm glad you both are enjoying the videos! Second, regarding ColecoVision: I think there are, actually! I'm trying to learn more and might do a follow-up at some point, but there are lots of community-contributed adapters out there for other game consoles, and I think I saw ColecoVision in there.
Love the channel and the ROM vid is a nice light hearted change from the usual uploads!!!! As a Brit who cut his teeth on COBOL, pascal, 6502 and 68000 assembly I get a ruddy great nostalgic smile watching your legacy videos. Go go Veronica 😉😁🙏🏻👍🏻
Excellent stuff! Been waiting for a tool like like this. Absolutely god-sent for game collectors and obviously for the future archiving purposes. Been saying it for years now, will say it now: Backup, rip and store EVERYTHING digital you love and consider important, or even just cool. One day, it will be gone. What comes to the "legality", at least in EU you have 100% the right to do a backup of any media product you've legally bought. This was ruled already back in the VHS and C-cassette days!
Great video! The OSCR _is_ an utterly indispensable tool for anyone into the physical side of retro games! I built my own v3 OSCR, and it's fantastic. 😃👌 The ability to rewrite flash cartridges is super cool. I've used my OSCR to write games to Nintendo's own rewritable Super Famicom flash cartridges. (Fan translations, romhacks, etc. All patched to ROMs dumped from my own carts using OSCR!) And I've used my OSCR for preservation; a Satellaview 8M Memory Pak or Nintendo Power SF Memory Cassette doesn't come into my possession without a complete backup. And I back up the SRAM of any games I acquire so I can examine the previous owners' progress later. (Sadly I'm like 0 for 4 finding Mario Paint cartridges with any art still saved on them! 😢) btw, emulator SRAM compatibility is usually a header issue. I've yet to try loading an OSCR dumped SRAM in an emu, but I know that save data dumped with a magicom such as a Super Wild Card or Super UFO Pro 8 needs to have the header stripped out before an emulator will recognize it. 😉👍 EDIT: Oh yeah, something about the older v3 OSCR; it can also read pretty much anything through the SNES slot, given the appropriate adapter...since it's all just arbitrary GPIO...same as the newer versions. 😃 (Personally, I rather like the more compact formfactor though!) Also, I've been running my OSCR almost exclusively off a decade-old powerbank for the half a year since I built it with no issues. It's super handy!
Can the OSCR project be used to build a standalone emulation system or be used in conjunction with the Mister FPGA? It'd be cool to build a device using 1:1 scale 3D printed replacement shells for game consoles with the modern experiences like save states and Retro Achievements.
I remember few years ago, I received my first GameBoy cart reader just shortly after the battery of my GameBoy Camera ran out of juice :( One may think, just forget about it, however in my case, I did some real good photos considering the quality since I was 10 or 11 years old with that thing. Losing family photos just shortly prior to that event made it extra sad for me :,( That said, everyone should backup their game savedata and preserve it well.
Great video (as always, amiright?)! Love your sense of humor. Thanks so much for the breakdown, I know a decent amount of this stuff and I definitely learned some things thanks to you. I've been digging into handheld emulation a lot lately and it was nice to see another aspect of classic game preservation and enjoyment. Now I go to share your video with a few friends that will enjoy it.
Wow, your voice reminds me of Joanne Liebeler from "Hometime." She did home improvement and repair shows and had her own shows on TLC and networks like that.
The vast majority of video games have no legitimate method of obtaining them and are legally lost to time. People making backups of video games is so important. Going forward the industry is trying harder and harder to push digital only, where ownership is a thing of the past, is going to make this all much worse. When you buy a game on PlayStation store, Steam, Epic, etc they outright tell you, that you do not own this software, you've paid for the privilege of using it, and we can take it away from you whenever we like.
Looks awesome for N64 Cartridges, I have a Retro Freak and it can dump and emulate all your cartridges(NES, Famicom, SNES, Super Famicom, Game Boy, Color, Advance, Mega Drive, Genesis, PC Engine, TG16, PC Engine Supergrafix). However it only works up to 16 bit cartridges so N64 would be impossible. I will check out this device for my N64 games
Loving the subject material Veronica. Gaming from my youth! I'm guessing there's an equivalent device for 'backing up' the older 8-bit games, like Atari, Colecovision, Intel vision, etc....? I enjoyed meeting you at VCFMW, & I'll be sure to bring more floppy disks for your Sony Mavica, at this year's show. :)
so OS, what is the real backup copyrights on backing up any console games into a PC? Yup, there are MANY free CLASSIC emulators and Video GAME ROMS out there that anyone can download for FREE and play, but the question is are they LEGAL to play? Not sure, kind of iffy, to me. Kind of reminds of the mid 90s when one could backup music CDs into Windows Media Player and or iPod Music player and then create a music playlist that of which could be copied into a blank CD, if one had a CD writable drive, but then again that was not stealing music, it was more like making a CD playlist from the Original CD that one owned, backing up the original CD so that only the backup copy could get damaged when played in a CD player. Having said that seems to me that video game cartridges have lasted longer than CDs. CDs are better digitally, yes, but they tend to get damaged more easily even when stored in their cases, other than that it would cool to also backup all video games CDs from Sony Playstation, Nintendo Wii, etc. Excellent short and informative video! 👌😺🥰 🎮✨💎
Jesus. I was into emulation back in the 486 days. All you had the cpu power for was Gameboy or Atari 2600 class systems. Yes I downloaded roms. But I also owned A TON OF THEM. As funcoland caused them to sell for pennies. Regardless, some of this stuff is 30+ years old. Who cares. They are all out there and easy to find. All the disclaimers is silly at this point. Our society is laughable. Love your content though. Linux for life.
11:25 Guess they don't want the kids over writing the configuration text files. I feel for developers that try to build idiot proof anything... Because the world has infinite resources to develop better idiots.
This is a great video. I had my eye on the OSCR for sometime but haven't been able to swing the cost yet. And I've been an avid gamer since the Atari days (I grew up on pong consoles and Atari 2600). Im sure the batteries in my cart games like Zelda and Mario RPG are probably dead lol since I've had them for about 30 years. But I've taken good care of my carts though and I'm sure they will still work. I may need to get on this and get this device before it no longer becomes available.
I remember, on my SNES, blowing into the Cartridge made it even faster (or work at all xD). Wonder If I can grab that Product. Got some SNES-Cartridges here, I'd like to play once more. ^^
If the battery is still good, you can always just wire a second battery in parallel to the main battery for a few minutes while you replace the main battery. That being said, it's far better to just use one of these units to backup the save ahead of time than to bother with that. Also, while you're at it, it's worth putting in a proper battery holder if the battery in there is soldered to the board so that the next time you don't need to. These carts just get more rare over time, so it's better to take the risk of redoing that now than later.
The preservation of digital media as a bid for keeping history is _exactly_ what some companies hate. Modern-day games development from _many_ companies could be compared with fast fashion - sweatshop-style labour producing low-quality garbage at a rapid pace. Remember to avoid companies who kill their babies for falling short of their expectations, and for those companies which _use_ to not do this, but are today; remember what they took from you.
I have a sizeable Game Boy game collection and have been wanting to copy saves and backup my games. This open source project looks fantastic and an ideal way to do it, thanks for the video!
I loved this video! I saw your disclaimer about this being your channel and you cover whatever subject you want. I agree with you but let me say that for me, your channel is a tech channel and sooner or later you'll cover whatever tech subject in na pleasant vídeo like you did this time. I wish you the best of luck.
Odd... i would think with the automatic V-Select it would use the lowest voltage possible unless a different cartridge type is detected that supports the "higher" voltage
I just learned about this project and I really want one but I lost all of my nes/snes games after I moved out my parents house. I'm glad it exists however.
I will only say that I support people being able to play rare games in a legal way without paying hundreds or thousands of dollars. That burden is on said companies that own the rights to fix the problem.
les gooo. also if anyone is put off by the price of prebuilts, there are clones for cheaper. and at this point you can sometimes find them used if someone only intended t5o dump a massive collection. like for me rn im buying games ocassionally and then adding them to my library
Make a video on setting up home linux server using debian based distros, that can be accessed from anywhere, i really need it i have lots of doubts and i am not finding right answers for them on internet 😅
:) GO Veronica! LOVED IT and AMAZED at your CPM Cart ! ! Never knew it existed, and YES I am THAT OLD to have used it on 8 inch Floppy back in the day:) HAD to share with youngest Daughter as she goes to Retro Game shops whenever she finds one :) I am with you on SMT Soldering is beyond my capabilities... ALL the BEST, Happy New Year and Cheers from Upper Left Coast! :)
Thank you! Yeah, that CPM cartridge is something else. I want to do a proper video on it but I'm looking for more original media in order to show it off.
This is good for companies that are re-releasing /porting old school consoles games to the next gen gaming console and they do not a back up of their roms.
It takes me back to "backing up" Super Nintendo carts onto 3.5" floppy discs using my super Magicom from Hong Kong. I would really like to be able to do that for the Neo Geo without spending $500 to $1000 on one of the existing flash carts.
Sadly there are wayyyyy too many pins on a Neo-Geo cartridge for the current HW5 Arduino to support it. I did see some photo somewhere of people way smarter than me wiring up an OSCR to read them as a proof of concept, but it involved a bunch of extra hardware and LOTS of wire soldering. With newer revisions of the OSCR in development that are moving away from the Arduino Mega 2560, there may one day be an adapter that can interface with a Neo-Geo cartridge.
On start up, the chip (TPS2113) that handles the power switching could go through any state, even when 3.3V is selected because its enable pin is permanently on. The chip takes a little time to fully turn on and a little more time to actually decide what the output should be - we're only talking several milliseconds. The author of the project can resolve this problem by enabling the chip a little time after it's turned on; it'll be faster than turning the device and then plugging in a cartridge. The output of the chip is 0V when the chip is not enabled. A common method to do this is with a capacitor and a Schmitt trigger.
The MCU controlling the chip is also powered by it, so delaying turn on isn't all that helpful. Your proposed solution isn't wrong, but the time difference would be measured in nanoseconds if not microseconds. The latency for the toggling of 3.3V comes from the time it takes the MCU to boot and set the pin state. HW7 resolves the issue entirely by not powering the cartridge slots and processor with the same power rail. Instead, the slots get their own rail which can be toggled on and off and adjusted as needed by the firmware. It also monitors this rail to make sure the voltage is within bounds so it can cut the power to the slots if it isn't.
@@Shocker99 I think you misunderstood what I was saying. Your proposed solution was not a hardware solution because it was not a solution at all. It was not the TPS2113 causing the issue, it was the microcontroller. Your proposed hardware solution would not have fixed this because the MCU is powered by the TPS2113, so your solution would have made the problem worse by delaying the MCU booting and changing the pin state even later. Also, this problem was actually recently solved via a firmware update that moved the pin state update to even earlier in the code.
Auto voltage selection sacrifices function for ease of use. As such I don't recommend it unless you wont need to flash and or blank rom chips. You can also easily send 5v to 3v carts on accident potentially damaging them. It might also stop you from flashing repros also but I'm not 100% sure about that "Because this feature removes/replaces the hardware switch for voltage selection, it is not recommended if you want to use the OSCR to flash ROMs to blank ROM chips using a ROM adapter" The rest of the information is spot on. You could use these to self publish and manufacture homebrew and or games
The voltage is set when you enter the menu for the chosen game system. For example, if you are flashing a GBA cartridge with a new ROM, simply going into the Game Boy > Game Boy Advance menu will set the voltage to 3.3v, at which point you can insert the cartridge and write the ROM file safely. There are main menu options you can enable in the firmware config that allow you to write data to any EEPROM chip ("FlashROM Programmer"), but presumably if you are doing that you'll already have knowledge of the proper voltage requirements for the chip you're writing to. In addition, the devs are working on implementing more robust software-controlled voltage selection along with extra voltage safeguards in future revisions.
I’m one of the builders of this OSCR and I just wanted to say thank you so much for the kind words and visibility for this project! We’re so glad you’re enjoying it!
You did such an excellent job of covering what an OSCR is in this video; I’ll definitely be sharing it whenever somebody wants to know more about what I’m working on. 😊
Thank you for the work you do! It's a great project and it's very appreciated!
does it support dumping pirated multi-carts?
Will a Jaguar cart set be coming too?
@@johndrippergaming Yes, but it's not as straightforward as choosing them out of the menu, and they won't be auto-recognized. There are some aspiring developers in the project Discord channel that can assist with reading the contents of multi-carts.
@@XVa-uj8m Sadly there are too many pins on a Jaguar cartridge for the current HW5 Arduino to support it. With newer revisions of the OSCR in development that are moving away from the Arduino Mega 2560, there may one day be a Jaguar cartridge adapter.
"Who cares! It's my channel" This is why watching your videos is such a joy.
This comment makes my day. Thank you!
I freaking love her channel!!!!
I was coming to say the same thing!
That's when I hit thumbs-up. I wanted to hit it again a couple of times later in the video, but ... :/
Do we have permission to use that clip?
I have horrible news: I think the N64 is probably “vintage computing” now. So… this is more channel appropriate than we may want to believe.
Not only that, but the PS3 is _technically_ 'retro'... And that deals me psychic damage.
Personally I think we need to reevaluate the criteria for such things... In early gaming _every_ generation represented a quantum leap over the previous, so delineating 'retro' by generations or simply just the passage of time made sense... However, if we look at the past two decades, nothing after the PS2 has made such an advance.
This is why I insist that until something drastic occurs, the PS2 is the last "retro" console, and everything after that is still contemporary, with only incremental improvements in the quality of the experience.
"Imagine if Microsoft shipped you a entire extra processor just to run Excel" reminds me that while you can now use Python (alongside VBA) in Excel, that code _has to execute_ on Azure. 🤦♂️
Anyway, happy V-Day! V stands for Veronica in my book!
Happy V-Day to you and yours as well! :)
I'd love to watch any honest person argue about how this could be illegal.
Romerriffic episode! Always the best!
5:27 For such a bright, sunny personality, you are the queen of dirty looks . Love this vid. Thanks for all you do. I tell all my friends: "Linux is awesome, and so is Veronica!"
I'm one of your 0-17 fans :)
Youths! I hope you enjoy it!
I LOVE the idea of ROM files and saving save files. This is NECESSARY for game archiving and gaming history.
Yep, but the optical discs are even more important. Thankfully, I think it's possible to dump anything from the PS3 and older at this point, some of them are really easy like the Saturn and PS that can be done in a regular computer from RetroArch. Some are a little harder like the Dreamcast where it's just a cheap SD card adapter and disc to dump any of them. The Wii and PS3 are a little harder as they require that you have the system jailbroken to do. But, once you've done that, it's not that hard.
That being said, the carts can be damaged over time, even if you don't use them, so backing those up for posterity is also a good idea. It's not a bad idea to use a combination of checksums and something like quickpar to repari minor damage and just run that on some sort of regular basis.
I ripped my Pokémon games so I could remove the battery for replacement. Love the idea that now I can do my whole library
Great video. I haven’t seen any videos on ripping cartridges in my feed - not saying they don’t exist. An interesting product with great tips! 👍🏻
Thanks! I figured it was something different.
Content variety is good. I enjoy expanding my horizons. Great video Veronica!
This is just a comment for engagement algorithm bias, so just pretend I said something intelligent and insightful.
Not affiliated with the project in any way, but the hiding the txt files on the sd card is most likely to, well, hide them. de-clutter the sd card contents so it's easier to find the file you dumped between all those files.
Perfectly timed as I was about to explore solutions for this. Thank you very much for the video.
And I now have a new thing on my wishlist. Thanks, Veronica!
Really interesting Veronisode I enjoyed this. I've never owned a cartridge based console. My C64-C is the first machine I've owned that takes one. I have a KF device for that for the games
the "little brother ruining it for you" moment was priceless, made me laugh. yeah I lived that.
Daam. Many would proly kill for this kit in 90s.
VerROMica explains?
I never played tape games. It's still wild to me that you could use cassette tapes to store a game. I only ever used them for audio.
Same concept as modems really, putting data into an audio signal, except using magnetic tape instead of a phone line
I never actually used them, but between 1985-1988, in Finland, a radio program called sth like 'Silicone' sent computer code on the airwaves for listeners to record on their tape decks. You then put the tape into your early computer cassette drive to use it. Listeners made their own programs also. No wonder as this started in 1982 as a different project for citizens' edutainment benefit, we got Nokia phones and text messaging going first here - there was already a user base for tech stuff. Early PC mags always listed code to make your own programs, create drivers or tinker with stuff. Commodore 64 cost as much as a TV back then, and my first 486 machine the same amount as my first car, Datsun 100 A.
Only problem is it took a while to load the games these were very commonplace.
Perfect valentine day.
Nice one, Veronica! I saw my OSCR video peeking through one of your screen grabs... it's a neat and very useful device! Re hidden files, I think the advice to hide them is just to help navigate the folder structure without all the extra file clutter when you're reading the card... at least that's why I hid all of my files. Re building one from scratch - there's a lot of soldering in the OSCR with all of those cartridge slots, but it's totally doable for less experienced folks, and it's great practice! And if you want some help improving your soldering skills, you should come out MGC 2024 next month and attend the gameBadge workshop - we focus on teaching soldering skills and you'll walk away with a cool pico-based handheld game system to boot 😁
Thank you so much for the comment! The workshop sounds like a lot of fun- I'll look into it as I figure out travel plans. BTW, thank you for your videos on MiSTer- you've been a big help as I've learned more about the ecosystem.
@@VeronicaExplains Thanks! ❤The MiSTer ecosystem can be a bit challenging to navigate for sure - I'm glad my videos have helped!
"I legally own these games" - ahhhh those were the days
It's so hard to even want to "buy" a game today!
That's why I love GoG. Doesn't help with AAA, but it's nice to use on older systems. 👍
》Hey, where's Atari 2600 VCS?
Fun fact: I built one of these a few years ago and while dumping my copy of Golden Nugget 64 the checksum didn't match. After talking to Sanni we discovered that the original dump was bad and had been for a long time.
...clicked on the video to see a cool rom dumper...gets that AND a stellar history of the cartridge... awesome vid!
You should really do a video with Tech Tangents. You both have a very similar personality and I think you would work well together. 👍
The UA-cam algorithm recommended you…and I’m glad it did! Great video! You have a new subscriber.
Great video! Please, if possible, make a video talking about Mister FPGA. Thanks!
I really want one of these but $200-300 is a bit much for me right now
Will definitely keep my eye out for different versions of this especially if there's one that can write to reproduction cartridges
This one can write to a lot of repros! At least from what I can see. It is a bit steep preassembled but I've enjoyed it.
@@VeronicaExplains guess this will be my next purchase after I build a new pc
Kits are about $100 if you want to DIY it. The soldering is pretty easy if you get the SMT components preassembled, which adds about $10-20 to the cost depending on if you want RTC or not (most people do not need RTC). It does take a few hours to do it all though. Also, assembled prices will be dropping soonish as well, likely to around $130-150.
》Its concept is something similar to that one employed with expansion cards connected to ISA/EISA/VLB/PCI slots throughout data bus, the same modular architecture we still see nowadays but, as you've said, it used be much more appropriate for actual implementation during that technological transition from the 70s to the 80s.
2:09 in the early 80s, specially among home computers, rom cartridges were called Solid State Software
Not at all confusing today! :P
Perfect timing, I just ordered one of these the other day and this will be great information for when I get started with my collection.
I also use retroarch on my linux mint debian, with crt shaders with curvature, they look awesome... i also have a partition with batocera linux
I like this video and your enthusiasm! Thanks! I found this channel after you posted something on the OSCR Discord today.
The only thing I would have liked to see you mention in some way was how to update the firmware on the OSCR, this is basically my only 'quirk'/con with the OSCR. Would have been nice if the new firmware could just be copied onto the SD card and be loaded from the OSCR menu. But I can't have it all and thus far I'm quite happy with my OSCR.
One question I have is how you knew that for N64 cartridges it might be better to turn it on in 3.3V mode before inserting the cartridge to avoid the possibility of the 5V spike. I didn't find this in Sanni's userguide or I might just be reading past it.
I'm looking forward to more of your video's, like how you mentioned that you would do a video about fixing your NES. That one is looking quite bad, so I'm curious what you will be doing to it.
> Would have been nice if the new firmware could just be copied onto the SD card and be loaded from the OSCR menu.
The ATmega line does not support this. It has to be programmed by another device. The only way to implement this with the current architecture (the ATmega/Arduino Mega) would be to have another device boot first and look at the SD card for an update, and if found update the main device before booting it. I am currently working on an updater to make updating easier, but it will still require a computer.
> how you knew that for N64 cartridges it might be better to turn it on in 3.3V mode before inserting the cartridge to avoid the possibility of the 5V spike
The wiki page on Automatic Voltage Select.
Great hardware for preservation. However, the disclaimer made me want to comment on who owns what. Unfortunately, even back then at the cartridge games, we didn't own the games. we owned basically a license to use the media on its designated console. Even if you did dump your own games that you bought with your money, you still wouldn't be allowed to play the resulting roms in anything but its designated console. Just reading the first pages of my Sega Game Gear games' manuals, one can see that they give you the license to play the game only on the Sega Game Gear console in its intended way. Just to clear that "i bought it, so i can do it" thing. They did cover even this back then with a blanket statement about the cartridge's use.
OMG, core memory unlocked! I, too, left the NES running for DAYS so as not to lose my progress in Super Mario Bros 3. It was devastating when the dog ran by excited about something, got tangled in the controller cords and ripped the console out of the entertainment center. The NES Satellite was a godsend, for that reason!
I see you had fights with your little brother because super mario
i backed up my punch cards
That is so cool! Although it seems a hint excessive to me to have a separate device with its own display, controls and memory card slot, instead an accessory gadget that just has the cartridge slots and a controller, that connects to your PC via USB or whatever and then just have Linux drivers/tools for operating the thing.
Sometimes you need a toaster, sometimes you need an oven. You can do a lot more with an oven, including making toast, but sometimes a specialized tool is the most efficient.
Great video! My husband and I love your enthusiasm (and snark) it always makes us smile! --- Are there any solutions for old ColecoVision users?
First off, thank you! I'm glad you both are enjoying the videos! Second, regarding ColecoVision: I think there are, actually! I'm trying to learn more and might do a follow-up at some point, but there are lots of community-contributed adapters out there for other game consoles, and I think I saw ColecoVision in there.
Love the channel and the ROM vid is a nice light hearted change from the usual uploads!!!! As a Brit who cut his teeth on COBOL, pascal, 6502 and 68000 assembly I get a ruddy great nostalgic smile watching your legacy videos. Go go Veronica 😉😁🙏🏻👍🏻
Excellent stuff! Been waiting for a tool like like this. Absolutely god-sent for game collectors and obviously for the future archiving purposes.
Been saying it for years now, will say it now: Backup, rip and store EVERYTHING digital you love and consider important, or even just cool. One day, it will be gone.
What comes to the "legality", at least in EU you have 100% the right to do a backup of any media product you've legally bought. This was ruled already back in the VHS and C-cassette days!
Great video! The OSCR _is_ an utterly indispensable tool for anyone into the physical side of retro games! I built my own v3 OSCR, and it's fantastic. 😃👌
The ability to rewrite flash cartridges is super cool. I've used my OSCR to write games to Nintendo's own rewritable Super Famicom flash cartridges. (Fan translations, romhacks, etc. All patched to ROMs dumped from my own carts using OSCR!)
And I've used my OSCR for preservation; a Satellaview 8M Memory Pak or Nintendo Power SF Memory Cassette doesn't come into my possession without a complete backup. And I back up the SRAM of any games I acquire so I can examine the previous owners' progress later. (Sadly I'm like 0 for 4 finding Mario Paint cartridges with any art still saved on them! 😢)
btw, emulator SRAM compatibility is usually a header issue. I've yet to try loading an OSCR dumped SRAM in an emu, but I know that save data dumped with a magicom such as a Super Wild Card or Super UFO Pro 8 needs to have the header stripped out before an emulator will recognize it. 😉👍
EDIT: Oh yeah, something about the older v3 OSCR; it can also read pretty much anything through the SNES slot, given the appropriate adapter...since it's all just arbitrary GPIO...same as the newer versions. 😃 (Personally, I rather like the more compact formfactor though!)
Also, I've been running my OSCR almost exclusively off a decade-old powerbank for the half a year since I built it with no issues. It's super handy!
Hey, I know you! :P
@@Ancyker 😜
Can the OSCR project be used to build a standalone emulation system or be used in conjunction with the Mister FPGA? It'd be cool to build a device using 1:1 scale 3D printed replacement shells for game consoles with the modern experiences like save states and Retro Achievements.
Soon™
I remember few years ago, I received my first GameBoy cart reader just shortly after the battery of my GameBoy Camera ran out of juice :(
One may think, just forget about it, however in my case, I did some real good photos considering the quality since I was 10 or 11 years old with that thing.
Losing family photos just shortly prior to that event made it extra sad for me :,(
That said, everyone should backup their game savedata and preserve it well.
Great video. I'm the first
Great video (as always, amiright?)! Love your sense of humor. Thanks so much for the breakdown, I know a decent amount of this stuff and I definitely learned some things thanks to you. I've been digging into handheld emulation a lot lately and it was nice to see another aspect of classic game preservation and enjoyment. Now I go to share your video with a few friends that will enjoy it.
Thanks for watching and sharing! Have fun with the handheld stuff, there's lots of great options there!
Wow, your voice reminds me of Joanne Liebeler from "Hometime." She did home improvement and repair shows and had her own shows on TLC and networks like that.
The vast majority of video games have no legitimate method of obtaining them and are legally lost to time. People making backups of video games is so important.
Going forward the industry is trying harder and harder to push digital only, where ownership is a thing of the past, is going to make this all much worse. When you buy a game on PlayStation store, Steam, Epic, etc they outright tell you, that you do not own this software, you've paid for the privilege of using it, and we can take it away from you whenever we like.
Looks awesome for N64 Cartridges, I have a Retro Freak and it can dump and emulate all your cartridges(NES, Famicom, SNES, Super Famicom, Game Boy, Color, Advance, Mega Drive, Genesis, PC Engine, TG16, PC Engine Supergrafix). However it only works up to 16 bit cartridges so N64 would be impossible. I will check out this device for my N64 games
Loving the subject material Veronica. Gaming from my youth! I'm guessing there's an equivalent device for 'backing up' the older 8-bit games, like Atari, Colecovision, Intel vision, etc....?
I enjoyed meeting you at VCFMW, & I'll be sure to bring more floppy disks for your Sony Mavica, at this year's show. :)
so OS, what is the real backup copyrights on backing up any console games into a PC? Yup, there are MANY free CLASSIC emulators and Video GAME ROMS out there that anyone can download for FREE and play, but the question is are they LEGAL to play? Not sure, kind of iffy, to me. Kind of reminds of the mid 90s when one could backup music CDs into Windows Media Player and or iPod Music player and then create a music playlist that of which could be copied into a blank CD, if one had a CD writable drive, but then again that was not stealing music, it was more like making a CD playlist from the Original CD that one owned, backing up the original CD so that only the backup copy could get damaged when played in a CD player. Having said that seems to me that video game cartridges have lasted longer than CDs. CDs are better digitally, yes, but they tend to get damaged more easily even when stored in their cases, other than that it would cool to also backup all video games CDs from Sony Playstation, Nintendo Wii, etc. Excellent short and informative video! 👌😺🥰 🎮✨💎
Jesus. I was into emulation back in the 486 days. All you had the cpu power for was Gameboy or Atari 2600 class systems. Yes I downloaded roms. But I also owned A TON OF THEM. As funcoland caused them to sell for pennies. Regardless, some of this stuff is 30+ years old. Who cares. They are all out there and easy to find. All the disclaimers is silly at this point. Our society is laughable. Love your content though. Linux for life.
11:25 Guess they don't want the kids over writing the configuration text files. I feel for developers that try to build idiot proof anything... Because the world has infinite resources to develop better idiots.
This is a great video. I had my eye on the OSCR for sometime but haven't been able to swing the cost yet. And I've been an avid gamer since the Atari days (I grew up on pong consoles and Atari 2600).
Im sure the batteries in my cart games like Zelda and Mario RPG are probably dead lol since I've had them for about 30 years. But I've taken good care of my carts though and I'm sure they will still work.
I may need to get on this and get this device before it no longer becomes available.
I remember, on my SNES, blowing into the Cartridge made it even faster (or work at all xD). Wonder If I can grab that Product. Got some SNES-Cartridges here, I'd like to play once more. ^^
Oooh, if you ever dive into homebrewing, I'd be very interested in following every step of that!
If the battery is still good, you can always just wire a second battery in parallel to the main battery for a few minutes while you replace the main battery. That being said, it's far better to just use one of these units to backup the save ahead of time than to bother with that. Also, while you're at it, it's worth putting in a proper battery holder if the battery in there is soldered to the board so that the next time you don't need to. These carts just get more rare over time, so it's better to take the risk of redoing that now than later.
@VeronicaExplains Is it possible to make your rom cartridge a crypto wallet using that Arduino device? Would it even make sense?
The preservation of digital media as a bid for keeping history is _exactly_ what some companies hate. Modern-day games development from _many_ companies could be compared with fast fashion - sweatshop-style labour producing low-quality garbage at a rapid pace. Remember to avoid companies who kill their babies for falling short of their expectations, and for those companies which _use_ to not do this, but are today; remember what they took from you.
Is Veronica Explains, related to Technology Connections?
I'm seeing similar mannerisms. Same accent. Hmm.
How do I backup my pokemon yellow/crystal/sapphire/pearl save games to a computer?
I have a sizeable Game Boy game collection and have been wanting to copy saves and backup my games. This open source project looks fantastic and an ideal way to do it, thanks for the video!
I loved this video! I saw your disclaimer about this being your channel and you cover whatever subject you want. I agree with you but let me say that for me, your channel is a tech channel and sooner or later you'll cover whatever tech subject in na pleasant vídeo like you did this time.
I wish you the best of luck.
Odd... i would think with the automatic V-Select it would use the lowest voltage possible unless a different cartridge type is detected that supports the "higher" voltage
Ah yes. Who remembers the Save feature in SONIC 1?
Did you watch the video? I talk about that.
@@VeronicaExplains i was making fun of the thumbnail
Sorry for that btw :(
Ripping is probably not the term I would use, but rather dumping.
Ripping feels like optical media source. 😊
All that great hardware you have there... Oh my! You made me remember my commodore 64 and amiga days... 😁you rock!!😎
I just learned about this project and I really want one but I lost all of my nes/snes games after I moved out my parents house. I'm glad it exists however.
Nintendo Ninjas "Stroke chin.. INteresting"
J/k emuilation rocks
Is there also an option like this for DS/DSi/3DS cartridges? Would love to see this for DS games too
> "keep circulating the carts"
💡Turn down your LEDs💡
(where applicable)
64k of RAM? Who would ever need more than that?! ~ Some famous tech guy, probably ;)
Hmm wonder if it could be made to read Saturn memory cartridges as well. Good that you can read SegaCD memory cartridges.
Dang i though i was one of the old guys that liked c64 , i used tomrun dark side of the moon bbs in slc utah back in 88-89 off a c64
You would make a great software pirate, back in the day!! 😊 You wouldn't catch me doing it. 😉
I actually have something like this for the Mega Drive. A useful took although I don't use it as much as I should.
I will only say that I support people being able to play rare games in a legal way without paying hundreds or thousands of dollars. That burden is on said companies that own the rights to fix the problem.
les gooo.
also if anyone is put off by the price of prebuilts, there are clones for cheaper. and at this point you can sometimes find them used if someone only intended t5o dump a massive collection. like for me rn im buying games ocassionally and then adding them to my library
Make a video on setting up home linux server using debian based distros, that can be accessed from anywhere, i really need it i have lots of doubts and i am not finding right answers for them on internet 😅
My 1994 Final fantasy VI battery died last month, so that's good bye for my save files.
:) GO Veronica! LOVED IT and AMAZED at your CPM Cart ! ! Never knew it existed, and YES I am THAT OLD to have used it on 8 inch Floppy back in the day:) HAD to share with youngest Daughter as she goes to Retro Game shops whenever she finds one :) I am with you on SMT Soldering is beyond my capabilities... ALL the BEST, Happy New Year and Cheers from Upper Left Coast! :)
Thank you! Yeah, that CPM cartridge is something else. I want to do a proper video on it but I'm looking for more original media in order to show it off.
This is good for companies that are re-releasing /porting old school consoles games to the next gen gaming console and they do not a back up of their roms.
What, no hucard? ;)
Some people are better groupies than others and waste their time in completely useless things.
Others use their time much better.
Wish there was device that can remove my pain put it into a game cartridges just so I can destroyed it and it be gone forever
so with OSCAR... can i take my old NES games and get them on my WII?
you had me at "If you want to skip this section entirely, here's a timestamp for you."
ANOTHER LIKE, ANOTHER SUBSCRIBER, LINUX USER FROM TIJUANA MEXICO, CHEERS!
It takes me back to "backing up" Super Nintendo carts onto 3.5" floppy discs using my super Magicom from Hong Kong.
I would really like to be able to do that for the Neo Geo without spending $500 to $1000 on one of the existing flash carts.
Sadly there are wayyyyy too many pins on a Neo-Geo cartridge for the current HW5 Arduino to support it. I did see some photo somewhere of people way smarter than me wiring up an OSCR to read them as a proof of concept, but it involved a bunch of extra hardware and LOTS of wire soldering.
With newer revisions of the OSCR in development that are moving away from the Arduino Mega 2560, there may one day be an adapter that can interface with a Neo-Geo cartridge.
I need to find one of theses I’m just hoping they are in stock. Can this be shipped to the UK?
@VeronicaExplains Do you have a demo for neo geo rom cartridges?
This video is all my weirdly specific interests combined...
I’ll circle back to this once I get a PC.
On start up, the chip (TPS2113) that handles the power switching could go through any state, even when 3.3V is selected because its enable pin is permanently on. The chip takes a little time to fully turn on and a little more time to actually decide what the output should be - we're only talking several milliseconds. The author of the project can resolve this problem by enabling the chip a little time after it's turned on; it'll be faster than turning the device and then plugging in a cartridge. The output of the chip is 0V when the chip is not enabled. A common method to do this is with a capacitor and a Schmitt trigger.
The MCU controlling the chip is also powered by it, so delaying turn on isn't all that helpful. Your proposed solution isn't wrong, but the time difference would be measured in nanoseconds if not microseconds. The latency for the toggling of 3.3V comes from the time it takes the MCU to boot and set the pin state.
HW7 resolves the issue entirely by not powering the cartridge slots and processor with the same power rail. Instead, the slots get their own rail which can be toggled on and off and adjusted as needed by the firmware. It also monitors this rail to make sure the voltage is within bounds so it can cut the power to the slots if it isn't.
@@AncykerTwo methods to solve the same problem, which is pretty much the same thing. Mine is hardware defined, yours is software.
@@Shocker99 I think you misunderstood what I was saying. Your proposed solution was not a hardware solution because it was not a solution at all. It was not the TPS2113 causing the issue, it was the microcontroller. Your proposed hardware solution would not have fixed this because the MCU is powered by the TPS2113, so your solution would have made the problem worse by delaying the MCU booting and changing the pin state even later. Also, this problem was actually recently solved via a firmware update that moved the pin state update to even earlier in the code.
If I could hook this up to my MiSTer' I'd be as happy as a pig in shit.
Great video and great teaching for beginners! Congratulations
Keep circulating the carts!
Auto voltage selection sacrifices function for ease of use. As such I don't recommend it unless you wont need to flash and or blank rom chips. You can also easily send 5v to 3v carts on accident potentially damaging them. It might also stop you from flashing repros also but I'm not 100% sure about that
"Because this feature removes/replaces the hardware switch for voltage selection, it is not recommended if you want to use the OSCR to flash ROMs to blank ROM chips using a ROM adapter"
The rest of the information is spot on. You could use these to self publish and manufacture homebrew and or games
The voltage is set when you enter the menu for the chosen game system. For example, if you are flashing a GBA cartridge with a new ROM, simply going into the Game Boy > Game Boy Advance menu will set the voltage to 3.3v, at which point you can insert the cartridge and write the ROM file safely. There are main menu options you can enable in the firmware config that allow you to write data to any EEPROM chip ("FlashROM Programmer"), but presumably if you are doing that you'll already have knowledge of the proper voltage requirements for the chip you're writing to.
In addition, the devs are working on implementing more robust software-controlled voltage selection along with extra voltage safeguards in future revisions.